Setback regulations often require that all buildings be a certain amount of feet (usually about 25-50 feet from the street).  As a result of these zoning rules, all destinations outside the most urban areas have to place either parking or useless green spaces between the street and a store, office building or residence.

 

I argue that these regulations make walking more difficult, for four reasons.  First, pedestrians have to waste time walking through these empty spaces.  Second, walking through a sea of parking is simply no fun.  Pedestrians tend to enjoy shade and a sense of enclosure, so they tend to feel isolated when walking through these empty spaces. Third, setbacks mean that pedestrians have to dodge cars on their way to their destinations, which creates some risk of injury. First, setbacks artificially reduce density (and thus walkability) by reducing the amount of land available for housing and jobs.