Response to Claudia Garcia re: New Urbanism--Pedestrian Communities

[Myra Immings <myra.immings@fta.dot.gov>]

The problem with the New Urbanism concepts lies in misapplication. I caution the "one size fits all" mentality that tries to impose pedestrian environments where they are clearly counterindicated.  For example, in my rural/agrarian community 2-hrs north of Atlanta, where "lot" sizes are measured in acres and sidewalks are non-existent, the "walkable community" is silly (except for for-leggeds!)  As with many worthwhile ideas, we need to be careful about application:  the world is a wonderfully diverse place--our homogeneity lies in our heterogeneity (for both the physical environmetal conditions and the population elements who habit them).  Pedestrian communities are great--but not everywhere.  

With regard to outreach, I think it is important to determine how factions within the population want to live, work and play--not everyobody is on the same page (and that's good).  In order to find out, we need strategies for 1) finding out who is out there; 2) finding out how they wish to transmit and receive information; 3) find out what they have to say in terms of communicating the social dynamic information planners/architects/engineers need to develop viable, efficient and effective transportation (and other) systems; and 4) performing valid quality assurance on outcomes to ensure that we got it right, or can correct to get it right.  

My research indicates that as planning professionals, we need to develop capacity for receiving anecdotal information from the communities (accent on the plural) and interpretting it more correctly.