Walkable Community, Port Townsend, Washington

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Description

By being walk- and bike- friendly, Port Townsend WA, encourages greener, healthier living; and a friendlier community.Think how much cleaner our cities would be if we could walk to our favorite shops and restaurants and leave our car behind when we run errands? We’d all be healthier and our cities and towns would be more livable, sustainable and socially welcoming places.

Walkable Communities, Inc, was invited by the Non-Motorized Transportation Board to locate their offices in Port Townsend, WA. Sarah Bowman, General Manager, became a Port Townsend Planning Commissioner and also joined the Main Street Program’s Design Committee. The goal of Walkable Communities, Inc is to foster a cooperative approach to town and city planning so that people are honored first in the designs.  “If we focus on improving quality of life, we only need to figure out ‘the how’ – that’s the fun part! In one of our first local projects, we learned about accessibility issues around the local hospital in Port Townsend,” said Sarah Bowman. DASH (Disability Awareness Starts Here) made us aware of the problem and we thought about how we could utilize our skills to help solve this issue, and were able to make the transit stop and hospital entrance accessible and walkable for everyone.

Walkable Communities attributes their success to involving a mix of people into all of their projects including elected leaders, city staff, activists, students, seniors, professionals and the business community. Moving a project from vision to implementation requires a motivated and engaged community. 

To help your town leadership reconsider what is possible, the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute has created an easy to use 12 step checklist, and will also talk with you about challenges specific to your community, and help you turn ideas into action.

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