Walkability

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In urban design, walkability is the measure of the overall walking conditions in an area.[1] 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".[2] 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.[3] Major infrastructural factors include access to mass transit, presence and quality walkwayss, 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 [1][4] and wind conditions.

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[edit] Walkability indices

Technological advances such as data mashups have led to the first large-scale, public-access walkability index, 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."[5] 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.[6]

The New Zealand government agency for Land based Transport, Transport New Zealand, has commissioned research and developed it's own methodology and tools for assessing walkability[7]. 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."[8] 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.

[edit] Benefits of walkability

Walkability indices have been found to correlate with both Body mass index and physical activity of local populations.[3][9] 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.[10]

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.[11]

[edit] Community planning

Many communities have embraced pedestrian mobility as an alternative to older building practices that favor automobiles. Reasons for this shift include a recognition that dependency on automobiles is ecologically unsustainable, automobile-oriented environments engender dangerous conditions to both motorists and pedestrians and are generally bereft of aesthetics.[12] Auto-focused designs also diminish walking and needed "eyes on the street" 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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Online TDM Encyclopedia chapter on pedestrian improvements
  2. ^ Abley, Stephen. "Walkability Scoping Paper" 21 March 2005. Retrieved 4/21/08
  3. ^ a b Frank, et al. "Many Pathways from Land Use to Health" (PDF), Journal of the American Planning Association, Winter 2006, p. 77. 
  4. ^ Ramirez, et al. "Indicators of Activity-Friendly Communities: An Evidence-Based Consensus Process", American Journal of Preventive Medicine, December 2006, pp. 515-24. 
  5. ^ "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View." Hom, Kathleen.Washington Post. 7 August 2007. Retrieved 4/4/08
  6. ^ "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View." Hom, Kathleen.Washington Post. 7 August 2007. Retrieved 4/4/08
  7. ^ "Pedestrian Planning Design Guide" Accessed 10/6/08
  8. ^ "levelofservice.com Homepage." Retrieved 4/21/08
  9. ^ Frank, et al. "Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form: Findings from SMARTRAQ", American Journal of Preventive Medicine, February 2005, pp. 117-25. 
  10. ^ Lopez, Russel P. and H. Patricia Hynes. "Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs", Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, 2006. doi:10.1186/1476-069X-5-25. 
  11. ^ Litman, Todd Alexander. "Economic Value of Walkability" (PDF), Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2004-10-12. 
  12. ^ Bregman, Michael E.. "Pedestrian Safety".  from Home Security Guru

[edit] See also

[edit] External Links

[[Category:Urban studies and planning terminology]