10 Minute Neighborhood Analysis

A 10 minute neighborhood is a community where residents can walk short distances from home to destinations that meet their daily needs. These walkable communities are comprised of two important characteristics: 

• Destinations – a walkable community needs places to walk to. Destinations may include places that meet commercial, educational, recreational, or transportation.
• Accessibility – the community needs to be able to conveniently get to those destinations.

Ten minutes represents how much time it takes a typical pedestrian to comfortably walk ½ mile, a reasonable distance to obtain goods or services that meet daily needs. It also corresponds to the Puget Sound Regional Council definition of “Transit Community”, where proximity of transit service to housing and employment is measured.

Although the analysis reference is to walkability, the same principles of creating, sustaining, and enhancing places where people have convenient access applies to people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids. Similarly, a more walkable neighborhood may also be considered a more bikeable neighborhood.

The Growth Management Act (GMA) encourages urban planning approaches that concentrate growth in urban areas to allow efficient provision of services, reduce sprawl, promote physical activity, and support transportation choices. Vision 2050 is the regional strategy for meeting GMA goals. Vision 2050 sets an overarching goal of creating healthy, walkable, compact, and equitable transit-oriented communities that maintain unique character and local culture, while conserving rural areas and creating and preserving open space and natural areas. It also requires communities to develop strategies, programs, and projects that address nonmotorized travel as a safe and efficient transportation option.

10 Minute Neighborhoods have two important components - good destinations and good access. The policy discussion introduces a third component – people.  Walkable places have a population base of residents and employees who use the amenities. This reciprocal relationship can be seen in Kirkland’s mixed use commercial neighborhoods like Downtown, Village at Totem Lake, and Juanita Village – areas that are highly walkable and have a population base that supports the destinations.

The ability to retain, create, and enhance 10 minute neighborhoods has benefits for users of the neighborhood and benefits for the community as a whole.  

• Health. Residents who walk or bike regularly are healthier and therefore walkable communities make it easier to live healthy lifestyles. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people living in walkable neighborhoods get about 35 to 45 more minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week and are substantially less likely to be overweight or obese than people of similar socioeconomic status living in neighborhoods that are not walkable 
• Traffic. Residents with convenient access to local goods and services are less likely to drive. If they do drive, they have a shorter travel distance. The 10 minute neighborhood acknowledges the value to Kirkland’s transportation system of every trip not taken and every mile not driven. 
• Transit.  Better access to transit equates to more transit users. Regional data show that people who live within a half mile of a transit node commute less often by single-occupant vehicle (SOV) with a higher percentage using transit, carpooling, and walking or bicycling to work .
• Demographics.  21 percent of the population aged 65 and older does not drive - and that segment of the population is projected to grow significantly. Older non- drivers need options so they remain engaged with their communities. 
• Clean Air.  Less traffic means cleaner air and less greenhouse gas emissions.
• Social Connectivity.  Pedestrian activity and local gathering places help build social cohesion and eyes on the street help people feel safer in their communities.
• Market Forces.  Recent surveys indicate that a majority of Americans want to live in walkable neighborhoods served by good transit. Those numbers are significantly stronger for younger Americans and those who plan to move in the future, a strong representation of the future real estate market.
• Stronger Retail.  A local customer base is good for local businesses.

At a basic level, the 10 Minute Neighborhood analysis allows the City to measure how walkable the City is today given current land use and accessibility. From a planning perspective, the City also considers the tool as decisions are made about growth and density. Options to improve 10 minute neighborhoods include creating more destinations, creating better access, and/or concentrating anticipated growth within 10 minute neighborhoods (rather than in less walkable areas).

The analysis also helps the City prioritize transportation investment. Creating new destinations can be expensive or impossible, so providing new or improved access to existing destinations is a more practical approach to expanding 10 minute neighborhoods.

As part of the 2015 Parks, Recreation & Open Space (PROS) Plan, the City evaluated where there are gaps in parklands based on walking accessibility and can use that analysis to prioritize park acquisition.

A walkable neighborhood has two primary features – lots of places to walk to, and a way to get to those places on foot. For the analysis, this is mapped in term of two primary inputs:

• Destinations such as grocery stores, convenience retail, clusters of eating & drinking & other specialty retail, schools, and parks.
• Accessibility including elements such as the amount and connectivity of sidewalks along with the location and quality of transit.

Attributes that are based on a specific location were mapped and actual walk distances measured. This is a marked improvement over past efforts that simply used buffers (as the crow flies) and could not account for whether or not a connection exists. For detailed information on how the analysis is conducted, review the Technical Appendix.