I’m walking home after a long day of school, taking in the street around me. There’s a grocery store and a few cafés, along with several restaurants and other shops. I decide to stop at the local coffee shop to do some homework. I might meet a friend for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants; it’s a bit far, but it shouldn’t be more than a 20-minute walk.
This can easily be a scene from my daily life in Spain, where virtually everything I might need is a short walk away. However, this is distinctively not a feature of daily life in Los Angeles (LA), alongside most other U.S. cities. Living in a walkable community, one in which you could comfortably access the majority of your needs and go about your daily life on foot, is not a possibility for many Americans.
Being able to walk as opposed to depending on other forms of transportation can help mitigate the cost and environmental impact of purchasing gas. Gasoline powered vehicles are one of the worst consumers of energy, with 85% of the fossil fuels escaping as ‘waste heat,’ according to a study by Cities Alive. Streets and cities that have become more walkable have observed sharp decreases in air pollution. It is difficult to see the impact that air pollution has on a city without experiencing the flip side — the longer I live in a walkable city, the more I notice the drastic difference that it makes on the environment.
The study also found that individuals who walked 10 minutes each day were more likely to report better mental and physical health. These results show that if cities, including LA, were more walkable, it could lead to a happier and healthier population. Taking a stroll after meals, decompressing on the walk back from a friends’ house or browsing stores on the way to my destination, walking has become my favorite necessity.
Although cities in the U.S. need to make drastic changes, each step taken toward walkability would cost local governments millions of dollars. In Long Beach, CA, one of the most walkable cities in the U.S., the local government requested $39 million in 2023 to begin implementing various improvements for pedestrians. These changes need to be made incrementally, and although they are a large financial investment, governments need to prioritize benefits over short-term expenses.
LA can benefit from creating more walkable communities given its high population density. Most people living in LA own cars, and combined with the area’s high population density, this has led to major traffic. People need to drive to school, work, the grocery store, restaurants and coffee shops. If we could create more walkable areas, there would be a smaller need for cars, helping alleviate the city’s ongoing issues with traffic.
This is not to suggest that one should walk all the time – walkable cities can still allow for driving. It just means that people would not have to get onto the freeway in order to grab dinner or visit a friend. Driving around in cars has become such an integral part of Americans’ lives that for many, it is difficult to picture anything else. Every day that our cities continue to grow, we have the opportunity to transform them into something that is better; not only for the lives of those who live in them but also for the future existence and prosperity of our environment.
