Mayor Woodfin wants to build a more walkable Birmingham; Here's how...

Making the Magic City more walkable will require thinking differently about transportation and land use while ignoring disingenuous critics Daniel Christiansen January 16, 2026

In his recent article launching Birmingham’s multi-modal transportation plan, Mayor Woodfin outlined his reasons for supporting a more walkable, more bikeable, more transit served Birmingham. He touches on many important factors, from health to both resident’s and the city’s pocketbook, all of which rings true. While al.com and others’ headlines focused on the dream of High Speed Rail, it’s more important to talk about what it will actually take to make Birmingham a truly walkable city.

Jeff Speck, author of one of the definitive guides to walkable cities, and occasionally consulted by the University of Alabama, city of Mobile, and leader of the Harvard Walkable Cities Workshop that city leaders attended last year, gives ten keys to walkability:

1. Put cars in their place - Our city has been prioritizing high-speed movement of cars, not people, for decades to the detriment of every other mode of transportation as well as the livability of the city. From removing the streetcars to devastating neighborhoods like Smithfield for interstates to turning downtown streets into one-ways the size of highways, it’s been taken for granted that progress comes from faster vehicles, but its clear that making a place great for cars makes it terrible for people, even other people in cars (who among us actually enjoys 280?). Many of Birmingham’s favorite places and events - ArtWalk, Greek Fest, Railroad Park - are made possible by excluding private vehicles. The Safe Streets project in Eastlake, now bearing more permanent fruit, is a good illustration of what the city can do to roll back the damage. Now is the time to make people the priority by making driving just one option of many.

2. Mix the uses - The biggest challenge to walkability is often “walk to what?” Over a century of Euclidean zoning has divided the city into areas for specific uses - the residential sections, the commercial sections, the industrial sections - which keep people separated from the places they want or need to visit. If there is nowhere zoned for a daycare near your home, you’re not going to walk the kids to daycare, and if there is nowhere nearby zoned for a pub or bar - DUIs. Birmingham has been doing a good job incorporating housing into commercial areas in this recent rezoning, but will need to enhance the appeal of those areas if we want more people to move in (see above). At the same time, I’ve also written about how we can let residential neighborhoods bring back the neighborhood cornerstores and coffee shops of yesteryear.

3. Get the parking right - Free parking isn’t free and despite what many believe and routinely say, Birmingham has no shortage of parking, even downtown. Every parking lot is a dead space in the fabric of a neighborhood, making walks longer and less interesting, while on-street parking doesn’t compensate neighborhood residents for the additional traffic that it encourages. Fortunately Birmingham repealed minimum parking requirements a while back, a win for both affordability and walkability, but there is still work to be done to mitigate the impacts of overbuilding parking and prioritizing vehicle storage over housing and livability.

4. Let transit work - While walking is great on it’s own, transit is the walking’s great multiplier, taking a pedestrians from place to place far more quickly than they would manage on their own. But in order to do that, transit needs to function well, with regular, reliable, prioritized services that take people to and from places that they can easily walk. Birmingham is slightly hobbled in implementing this due to BJCTA not being city controlled, but lots of work can be done on our roads to facilitate prioritizing and streamlining the bus system.

5. Protect the pedestrian - Everyone is, at some point in their travels, a pedestrian. Prioritizing pedestrian safety, through road design, access limitations, or even hard barriers, makes for a more comfortable pedestrian experience and one people will willingly repeat. Wide, safe, maintained, sidewalks with daylighting at intersections and slow, predictable traffic avoids conflicts and encourages walkability.

6. Welcome bikes - Birmingham has been making strides in welcoming biking into the city, you’d probably be a bit surprised how many bikes and ebikes show up outside Publix. But there is still a great way to go, as though many painted bike likes have appeared, only one (Rugby Ave) is actually protected and even our schools lack bike racks. Bikes are great mobility aids for people of all ages, ebikes even moreso, so providing safe, connected methods for traveling on bikes only makes sense.

7. Shape the spaces - There is much written on how urban spaces impact how we feel about those spaces, with more enclosed area with terminating sightlines feeling more comfortable. Given we are in Alabama, encouraging more pedestrian arcades and other shaded areas makes sense to keep the hot summer sun off our backs.

8. Plant trees - Hopefully this is obvious and we love our trees in Birmingham, but more trees and greenery keep the city cooler, more pleasant, and even do hard work to reduce stormwater issues. It’s hard work to properly install and maintain trees in an urban environment, but it’s well worth the effort, and we have great friends at the city and organizations like Cool Green Trees to help make it happen.

9. Make friendly and unique [building] faces - Narrow buildings, shop windows, murals and similar are all more inviting than block-sized buildings or parking lots. Aiming for mixtures of inviting buildings where people walk is important for making the walk worthwhile.

10. Pick your winners - The point of this step is that no city can do absolutely everything, everywhere, all at once, and Birmingham is no exception, if not the poster child for why it’s necessary. At approximately 150 square miles with a city budget of ~$500 million, there is no way to do projects at every corner in every neighborhood. The city is going to have to concentrate its efforts in areas where it will have the greatest impact; that’s just what being a good steward of it’s resident’s tax dollars means. But that doesn’t mean neighborhoods need to stand still while the city is focused elsewhere. We’d be happy to help neighborhood associations and non-profits identify low-cost ways to improve the walkability of their neighborhoods, just reach out (abetterbham@gmail.com)!

All of these are doable, abet on a not insignificant timeline. As I’m sure you noticed there is a lot in there about deprioritizing vehicles, which is going to get push back. Many will say that Birmingham isn’t [Amsterdam; Paris; NYC; Delft; Montreal; Tokyo; London], but those cities weren’t what they are today when they got serious about being (more) walkable cities. People will feel inconvenienced, habits will need to change, and choices will need to be made, but if we stick through it the city we know and love will improve for everyone. Mayor Woodfin is right - Together we can build a Better Birmingham.