The text provided offers a few solutions that would ensure more ‘walkable cities’ and neighborhood. One of the solutions that the article presents is about ensuring that “homes, cafes, shops, and offices” (Walkable cities 87) intermingle at a density that allows them to be accessed by foot. Therefore, this means that residents of the community should be able to take a stroll from their house to the next store without having to spend over two hours trying to connect between the house and the store. The article in this light also proposes building safe and direct points of interest “across the roads, tracks, or waterways” (Walkable cities 87) that effectively connect to other points that lead to entirely car-free areas to be accessed by pedestrians.

The second solution proposed by the article is to develop buildings with a buzz of life. The cities should be designed in such a way that they are lively, beautiful, and have variety. The importance of this the article says is to promote an exciting environment that will appeal to people when they take a walk (Walkable cities 86). This set up is what the author calls “outdoor living rooms.” The article recommends the use of land estate and critical design elements to create a compelling environment for people who are willing to walk.

This solution could only apply to some parts of Montgomery County but not all of them. For example, the solution that proposes the development of stores, shops, café, etc. that are can be accessed by foot may not be applicable. The reason for this is because, at the moment, the neighborhood is hugely sprawling as well as disjointed. As can be viewed from the map, destinations in the community are less than 500 feet away from each other. However, without trespassing through someone else’s property or yard, it takes almost two or over to walk between houses. It will take an extremely long time for the local community authorities to sub-divide the personal properties to ensure that roads are accessible for people to walk from one destination to another without having to spend so much time on the road. It is because of these time-consuming journeys that many people opt to use motor-vehicles instead of walking.

Another hindrance to walking in Montgomery will be the time factor as well as the perception of walking. Many people in the community work at places that are far away from their residential areas. For this reason, therefore, it would take them longer hours to walk to work as compared to driving to work. People in the community believe driving to work cuts down the hours that they have to walk by almost half or more. Therefore, the convenience of driving to work may make it a bit challenging for people to embrace the ‘walking culture.’ Lastly, the perception of walking may be a hindrance for the culture of walking to the Montgomery Community. Most people in the community perceive walking as something that should be done only once in a while. They have not considered walking as an activity that should be included in their daily lives. In the worst scenarios, many individuals in the community resort to walking as the last option.

I concur with the article on the part where it states that developing beautiful and appealing streets can be an excellent motivation for people to walk. There is a common perception in Montgomery that “walking is useless when there is no place to walk to.” If the streets are made beautiful and recreational amenities are made available within the community’s walking distances, it will motivate people to walk as they will have somewhere to walk to.

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?