How walkable is your community and neighborhood?

WalkScore.com  is a fun way to measure the walkability of any address, town, city or ZIP code.  Each address's Walk Score is based on walking distances to nearby amenities. It also considers road connectivity, intersection density and average block length. Areas with scores of 70 or more are considered very walkable; score between 50 and 69 are considered somewhat walkable; and those with scores of 50 or less are considered car-dependent.

The 65 largest cities in North Carolina have an average Walk Score of 38. The most walkable cities in North Carolina are Boone, with an average score of 75, and Chapel Hill, with an average score of 53. Clemmons with an average score of 23 and Lewisville with a score of 20 were ranked as the second and third least walkable cities in North Carolina. Kernersville had an average score of 37 and Winston-Salem had an average score of 35. Based on Walk Score, 23% of Winston-Salem residents live in neighborhoods classified as at least somewhat walkable, while 77% live in car-dependent neighborhoods. Winston-Salem's most walkable ZIP codes are 27103 and 27109. Winston-Salem's least walkable ZIP codes are 27106 and 27104.

However, local road planning has seen improvements. A “connectivity index” is now used for rating new subdivision developments to ensure shorter travel distances and more route options. A Collector Street Plan was developed to ensure the logical overall connections between neighborhoods and communities as development comes in for approval. To help slow traffic down in neighborhoods, the City of Winston-Salem has put a traffic calming program in place. Examples of traffic calming projects include Lockland Avenue and London Lane.

There is an increased awareness of the importance of other transportation choices such as walking and biking, as well as the relationship of transportation alternatives to a healthy community. New street standards were adopted in Winston-Salem requiring sidewalks in new developments, and all sidewalks in Winston-Salem were mapped using a Global Positioning System. The City began striping bike lanes in 2007 and now has 7.2 miles of lanes marked.  A large section of the Muddy Creek Greenway was constructed. Major long range plans were completed for greenways, pedestrian facilities and bicycle facilities. Development design has been another area of success. Several new pedestrian-oriented commercial developments have been approved and built in Forsyth County.

Increased Density Along Corridors

Roads such as Peters Creek Parkway and University Parkway lend themselves to an increased residential density and potential transit corridors.

How do we build a successful transit system through attractively-designed, increased-density developments along partially-developed corridors?

How do we help transform these corridors from strips into a complementary mixture of uses?

Give us your thoughts -- click "comments" below:

The Big Question: Where will 120,000 People Go?

Forsyth County is expected to see a net increase of 120,000 new residents and 66,000 new jobs move to our communities. Where will these new residents live and work and how will we preserve the good qualities of our county while accommodating necessary new development? How will we preserve prime acreage for employment centers that are currently undeveloped but are zoned for single-family development? What is the most economical way for our community to develop and receive services in a way that helps keep taxes from increasing? To answer these questions, it is necessary to understand our options for future growth and make a deliberate choice about how our community moves forward. The Growth Management Plan can be an important tool in implementing any chosen growth strategy.

Due to the prominence of low-density residential development patterns in recent decades, Forsyth County has only 62,000 acres of undeveloped land left which is capable of supporting urban and suburban growth. This area of land will be referred to in the Legacy Update as the “Serviceable Land Area.” While 62,000 acres may sound like a lot of land, incorporated Winston-Salem and the surrounding small municipalities could be built-out in 25 years if current development patterns continue. How quickly the remaining 62,000 acres of Serviceable Land Area are developed depends on the availability of the land and the timing and density of  the development. The lower the density of any new development, the more quickly our remaining land will be used up.

Since 1950, Winston-Salem’s density has dropped dramatically (63%, from 7.3 persons per acre to 2.7 persons per acre) due to suburbanization and smaller household size (the number of persons living in each dwelling unit). The other municipalities in Forsyth County have even lower overall densities ranging from 0.6 persons per acre in Tobaccoville to 2.4 persons per acre in Clemmons.

Growth Management Areas

Our current Growth Management Plan follows the urban to rural continuum and has five zones:

1. Center City
2. Urban Neighborhoods
3. Suburban Neighborhoods
4. Future Growth Area
5. Rural Area

In addition to Growth Management Areas, the Legacy Growth Management Plan also includes the concepts of Metro Activity Centers and Urban Boulevards. Metro Activity Centers are intended to be places with a mixture of residential and nonresidential uses, a pedestrian-oriented, urban form and a variety of transportation opportunities. These areas are connected to downtown Winston-Salem by Urban Boulevards.

Directing future growth

The Growth Management Plan is a tool used to help direct future growth, protect existing neighborhoods, natural areas, farmland and employment sites, and target areas for redevelopment and revitalization. A well thought-out and consistently supported Growth Management Plan should reduce sprawl, create a more compact and balanced development pattern, support more transportation options and preserve open space and rural character.

The Growth Management Plan, developed as part of the 2001 Legacy Plan, sets the framework for Forsyth County’s physical development. It provides guidance by identifying where growth should be concentrated based on the goal of making efficient use of our limited land resources. Forsyth County first started using a Growth Management Plan in 1987 with the adoption of Vision 2005. The 2001 Legacy Plan further refined the Growth Management concept and created the Ten Guiding Principles of the Legacy Growth Management Plan with the input of Forsyth County citizens.

The Ten Guiding Principles:

• Create a vibrant city center
• Seek variety in neighborhoods
• Designate growth areas
• Focus commercial development
• Provide transportation choices
• Protect environmental quality
• Encourage balanced growth
• Promote design excellence
• Recycle and reuse land and buildings
• Follow through on implementation

Videos: Making Sense of Place

The Making Sense of Place videos examine the complex questions of urban planning and regional identity by exploring the ways people participate in and experience their cities. The series illuminates the tensions between growth, economic development and quality of life in downtown areas, local neighborhoods and surrounding regions by closely examining these issues in Phoenix, Cleveland and Portland. All of these issues are pertinent to Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, so this May the City-County Planning Board, in partnership with Aperture Cinema in downtown Winston-Salem, is showing the entire series. These one-hour films will be shown at 11:30 AM on three consecutive Fridays: May 6th, 13th and 20th. These are all free and open to the public.
If you can't make it to Aperture, you can watch each of them on your computer:

Phoenix: The Urban Desert explores the interrelationships both caused by and affecting individual choices, the democratic process and market forces in the region.

Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City is a compelling examination of the difficulties in reversing the cumulative effects of urban decline.

Portland: Quest for the Livable City examines the complex challenges of becoming a more sustainable metropolis.

311 West Fourth Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101