Becoming the Most Walkable City in the Pacific Northwest Using Smart Data

In 2012, the City of Tigard recognized that it was lacking walkable, livable neighborhoods and made an ambitious and bold announcement that it aimed to become the most walkable city in the Pacific Northwest.

The city understood its built environment challenges with auto-centric street designs including: strip-mall lined 6-lane arterials; power centers surrounded by a sea of asphalt; pedestrian no-man lands; and cookie-cutter single-family home subdivisions. With this challenge in mind, the city was struggling with what/where to prioritize, how best to allocate their limited resources/budgets, and how to convince the many stakeholders involved in the planning and development process the best way forward.

The City approached State of Place to tackle their challenge by using data and analytics to help realize their vision to become the most walkable city in the Pacific Northwest.

In partnership with Portland State University, State of Place analysed the Tigard Triangle, a triangle-shaped area located in the northwestern part of the city that primarily contained large-scale commercial uses and was one of the least pedestrian-friendly areas in the City. Over a period of four months, the City used the entire State of Place suite of analyses: 1) State of Place Index/Profile (quantified place quality of existing conditions), 2) Prioritization (set evidence-based urban design priorities), 3) Scenario Analysis (modeled future development scenarios SimCity-style), and 4) Financial Forecast (maximized project budgets to achieve the biggest bang for the buck).

Using State of Place, the City crafted an evidence-based, strategic framework by which to systematically achieve their long-range planning goals. Additionally, the City used State of Place’s data-driven justification to help them convince residents, developers, commercial property owners and other redevelopment area stakeholders why they were pursuing this ambitious goal. Not only did the City use State of Place to enhance walkability for the public good, it also enabled them to maximize their budgets efficiently and ensure resilience in the face of changing demographics and preferences.