Walkability

In urban design, walkability is the measure of the overall walking conditions in an area. [http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm92.htm Online TDM Encyclopedia chapter on pedestrian improvements] ] The definition for walkability is: "The extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area". [Abley, Stephen. [http://www.levelofservice.com/walkability-research.pdf "Walkability Scoping Paper"] 21 March 2005. Retrieved 4/21/08] Factors affecting walkability include, but are not limited to: land use mix; street connectivity; residential density (residential units per area of residential use); "transparency" which includes amount of glass in windows and doors, as well as orientation and proximity of homes and buildings to watch over the street; plenty of places to go to near the majority of homes; placemaking, street designs that work for people, not just cars and retail floor area ratio.cite news|url=http://www.planning.org/japa/pdf/JAPAFrank06.pdf|title=Many Pathways from Land Use to Health|author=Frank, et al|publisher=Journal of the American Planning Association|date=Winter 2006|page=77|format=PDF] Major infrastructural factors include access to mass transit, presence and quality walkways, buffers to moving traffic (planter strips, on-street parking or bike lanes) and pedestrian crossings, aesthetics, nearby local destinations, air quality, shade or sun in appropriate seasons, street furniture, traffic volume and speed. . [cite news|url=http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/PIIS0749379706003059/fulltext|title=Indicators of Activity-Friendly Communities: An Evidence-Based Consensus Process|publisher=American Journal of Preventive Medicine|author=Ramirez, et al|date=December 2006|pages=515-24] and wind conditions. One of the best ways to quickly determine how walkable a block, corridor or neighborhood is is to count the number of people walking, lingering and enjoying a space. The diversity of people, and especially the presence of children, seniors and people with disabilities, denotes the quality, competeness and wholesomeness of a walkable space.

Walkability indices

Technological advances such as data mashups have led to the first large-scale, public-access walkability index, walkscore.com. [ [http://www.walkscore.com walkscore.com] ] "When you enter an address at walkscore.com," according to the "Washington Post", "a Google map appears, studded with blue icons representing nearby restaurants, stores, schools and parks. A list at the left identifies the mapped destinations and their distance from your starting point." [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080301711.html "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View." Hom, Kathleen."Washington Post." 7 August 2007.] Retrieved 4/4/08] In addition to the map, the website provides a "walk score," or walkability index, between 0 and 100. Scores above 90 indicate excellent walkability, whereas isolated addresses with no destination in walking range receive scores 25 and lower. At present, the index represents chiefly U.S. locations, but is developing global capability. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080301711.html "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View." Hom, Kathleen."Washington Post." 7 August 2007.] Retrieved 4/4/08]

The New Zealand government agency for Land based Transport, Transport New Zealand, has commissioned research and developed its own methodology and tools for assessing walkability. [ [http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/road-user-safety/walking-and-cycling/pedestrian-planning-design-guide/docs/chapter-1.pdf "Pedestrian Planning Design Guide"] Accessed 10/6/08] The method is based on the concept of level of service, which is commonly used by transport planners. The walkability tools that have been developed in New Zealand store information collected during a community street review and produce level of service values for a study area usually consisting of a series of road path lengths and road crossings within a small area. According to the website levelofservice.com, "A Community Street Review is a new survey technique where a Community Street Audit is combined with a numerical rating system." [ [http://www.levelofservice.com/ "levelofservice.com Homepage."] Retrieved 4/21/08] The website also provides a simplified level of service calculator for anyone to undertake a community street review and produce level of service calculations from it.

Benefits of walkability

Walkability indices have been found to correlate with both Body mass index and physical activity of local populations. [cite news|title=Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form: Findings from SMARTRAQ|author=Frank, et al|url=http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/PIIS0749379704003253/fulltext|publisher=American Journal of Preventive Medicine|date=February 2005|pages=117-25] Due to discrepancies between residents' health in inner city neighborhoods and suburban neighborhoods with similar walkability measures, it has been suggested that further research is needed to find additional built environment factors to be included in walkability indices. [cite news|url=http://www.ehjournal.net/content/5/1/25|title=Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs|author=Lopez, Russel P. and H. Patricia Hynes|publisher=Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source|date=2006|id=doi|10.1186/1476-069X-5-25]

Increased walkability has proven to have many other individual and community health benefits, such as opportunities for increased social interaction, an increase in the average number of friends and associates where people live, reduced crime (with more people walking and watching over neighborhoods, open space and main streets), increased sense of pride, and increased volunteerism. High walkability has also been found to have economic benefits. [cite news|last=Litman|first=Todd Alexander|url=http://www.vtpi.org/walkability.pdf|title=Economic Value of Walkability|format=PDF|date=2004-10-12|publisher=Victoria Transport Policy Institute]

Community planning

Many communities have embraced pedestrian mobility as an alternative to older building practices that favor automobiles. Reasons for this shift include a belief that dependency on automobiles is ecologically unsustainable, automobile-oriented environments engender dangerous conditions to both motorists and pedestrians and are generally bereft of aesthetics.Fact|date=September 2008Auto-focused designs also diminish walking and needed "eyes on the street" [Jacobs, Jane (1961) "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", p. 35] provided by the steady presence of people in an area. Reduced walking also reduces social interaction, mixing of populations and pride in streets and other civic space.

References

See also

*Bicycle-friendly
*Fused Grid
*New Pedestrianism
*
*New Urbanism
*Pedestrian Village
*Permeability (spatial and transport planning)

External links

* [http://www.walkscore.com/ Walkscore.com, an online walkability index.]
* [http://www.levelofservice.com/ levelofservice.com, Walkability tools research and walking level of service calculator.]
* [http://www.newpedestrianism.com/ New Pedestrianism]
* [http://www.newurbancowboy.com/ Film about walkable communities.]