Critic: Improve Lighting to Improve Dallas Walkability

"The conventional wisdom about Dallas is that people don’t like to walk here; we drive everywhere. This is an automotive city, sure, but the truth is that there is a growing population that enjoys walking, and they’d walk a lot more frequently if the streets were not so unfriendly to the pedestrian," writes Dallas Morning News Architecture Critic Mark Lamster.

Lamster studies the Dallas Arts District as an example of the negative impacts of bad lighting. "The problem is especially egregious along the western stretches of Flora and along Harwood. The ample tree cover on these streets, so welcome during daylight hours, turns them into pitch-black tunnels at night, because the minimal overhead street lighting doesn’t penetrate the dense foliage."

Lamster also finds another reminder of the narrative he's created in past columns of Dallas as the "Paradox City." In this case, the walkability is also affected by being too bright during the day.