http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/now-coveted-a-walkable-convenient-place.xml

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/05/25-walkable-places-leinberger  Contains link to full article. 

Articles highlight how residential real estate values increase over time, when an area becomes/is walkabe to shops, services and near cycling infrastructure.  I would tend to agree based on having lived in Toronto and Vancouver, knowing the pricing of various areas.

Calgary's mind set is interesting...I was stunned when real estate agents didn't understand that I didn't have a car...even though I was looking at the places in downtown WITH bike storage and near the LRT..ie within a 15 min. walk.

Just mind-bogglingly wierd...to me.

At work, I know some colleagues think I'm strange I still don't know Calgary well from the road network perspective. My response:  Please, I think I'm seeing the best natural parts of Calgary from the bike route perspective where I'm down in the valley cycling along the pathways part of the time.  Don't convince me otherwise for a prairie city that has far less trees, than cities in Ontario and coastal British Columbia.