Salt Lake 'walkability' is gauged

We are walking west on 1300 South, the only walkers on this stretch of road. We are headed toward 400 West, down a sidewalk that runs along the north side of the Salt Lake City Wal-Mart, an impenetrable wall that stretches for an entire block like some medieval rampart. There's not a door or window in sight.

Still, Mark Fenton is trying to look on the bright side. "This is only five or six decisions away from being a 'win,"' he says. By "win," he means the kind of design that is pedestrian-friendly, the kind of design that helps walkers and bicycle riders easily and safely navigate America's cities and suburbs.

It's decisions the developer made — and the city allowed — that make this Wal-Mart difficult for pedestrians. It's these decisions — and other choices, too — that Fenton has been seeking on his visit to Utah.

Fenton, a former champion race walker turned "walkability" advocate, is here this week for the Utah League of Cities and Towns' convention and 100th birthday. Wednesday, he took municipal leaders from around the state on a walking tour of downtown Centerville; today, he'll do a similar walkability assessment of several areas of Salt Lake City.

He will share his ideas with the public and the Salt Lake City Council at 7 p.m. today at the Chase Mill in Liberty Park.

Standing on the sidewalk outside Wal-Mart, he ticked off a brief list of changes that he said would make the design work: an L-shaped building with doors that open to the street and a garage tucked into the inside of the L; a comfortable transit stop; loading docks that don't face onto 300 West; a landscape strip on the other side of the sidewalk, so it buffers the walkers and slows the flow of traffic; a mid-block walkway with landscaped median that leads shoppers across 300 West to the Lowe's on the other side.

"None of these necessarily cost an extra nickel for the developer," he said.

Fenton is an enthusiastic, pleasant, race-talker of a man who is passionate about "connectivity" and traffic calming, who says that the big picture is all about the details. In Centerville on Monday, he laid down on the grassy strip between the road and sidewalk and stretched out his arms and legs to make himself as long as possible. This, he explained, is a measurement he calls a "Fenton," which is his way of measuring the set-back between road and sidewalk. A good set-back should be at least one Fenton, he said.

He was pleased with some of what he saw in Centerville (a pedestrian ramp behind the Wal-Mart that leads to a subdivision, for example). He praised city manager Steve Thacker and community development director Cory Snyder for their efforts to eliminate cul-de-sacs and connect subdivisions with walking/biking trails.