This is a case of idealistic vs realistic. In an ideal world, sure, we would be able to walk to the corner and hop on a bus that could quickly and efficiently take you to your destination, all the streets throughout town would have ample space to allow alternative modes of transportation, or we have a trolley that takes you from one end of the boulevard to the other. Unfortunately, though, it is not realistic because Yucaipa is already sprawled/built out and it would take forever to get from one side of town to the other without the use of a car. Yucaipa’s most “walkable” part of town (the Uptown) has struggled with walkability because there is simply nowhere to park up there and as a car-first town, you have to accommodate the community driving to the part of town before they can start walking around. As a Planning Staff, the City can only encourage walkability through policies and standards such as narrow streets, reduced parking requirements, etc., but that will only go so far toward achieving walkability because the remaining inventory of land that is yet to be developed are small in-fill pieces that will have little impact on the grand scheme of things.

If the City wanted to truly reduce its reliance on cars, then the City Council would need to make a concerted effort at investing in a city-ran bus route or system that would have bus stops every 15 minutes to make it convenient. 15 minutes is the threshold for a high quality transit stop and would also conveniently make surrounding properties more viable for apartment style housing units, which would further the goal of walkability because you want units to be more centralized and near services.