Intelligent Cities

The National Building Museum has a new project underway called "Intelligent Cities".  They're collaborating with TIME, IBM, and The Rockefeller Foundation to study the evolving way people make decisions on the kind of place they locate and how they choose their home.  They embark on this study in the context of the "intersection of information technology and urban design".

The surveys they conduct play a crucial role in completing this study.  Their first survey, which anyone can and is encouraged to take, has to do with choosing a place to live.  One of the options is "[I] can walk or bike to stuff I like to do."  Of course, this was one of the criterion that was important to me when I located in downtown Silver Spring.

When I completed the survey, I was shocked to see that this was the most chosen response among participants.

"[I] can walk or bike to stuff I like to do" got more votes than "near my job", "good school district", and "money" - traditional reasons on which people are thought to base this major decision.  Of course, I suspect the average age of poll participants skews younger, but I think the results are still pretty legit.  Not only was "[I] can walk or bike to stuff..." the top choice to the question in the past tense ("what were your reasons at the time you chose?"), it was also the top choice in the present tense ("if you were choosing now, what would your top two reasons be?").

"[I] can walk or bike to stuff..." was the only choice to get more votes in the present tense - every other criterion got less votes when the question shifted from the past to the present.  I interpret this to mean that while some people may not have prioritized walkable/bikeable proximity to their favorite destinations the first time around, they now see it as a more compelling priority to weigh the next time they make a move.  Or, they were surprised by the convenience of walk/bike-ability and will weigh it heavily in the future.  I believe the results of the third question support my theory.

Of the participants whose priorities did change, "[I] want to be able to walk / bike to restaurants and retail" was the top vote getter.  I believe the results of the survey indicate what we already know:  that people's preferences for where they live are changing and that those same people with changing preferences are getting out of their cars and using different methods to get to where they want to go.  And if they locate in close proximity to where their destinations are (read: if they can live, work, and play in the same place), it makes leaving the car behind much much easier.

If you'd like to take the survey or read more about the Intelligent Cities project, you can do so here.