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Walkability and Noise
Being able to walk around my neighborhood is important to me. It’s one of the key things I considered when considering where I would purchase a house. I wanted to live in a place where I could easily walk to what I needed and could drive to many more.
One friend recently moved from my street to Twinsburg. He moved to be close to work and enjoys the “peace and quiet” of the area.
Another friend lives on a busy corner, a block away from me. She is frustrated by loud motorcycles, booming stereos and other street noise that occasionally wake her up at night. She is trying find ways to damp the noise but is also thinking about moving. For her, a dilemma. She walks everyplace when possible, using a car as a last resort. Moving someplace quiet, like Twinsburg, means driving everyplace.
This got me thinking. Some people move to the suburbs for the isolation (”peace and quiet”) from others. Isolation means distance. Distance means the density is too low to support the range of restaurants, entertainment and other things that I want to be part of my life.
Walk Score?
I went to Walk Score to play around a little and see if I could find the grail: could I find a walkable area that was also known to be quiet?
Interestingly, Cleveland’s score was 60, making it the 14th most “walkable” city in the country. I looked up in some neighborhoods and suburbs to see what the site returned. Here’s the list:
- Mentor : 34
- Twinsburg : 40
- Westlake : 52
- Rocky River : 54
- Lakewood : 63
- Tremont : 65
- Cleveland Heights : 69
- Parma : 71
- Lyndhurst : 72
- University Circle : 75
- Ohio-City : 77
- Strongsville : 86
- Downtown : 95
Strongsville? Walkable? Wait. What?
How did Strongsville get a rating of 86?
Nobody who has been to Strongsville would think it is walkable. Five (seven?) lane roads feed developments designed to provide space between houses and break up the sight-lines with curving roads.
Well, the site uses the center of the intersection of Pearl and Royalton road as the measuring point when you enter “Strongsville, OH”. Put in a residential address instead of the main intersection and you get something more realistic…like 11. (Jeff: at least your house is quiet!).
Playing around with the Cleveland map, I wasn’t able to find anyplace that was a balance. I’ll admit that I didn’t spend more than 20 minutes and it wasn’t rigorous. No databases were involved.
Walkability, Density and Noise
I suspect, however, the more I looked at the maps, that walkability is really just a proxy for density. High population density doesn’t automatically mean a place can be walked…but I’d assume a very strong correlation.
So, over a certain density/walkability, I’d guess that you’ll always be jostled by people who live around you. Under a certain density, you might only hear the hum of a neighbors’ air conditioner as proof you aren’t living alone in a corn field.
But someplace between these must be a magic density. It would be one where there are enough people nearby so that restaurants, bars, stores, and such get the business they need to survive from foot traffic; places where parking lots are a second thought, not the first question. But in this magic neighborhood, people would still need to have enough space that they would have some ability to escape, to find a quiet corner, to be alone.
The only way I can see this working is if there’s a very convenient public transit system. For example, Paris is a huge city and but it wasn’t as noisy as I had expected when I visited it last year. Building height in the city is limited, so people are forced to spread out more than in New York. Public transit is necessary because there’s no way to get across town to work during rush hour unless it’s on the Metro.
I guess I’m down to a few questions that I can answer but am interested in learning about: how far apart do people need to be to feel “comfortable”? is this distance close that public transport can “augment” the existing density, letting people quickly and cheaply get into an area and support things that couldn’t survive in an automobile-only area? if not, then is “critical mass” in the area unreachable for anything except the most fundamental services or “economy of scale” stores?
One Comment
I’d guess it’s something of a network effect. You need walkable neighborhoods around the stops on an efficient, affordable public transit system.
Having one or the other—walkable neighborhoods that one can’t easily move between, or a public transit system that leaves you needing a car as soon as you get off the train—doesn’t really get you anywhere.
On a side note, I’d suggest checking out Matt Yglesias’s blog at the The Atlantic if you haven’t already. Walkability and urban density are topics he frequently hits on, such as this post on WalkScore’s results for DC.
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