Walkable City Rules

“Cities are the future of the human race, and Jeff Speck knows how to make them work.”
―David Owen, staff writer at the New Yorker

Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable―for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment―yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his bestselling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now.

The 101 rules are practical yet engaging―worded for arguments at the planning commission, illustrated for clarity, and packed with specifications as well as data. For ease of use, the rules are grouped into 19 chapters that cover everything from selling walkability, to getting the parking right, escaping automobilism, making comfortable spaces and interesting places, and doing it now!

Walkable City was written to inspire; Walkable City Rules was written to enable. It is the most comprehensive tool available for bringing the latest and most effective city-planning practices to bear in your community. The content and presentation make it a force multiplier for place-makers and change-makers everywhere.

Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, he oversaw the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design. Prior to joining the endowment, Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at DPZ and Co., the principal firm behind the New Urbanism movement. He is author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time and the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream as well as The Smart Growth Manual.

Suburban Nation was called “the bible of urbanists,” by the Wall Street Journal.” The Christian Science Monitor called Walkable City “timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work,” and “required reading.” Jeff Speck’s TED talks and other videos have been viewed more than three million times. With Walkable City Rules, he can be expected to cement his role as the most listened-to city planner in America.