Hood Guide: Towns | How Walkable Are Our Towns?

Boulder

Boulder Walkability and Improvements:

The Boulder area allows you to easily do some tasks by walking on foot, but you have the option of easily accessible public transport to help you get across town. WalkScore put the Boulder area walking score at 63, and the city holds the title of being a Gold-level Walk Friendly Community. In 2019, the city adopted a new pedestrian plan to create more walkable streets, and the pedestrian network now includes an impressive 500-mile sidewalk and 82 pedestrian underpasses.

The local government of Boulder can improve the area’s walkability by connecting the many paths, parks and roads to help create a more unified walking path for the residents. Creating paths that begin and end at public transport pick-up zones can also help with improvements.

Longmont

Longmont Walkability and Improvements:

Longmont is a large area (3200 acres), making it difficult to walk to every location. You can use a bicycle to get to some places, but due to the city’s layout, access is still very limited, and most errands will require a car.

Walkscore rated Longmont 39 due to its poor walking paths. The city can improve its walkability by building new dedicated walkways and connecting existing routes. The Longmont Council is looking at how they can prioritize pedestrian safety downtown due to the increased traffic on the roads, but hurdles like funding and getting permission from the Colorado Department of Transportation need to be jumped.

Erie

Erie is stuck between other cities and towns, with weird borders that do not allow residents to walk to different areas of Erie easily. This has led to the town’s dismal score of 13 on WalkScore. In the early days, Erie was surprisingly a walkable town, but an urban renewal project in the 1960s and 1970s created an urban sprawl of highways for better traffic flow that unfortunately did not translate into better foot traffic flow.

Native Erie resident Tom Weber remarks on the changes, telling Strong Towns, “We were a compact, walkable city once, before the Federal Bulldozer came to town.”

Erie requires almost all errands to use a vehicle as everything is so far apart or split into weird sections between other towns and cities. While the area is flat, which helps with walking, without dedicated walking paths that cross roads safely, Erie is not great for walking.

Lafayette

Lafayette is reasonably walkable if you’re in the right part of town, and public transport helps increase residents’ ability to walk everywhere. A drawback of the city is the large sprawl and distances between places. This makes it a long walk to get to places in the city.

While Walkscore gives Lafayette a decent score of 42, you will still require a car to do most daily errands because of the size of the area. For example, of the 200 miles of roads, only 120 miles are sidewalks. Luckily, the city of West Lafayette has started some different projects to make the town more walkable by creating long sidewalks and updating trail maps.

Louisville

Louisville is quite walkable if you stay in nearby neighborhoods, and as it is a relatively low-crime area, pedestrians are safe. With the lack of public transport in some areas, most residents use the multiple bike lanes or their cars for daily commuting or errands they need to do.

The walk score from Walkscore is only a 42, meaning you can walk to some places nearby, but due to the size of the area (2000 acres) and the lack of public transport, you will not have a great time doing it unless you’re a long-distance athlete!

Superior

Superior is not a large area, only 600 acres, and is quite flat, meaning you can easily walk to many places in town. However, a vehicle may still be required to go to some areas in town due to a lack of walking infrastructure, such as sidewalks, but this is set to hopefully improve with part of the ongoing downtown development.

Superior has a walkability score of 50 on Walkscore, meaning you can get to some places on foot, but using a vehicle is also a great option for getting around town.

Broomfield

Broomfield is not an easily walkable area due to its large size (8607 acres), lack of public transport, and lack of layout in the city. This city is car-dependent as the road network splits up many neighborhoods. The lack of public transport doesn’t help either.

Even though the city is flat due to its location in Colorado and the many parks, there are very few dedicated walking paths. That is why Walkscore gave Broomfield a score of only 33 and public transport a terrible score of 10.

The city has created a project to improve the pedestrian environment with safer walking and biking connections to Emerald Elementary School. The project has yet to start, with contracts to be executed in January 2025.

North Westminster

North Westminster is a large and spread-out city with a walking score of 24, meaning you may need to walk a long distance to get anywhere you want to go. The city also has few public transport facilities, which doesn’t help its walkability.

As the area is designed around moving cars through it, there are very few dedicated walkways, but that is by design due to the town’s size. Almost all errands in the town require a car. Currently, the city is working hard to improve pedestrian conditions, such as the Safe Routes to School (SRTS).

North Thornton

North Thorton’s town layout allows many residents to do some errands by just walking to where they need to, but for longer distances, they need to use a personal car as public transport is lacking in the area.

North Thoorton can improve its walkability by creating dedicated lanes that connect the neighborhoods, but the distances for some errands may require transport.

Lyons

With a score of 63 on the Walkscore, many different tasks, such as shopping and going to work, can be done on foot.

This is due to the small size of Lyon and the flat area in which the town is situated and that improving pedestrian safety is a priority for the city via the Safe Streets For All project.

Niwot

Niwot is a small town that has many of its main errands in one location, making it easy to get everything you need and want from one location. However, some places may require a vehicle as they are a little farther out, such as the tennis court and baseball field.