When They Must Leave Their Cars Behind, How Quickly Can People Learn to Enjoy a More Urban, Walkable Environment?

Answer:
Instantly.

Main Street USA - Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL

I visited Walt Disney World recently with my family, and was struck by the high design quality of the urban environment of Main Street USA, the park's primary gathering place. I was further struck by the fact that visitors to the park - many of whom no doubt come from highly suburban, auto-oriented environments - seemed to adapt to this urban environment seamlessly and were having a wonderful time!

Walt Disney World is designed specifically so that visitors must leave their cars behind. A massive parking lot intercepts those arriving by car. Visitors must then dramatically and memorably traverse the large Seven Seas Lagoon via ferry boat or monorail in order to reach the park itself:

Once arriving by transit at the ferry boat landing or the monorail station, the entrance to The Magic Kingdom is dramatically framed by arches under the picturesque station of the small replica train that encircles the perimeter of the park:

Once passing under the train station, one immediately enters a beautiful and well-shaped town square:

This square then leads to Main Street USA, which frames the iconic view of the focally-placed Cinderella's Castle in the distance:

Looking from Cinderella's Castle, a vista is framed of the beautiful train station back at the arrival end of Main Street USA:

This "theme park stage set" creation actually forms a strikingly effective urban spatial sequence: 

The fundamental details that are critical for walkable places are incorporated so convincingly that Allan Jacobs includes Disney's Main Street USA in his seminal book Great Streets.  (Jacobs documents the entrance to Disneyland in California, which is urbanistically virtually identical to the example in Walt Disney World in Florida):

Jacobs documents that Disney's Main Street USA:

• Is approximately 54 feet wide from building face to building face.
• Features 12 foot wide sidewalks.
• Has frequent doorways, one every 18 feet on average.
• Has an appearance of many buildings, one every 22 feet on average.
• Represents an idealized dream-memory of what made a great street, with stage set physical qualities that exist on the best streets: buildings lining the street, architectural details over which light constantly moves, transparency at ground level, pedestrian comfort, a hint of housing and habitation, a beginning and an ending.
• Is an example of how little area it takes to create a sense of urbanity.

As Walt Disney planned Disneyland and Disney World during the 1950s and 60s, he seemed to be painfully aware that the automobile, among other forces, was transforming the physical fabric of American towns and cities, often to detriment.  Main Street USA was inspired by Walt Disney's memories of his own hometown of Marceline, Missouri:

With additional stylistic influences from main streets in other regions of the United States, Main Street USA attempts to capture for posterity the character of a turn-of-the-century small American town.

Walt Disney said about his creation, "For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather's youth." 

Thanks to Disney's Main Street USA, today over 17 million annual Walt Disney World visitors get to experience how enjoyable a more urban, walkable place designed around people (rather than just their cars) can be.  

Amazon: Great Streets (by Allan B. Jacobs)   

Kid-Friendly Urban Spaces

I’m teaching 2nd Year Architecture Studio at the University of Miami this semester.  The focus of the class is town planning to create walkable urbanism.  I and the other 2nd Year instructors recently took our students on a cross-state odyssey to visit the new beachfront resort town of Seaside, FL.  Seaside is the landmark project that, designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk 30 years ago, began the international revival of traditional town planning.  Seaside has continued to mature and grow more complete over the decades, and today is a wonderfully vibrant example of a highly walkable place.

Seaside is the cover image of the seminal book The New Urbanism, by Peter Katz:

I’ve been to visit Seaside a number of times in the past, but never the way I would on this trip.  I decided to add a few extra days to the trip, give my wife Krisztina a little break, and take my 20 month-old son Benji with me - turning the journey into a father son road trip!

I’ll admit that I was a bit daunted by the prospect of travelling solo with Benji for 5 days.  The drive from Miami to Seaside takes about 10 hours, traversing the entire State.  And Benji is a very energetic little boy!  I planned the trip with two days to travel in each direction, giving plenty of time to stop, stretch our legs, and to show Benji some of my favorite places in Florida along the way.

My epiphany: on this journey, I discovered that the destinations in Florida that I love for their lively urban spaces are also wonderful kid-friendly places!

Stop 1: Winter Park, FL
Our first stop was Winter Park, just north of Orlando.  Winter Park has a great main street, Park Avenue, where Benji and I stopped for lunch.  Dover, Kohl & Partners, the office I work for, helped to plan for the refurbishment of this street a number of years ago.  Park Avenue has a wide sidewalk, narrow travel lanes, on-street parking, street trees, and other details that make activities like outdoor dining work well.  These same details made Park Avenue a great location for Benji to stretch his legs!

Park Avenue also has a great collection shops along pedestrian passages leading to beautiful mid-block courtyards with fountains.  These passageways, such as Greeneda Court shown here, were a perfect place to let Benji run and explore:

In one of the courtyards, the owners of the little cafe were thoughtful enough to place a couple of toy boats in the fountain for kids!  Benji could play while I sat just steps away with a coffee - a perfect kid-friendly and adult-friendly urban space!

Just steps away on the other side of Park Avenue is a large square called Central Park.  After our lunch, I took Benji there to run around before the next leg of our trip:

Stop 2: Gainesville, FL
Our next big stop was Gainesville.  We visited the University of Florida campus and the central quadrangle was a great safe place to let Benji run free.  He especially loved playing on the gator statue:

Stop 3: Madison, FL
Our last stop before Seaside was the little town of Madison, in Florida's panhandle.  The town's square has a great gazebo, monuments and fountains that Benji loved exploring!

Seaside, FL!
At long last, after 10 hours of driving over two great days, Benji and I arrived in Seaside!

We met up with the University of Miami students in the town square near Seaside's little classical Post Office, originally the first structure built.  Seaside has a great variety of urban spaces and Benji really enjoyed exploring them all!  

A farmers market was being held in the town square - another great example of a place where a kid can run free in an environment that is interesting and stimulating for all ages:

The famous Airstream Trailer food truck roundup in Seaside's town square:

Seaside's open-air market bazaar near the beach:

Cool and shady Ruskin Square, surrounded by rowhouses and small shops:

Seaside does have a wonderful, quiet, shady children's playground that Benji enjoyed for a bit, but he was soon ready to get back to the action of the rest of the town!

A testament to Seaside's well-connected, narrow, traffic-calmed streets - I could play with Benji right in the street and not worry about speeding cars!

Benji loved climbing up into the little gazebo in the middle of the roundabout at the end of Tupelo Street.

In the evening, I bought Benji a little toy guitar at a shop on the town square, and then we strolled through the market bazaar, and down one of Seaside's well-marked public beach accesses.  The whole route was so easy to follow that I was able to walk behind Benji as he found his own way from the town square to the water's edge!

Alys Beach, FL
After Seaside, we took the University of Miami students to visit nearby Alys Beach, another new walkable beachfront resort town also designed by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany.  This next-generation project has continued to evolve the state-of-the-art in pedestrian-friendly (and therefore kid-friendly) urban spaces.

Alys Beach incorporates a fascinating blend of influences from places with great walkable urbanism optimized for hot climates including: Bermuda, St Augustine, the Greek islands, Dutch South Africa and the cities of North Africa.  The growing town features a number of exquisitely designed, narrow streets and intimate squares that are often free from motorized vehicles.

In conclusion: 
Main streets, urban courtyards, parks with fountains, academic quadrangles, farmers markets, food truck roundups, open air market bazaars, pedestrian-friendly streets and squares are all wonderful places to spend one's time, and even better when spending time with a child! 


Amazon: The New Urbanism (by Peter Katz)

Curbside Parking Footways in Downtown Naples, FL

During a recent trip to Naples, Florida I stopped at the main street, 5th Avenue South, for a bite to eat.  I parallel-parked on a side street a half block from the main street.  The quiet side street was lined with apartments and had a beautiful row of trees planted in a tree lawn.  The side street's main sidewalk was located between the tree lawn and the fronts of the apartments, as one would expect.

Then I noticed a wonderful detail.  A second smaller sidewalk was placed on the outboard side of the tree lawn, right next to the on-street parking spaces.  (5th Avenue South, the main street being served by the parallel parking, can be seen in the background of the photo):

This second sidewalk, or "curbside parking footway", makes it possible to get out of the passenger side of a parallel-parked car without stepping right into the damp grass of the tree lawn.  The curbside parking footway also makes it easy to stand while setting up a stroller, or loading parcels into the car.  These functions are very useful if the on-street parking on the side street in question is serving the adjacent main street and is therefore likely to see a high rate of turnover and foot traffic.  (A curbside parking footway is not usually neccesary on typical quiet neighborhood streets further away from the main street.)

The dimensions of the curbside parking footway are important.  It should be wide enough to fulfill its function, while not so wide that it appears to be the primary sidewalk.  This curbside parking footway example in Naples is three feet wide.  The tree lawn is twelve feet wide and the main sidewalk is five and a half feet wide:

Naples also employs curbside parking footways in places along the 5th Avenue South main street itself.  These are located where substantial planting occurs.  The curbside parking footway along the main street is cross-connected to the street's wide primary sidewalk quite frequently: