Walking Bellevue

The front page of the Times today has a feature on the walk-ability, or lack thereof, of downtown Bellevue. Having spent very little time in downtown Bellevue ourselves, either on foot or in a car, we're perfectly positioned to ridicule their efforts sight-unseen, but let's instead give credit to an admirable goal. For whatever reason residents are demanding walkable business districts--even what we in Seattle view as suburban residents would like to use their own two feet to get around a little. Great development. Congratulations on your endeavor and we wish you a smashing success.

There are a lot of metro areas that were built to a walkable scale once upon a time and are still navigable by foot today. Kirkland, for one. We were in La Conner this weekend, for another instance. Very walkable. Newer developments are also taking foot-traffic into consideration. Last weekend we found ourselves in some nowhere that claimed to be "Snoqualmie Ridge" and it was oddly reminiscent of one of the circles of hell, but it was definitely walkable. And then there's Bellevue, a city which we're under the impression was built solely to satisfy its resident's desire to never, ever set a high heel to the pavement. Ever. But apparently they're coming around. Anyone familiar enough with Bellevue to tell us whether it's possible to make it foot-friendly? Also, is it worth it?

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By Dan in News on April 9, 2007 10:15 AM

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matthew fisher wilder

Bellevue is currently VERY walker friendly...

..after 8pm, when everyone's gone home. No cars! No nightlife! Walking space everywhere!

K

It's probably possible, but probably not worth it. Bellevue is designed for big-box stores and restaurants, not homey street-side shops. Like most of the burbs, every storefront is accessible either from a tower garage or a large out-front parking lot. (There isn't a lick of street-side parking in the downtown core and not much public parking to speak of.) Because of the blandness of the downtown, it's really hard to figure out how to get to where you want for the first time (Was it 108th or 106th and 4th? Or 104th and 6th? Aw crap, now I'm on the 405 again.)

The way to make Bellevue foot-friendly would be to turn every pushed-back storefront into a public easement. Tear down property walls (e.g. walking from CompUSA (RIP) to its neighbor Toys R Us requires bounding a short concrete wall). Introduce short-trip rapid downtown transit, like Seattle's frequent-service Free Ride Area.

Try to do some shopping in downtown Bellevue via bus. Bellevue Square notwithstanding, you'll see what the problems are. There's actually lots of good shops and it's fine as long as you're mobile and don't mind driving place to place. It could be a good alternative for Seattle shoppers who are dissatisfied with the Pike Street fare and don't want to trek to Northgate or Southcenter. It's just not very Seattle-y.

Matt the Engineer

I worked there for a few years, and drove absolutely everywhere. I think I crossed a street once or twice, but was usually armed with a walking flag to show the 50mph cars that something unusual is happening.

But anything's possible. First, there are just too many major roads running through the place. Downscale them all to single lanes, adding fat tree lined sidewalks. To deal with the cars that use these massive roads, add a major road that loops all the way around the city without touching the walking core. Then redesign all of the buildings to have something worth walking to at street level. That should be a good start.

fnarf

No, it's not possible. Not in a million years.

The reason is simple: the blocks are too damn big, and the streets are too damn wide. Read your Jane Jacobs. There's no possibility of getting anyplace on foot without walking down endless megablocks to get to the few places where you can change direction. The current development in one way is actually making it HARDER; it's wiping out the vast surface parking lots that used to at least allow shortcuts. Now you have to walk a mile to get ANYWHERE.

Bellevue thinks "walkability" means street-level amenities. But just because Starbucks has a few tables out next to the six-lane road doesn't mean it's really walkable.

Many of the people moving into the giant housing developments near Bellevue Square will continue to drive to Bellevue Square even though it's right next door, because that's the only practical way to get there.

It doesn't help that most of the developments themselves are afflicted with gigantism. But, you know, this is growth; these people in the condos aren't moving there from everywhere else in Bellevue, in order to be close to Bellevue Square; they're part of a massive increase of people. The number of people driving to Bellevue Square from far away is also growing, even faster than condoland.

Don't get me wrong; I like Bellevue OK, and I welcome the waves of development. But it's not getting "walkable".

What people need to realize is that SEATTLE is overscaled for true walkability. Seattle's downtown blocks and streets (except for Western) are much wider than Portland's; and Bellevue's are twice as wide as Seattle's.

The sidewalks are too wide, too. Walkability? No, sorry, 'fraid not.