Dozens of amenities and services are within a 1 km walk. But the neighbourhood is unwalkable. Treacherous, literally deadly

Statistics Canada’s Proximity Measures Database identifies the north western tip of Nanaimo as an “amenity dense neighbourhood,” with access to a grocery store, pharmacy, health care facility, child care facility, primary school, library, public transit stop within a 1 km walk.

The data are not wrong. There is a great wealth of amenities and services in this area but it is 100% unwalkable. It’s treacherous, literally deadly. Several people killed on these highways and high-speed arterials in recent memory. (Weekend Nanaimo pedestrian carnage and victim blaming #VisionZero)

In this neighbourhood, kids old enough to go off to a movie by themselves aren’t walking or biking the 1 km, they’re being driven by their parents. A total urban design failure.

.@NanaimoRCMP have closed the southbound lanes of the Island Hwy. in front of Woodgrove Centre after a pedestrian died in an accident.

There's no timeline in place for the road to reopen. https://t.co/GNP2ycr7tb

— NanaimoNewsNOW.com (@NanaimoNewsNOW) December 12, 2020

How is it possible a City with the opportunity to incorporate these essential daily-needs elements into its urban design could blow this so badly?

These two images are the area identified by the Proximity Measures Database as amenity dense and the outlines of the Census Dissemination Areas they're within.

The residential population (2016 Census) of these dissemination areas is 1,763 in 939 households. Total land area of 1.72 sq km, density of 1,000/km².

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