Dan Burden (at a San Jose 'news' outlet) -
"Toward Walkability — and Happiness"

Exerpts -

"One measure of quality of life is the level of access we have to the things we value most — jobs, safe streets, affordable transportation and housing, and quality health care, schools and civic spaces such as parks and other gathering places.

The ability to walk to many of these places from our homes or places of employment generally raises that quality-of-life index. When researchers look for places where people are happiest, it’s often in communities where they can live near where they work, walk their children to school and shop at stores within walking or biking distance."

"Studies also indicate people are least happy when in their cars, largely because they cannot predict what will slow them down, or when."

"Unfortunately, over the past several decades, we’ve designed our communities to move automobiles, not people. Too much is tied to the auto and is out of walking and bicycling range for residents. The happiest places in the world were designed to accommodate and support people, not their cars.

Take a walk and test this out. Walk a street or corridor and look for ways to make it a better place, where people can get to know more people and are within walking distance of the things they love or need.

For existing streets, ask community leaders to redesign the rights of way to support walking and biking — perhaps widening sidewalks and planting trees so that pedestrians feel protected from fast traffic.

For new development, encourage projects that are compact and walkable, with homes near stores and jobs, and streets that are comfortable to walk and bike. Connect streets so it’s easy to get from one place to another without going out onto a multiple-lane road with fast traffic."

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Of course, there are different views about what constitutes "happiness" and "quality-of-life," and these standards sometimes are overgeneralized -- without leaving room for interpersonal differences.

I don't mean to wholeheartedly embrace the general definitions that underlie the above writing; however, those (largely implicit) views about "happiness" and "quality-of-life" do seem to be very valid (but not completely valid).

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A related post -
"Pedestrians"
... "We’re more human when we use our feet."

And there are some posts about cycling here -
http://tobanblack.net/blog/?tag=cycling

Toban Black
(http://tobanblack.net/blog/?p=246)