Why is walkability to public schools & stores so hard to find?

[Anonymous]

The less dense the neighborhood is, the further apart (and less walkable) the schools are.

In DC you'll rarely find an elementary school that isn't walkable from anywhere in-boundary because it's dense. In BFE you'll be driving miles because the same number of students is spread out over miles and miles.

You want walkability, the more urban the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Arlington- near ballston and have to drive to hs.
Everything else is walkable- but really if I am doing a real shopping trip I am not walking back from Harris teeter or target with 5 bags.
I guess the nice thing about living here is that if I do drive anywhere in the county or dc max is 20 minutes, normally under 10.

We live about 2 blocks from two grocery stores. We usually walk. But drive for big Costco runs. Kids walked to elementary and sometimes home from middle school. They often biked to middle school. High school they could have walked, but take Metro to a private.

And I agree the biggest benefit is how close we are to everything. My 80 year old mother and friend parked at my house so I could drive them to and from the Kennedy center and it was less than 10 minutes each way.

It's a very central location for our kids' sports teams that play all over the DMV.

The draw back is the price. Around us it's impossible to do under about $1.6 million to start (and that's for very tiny, likely needed renovation).

[Anonymous]

I hate to be an Arlington band wagon person but if I wanted that urban balance not in DC (let’s face it, DC is not getting a safer anytime soon so I would not realistically consider it) I would choose that orange line corridor.
Not the very north/McLean wannabe part of Arlington but the actual urban part of it.
Otherwise you may as well live in Vienna or n Bethesda or an exurb for something further out that does not cost 2.5m for a decent house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to be an Arlington band wagon person but if I wanted that urban balance not in DC (let’s face it, DC is not getting a safer anytime soon so I would not realistically consider it) I would choose that orange line corridor.
Not the very north/McLean wannabe part of Arlington but the actual urban part of it.
Otherwise you may as well live in Vienna or n Bethesda or an exurb for something further out that does not cost 2.5m for a decent house.

+1 to the Arlington bandwagon. We live in the south part of North Arlington (Ashton Heights/Lyon Park) and are in the walking boundary for all three schools (elementary, middle, high). Plus we walk to daycare so there you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because families want to live in single family homes, not high-rise condos. Single family homes need large lots. Large lots with low density = lower walkability.

As someone currently raising kids in a triplex in a highly walkable urban neighborhood, I now totally get why someone would choose a SFH in a low-density neighborhood even though it means life in a car.

…and for the same reasons, those of us that live in lower density SFH areas don’t want additional density. We moved here on purpose. It might be inevitable, but I think that we can delay that unwanted transition for a long time.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Because schools are big. ES have 500+ kids instead of small ones. And it only gets bigger from there.

+1

Everything is on a massive scale.

Yes. And even if you do find something walkable it's very rare to be walkable to ES and MS and HS.

My kids had a bus to ES but are walkable to MS and HS and I really appreciate that. ES kids still need parents to take them to/from school so the walkability is of limited value IMO. But the independence for teens in getting to/from school has been great.

??? My children walked/biked/scooted/took the bus to their ES school starting in 1st grade. Can't imagine taking them to school through ES if it was walkable...

This is such BS. I walked 2 miles RT from my parents’ home to ES K-6. My sister did the same. We only started taking the school bus when my parents moved to a rural area. Before that we were living in a typical 1960s-70s suburb. I feel sorry for today’s over-supervised and scheduled children. When will they grow up and gain their independence?

[Anonymous]

In many parts of Takoma Park your kids can walk to elementary and middle school. Mine did. High school is in Silver Spring and requires a bus.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The short answer to your question is 50+ years of poor urban planning and car-centric design. In most cases, the decision to make things unwalkable was very much on purpose. We've (mostly) realized the error of that approach by now, but walkable spaces are now pretty scarce outside of pre-WWII neighborhoods, and they're enough in demand that they go for a large price premium even though walkability doesn't really cost more to build.

We're starting to retrofit walkable infrastructure into suburban neighborhoods, but it'll take decades, and we're limited with what can be done within the constraints of many of the choices that are already baked in.

Ding ding ding. Basically op, it’s literally illegal to build walkable neighborhoods in most of America. That’s the reason AU Park is so absurdly expensive

And AU Park sucks. Who wants to walk to what they can walk to besides Wagshals.

AU hater is back. Remind me. Are you the one who thinks we’re “basic” or “depraved”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much of the area zoned to Murch is walkable to stores and all three schools! But agree this is super hard to find.

Yes, or zoned to Janney or Hearst or some of Lafayette etc. Upper Northwest is like this. Glover Park area will be, too, when the new high school opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We have made this country so damn ugly in the name of car worship.

Truth.

[Anonymous]

It’s too bad you hate the Ffx co pkwy and 50 so much - we live in a neighborhood tucked between those and are walkable to es-hs (because of the roads though, most parents don’t feel comfortable letting kids walk themselves until about 4th grade) We do walk a lot, though - I try to avoid getting in the car for things right in our neighborhood. The library is just across from the HS and while the shopping center at the entrance to our neighborhood is strip mall ish, we walk there on nice days for quick trips to giant or cvs or five below or one of the several restaurants. Our dentist and pediatrician are there, too. There are also parks and playgrounds and trails, including one in the center of our neighborhood that is a trail next to a creek in the woods.

We really like our neighborhood and while it isn’t high end, we have a lot here to love. We considered moving during the early days of the pandemic, but we are really spoiled here and don’t want to give up this type of life. I enjoy walking my es child to and from school and can’t help but roll my eyes at my neighbor 2 houses closer that drives kids back and forth daily - it is one block!

Anyway, if being close to schools is important and some other walkable amenities, Greenbriar in 22033 (west Fairfax/Chantilly hs area) is a really great choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Alexandria (Eastern Fairfax County part) and are walkable to elementary and middle, about a 1 mile to High School and 1/4 mile to grocery store. People will dump all over our high schools here, but honestly they are fine and if your kid is engaged and has parents at home they can thrive. FWIW - We have loved walking to schools AND being 2 miles from the beltway.

And have less competition amongst their classmates for getting into state colleges than at some of the other area high schools.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Because schools are big. ES have 500+ kids instead of small ones. And it only gets bigger from there.

+1

Everything is on a massive scale.

Yes. And even if you do find something walkable it's very rare to be walkable to ES and MS and HS.

My kids had a bus to ES but are walkable to MS and HS and I really appreciate that. ES kids still need parents to take them to/from school so the walkability is of limited value IMO. But the independence for teens in getting to/from school has been great.

??? My children walked/biked/scooted/took the bus to their ES school starting in 1st grade. Can't imagine taking them to school through ES if it was walkable...

This is such BS. I walked 2 miles RT from my parents’ home to ES K-6. My sister did the same. We only started taking the school bus when my parents moved to a rural area. Before that we were living in a typical 1960s-70s suburb. I feel sorry for today’s over-supervised and scheduled children. When will they grow up and gain their independence?

Kids these days….. it’s hard enough getting old, I’d fight harder not to be grumpy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The short answer is because of lack of density. In a SFH environment, only a few houses can be close enough to what you want to walk to it.

I live in Pimmit Hills in 22043, which is walkable by the suburban definition of the word. Kids walk and bike to their ES, we walk to metro, library, parks and CAN walk to several grocery stores but we obviously don't walk to stores because I don't want to carry my shopping on foot.

Pimmit Hills as walkable. Very interesting….. definitely understand walking to library and Trader Joe’s, though PH is huge and there are parts of PH which would be too far to consider walkable. Not getting how the metro is walkable. Technically, you could walk there, but it would be a long walk and ugly walk.

[Anonymous]

We live in North Kensington and can walk to Rock View ES, Newport Mill MS and Einstein HS. It’s about 1 mile to the Kensington Safeway or Wheaton Giant/Wheaton Mall (but I wouldn’t walk there). I do think in the next 10-15 years Kensington and Wheaton will have more mixed use development making it a little more walkable/ pedestrian friendly. But it’s not there yet.