Duluth Seeks to Improve Walkability

Six Person Duluth Team to Attend Walkability Institute in Georgia

DULUTH, Minn. – A team from Duluth is going to Georgia to come up with a plan to make Duluth more walkable.

Duluth was one of ten cities from across the country picked to take part in next week’s Walkability Action Institute in Georgia.

As the team prepares for their trip, they say walkability is more than just having sidewalks.

“It’s an experience. It means that it’s comfortable, you feel safe, it’s pleasant,” says Shawna Mullen from Zeitgeist Center for Arts and Community, who will be attending the institute.

For a lot of people in Duluth, walking is their only option for transportation.

“When it comes to walking from your house to school, or it comes to walking from your house to where you work, or even from the grocery store to where you live, that’s not always a connection that’s possible,” says Russel Habermann, a planner with the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, who will be attending the conference.

So, according to them, walkability must be a priority.

“Walking is sometimes viewed as not the cool thing to do but, in reality, it’s an essential thing to do,” says Habermann.

At the institute, the Duluth team will come up with an action plan.

“Regardless of geography, there are people who need to walk to get around so it doesn’t matter if we have a hill or if we’re twenty miles long, people need to walk,” says Mullen.

They hope to implement the plan next year and make Duluth a lot friendlier for walkers.

“Just like fish swim and birds fly, people walk,” says Habermann.

The team says improving where people can get to on foot can build connections across the community.