A Bumblebee For Walking

Dan Burden, who spent 18 months in the early 1970s riding a bicycle from Anchorage, Alaska to southern Mexico, is now, at age 60, into walking. He say he does a lot of walking, at least 10,000 steps a day. He also does a lot of talking about it. As the founder and director of Walkable Communities, Mr. Burden earns his keep helping towns and cities across the United States and Canada become better places. How? By convincing residents and public officials to embrace walking as a central feature of their community’s design.It’s not that Mr. Burden dislikes cars. It’s just that he is certain that the quality of life improves if people don’t spend so much time sitting in them. And, like everybody else, he can’t stand congestion. He’s come up with some unexpected solutions. The answer to traffic congestion in most towns isn’t making roads wider, says Mr. Burden. Just the opposite: Roads need to be put on a “diet.” Taking lanes away slows traffic but, surprisingly, the road then actually carries more vehicles more efficiently. Mr. Burden has other traffic remedies, such as shrinking intersections, constructing roundabouts, building boulevards with divided medians, and designing places where people can walk, bike, and ride public transit.