Walkable City Audiobook By Jeff Speck cover art

Walkable City

How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

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Walkable City

By: Jeff Speck
Narrated by: Jeff Speck
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About this listen

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that’s easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.

Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.

Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.

©2012 Jeff Speck (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Architecture Politics & Government Sociology City Thought-Provoking Inspiring
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What listeners say about Walkable City

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Bring Your City to Life

This book is about so much more than walking. It is about bringing life back to your city, back to your downtown. It is about bringing a sense of community back to your community and thus improving the quality of life for all involved. The book also deals with what can be done to help increase the use of Bicycling and other forms of transportation making people less dependent on the car.
Jeff isn’t anti-car. But he is pro-walking. And he rightly sees that taking a critical look at traffic laws, and the construction of traffic routes can ultimately make life better for the automobilist as well as the walker and revive a downtown area, and even an entire city, burbs included.
It’s something so obvious it goes almost unnoticed. But if people don’t feel safe walking, they won’t walk. And when neighborhoods are designed with the car in mind, no one walks. So you can feasibly spend ten years and never meet another soul in your neighborhood. We just drive from home to work to a box store, to home. Not only is it bad for our health, it’s bad for business, it’s bad for community.
Anyone who is involved in city planning, anyone who is involved in community ought to read or listen to this book. If you are a compulsive walker like I am, take a listen on your next walk.

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Read by the Author

Took me a few minutes to get used to the author's voice, as opposed to one of those generic-spounding professional audiobook readers, but once I did it was clear that he put way more of his heart into it than anyone else could have. A fantastic book for anyone interested in cities, transportation, and urbanites.

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Tremendously important work

Speck articulates very strong arguments for walkable cities, with well researched statistics and colorful anecdotes. If city officials read this book it will mean a revolution toward better communities, better health, and a better environment.

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Great Focus on Urban Walkability

Many books on Urban Planning are used to teach me something new, or to affirm many of my preconceptions. In Walkable City, however, the author had numerous points that challenged these preconceptions, and led me to reconsider positions I had taken for granted. An excellent examination in depth of walkability.

The author, while good in humor and engaging, could stand to practice his vocal delivery, as there were a number of instances where I had difficulty understanding him. His voice is deep, and at times mumbles the ending of sentences.

Overall, great work I recommend to any urban enthusiast.

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Cities Make More Sense Now

I've never understood why it's so difficult to drive into Boston and Washington DC. Now that I understand that's they're purposely set up to make that difficult, I'm more inclined to take public transportation and more equipped to beat that system. Win/Win

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Great for beginners

If you already know about planning at all this may not be ground breaking stuff but it was solidly enjoyable

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excellent, informative, and digestible

loved that this book was digestible and relatable because Speck didn't exclusively talk about one city or really big cities only. he breaks down the information and examples by block, neighborhood, and city. it helped me see my own city in a new light and understand the issues facing city planners, mayors, and citizens more thoroughly.

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Interesting introduction to walkability

Knowing nothing about city planning, I started listening to this book while traveling in Europe for the first time. I wanted to know more about why places like Copenhagen, Paris, London, Krakow, etc, felt so much more walkable than my own Minneapolis and what was holding my home city back. He addressed everything I wanted to know, possibly with some bias; I dont know enough about urban planning to say for sure. Aside from a few recording issues, I enjoyed the book.

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Wonderful, thought provoking well researched book!

I am an architect. I was also taught, and for awhile was quite taken with, the idolization of the starchitect and the idea that the ultimate pursuit in architecture was to either have a strong theoretical concept and/or a bold architectural language. Every time I thought to myself quietly though, I began to really question if this is what makes attractive cities.
Fast forward a few years and I have for the most part dumped this idea and it's wonderful to have books which lend credence and weight to the argument that a quality city is made from a large collection of very small moves. This book illustrates this beautifully and I really hope more people in the building profession come to their senses and stop scarring our streets with oversized sculptural objects. Well done, Mr. Speck

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Every city planner should have to read this.

Great ideas, observations and strategies for creating vibrant cities. So many simple ideas that should be common sense to city planners but obviously aren't.

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