![]() ![]() For instance, in a review of the recent literature, Reid Ewing & Robert Cervero considered the relative importance of what they call the 3Ds – density, diversity (mixture of land use), and design – on the fraction of trips that people make by car or by alternate modes of transportation. Researchers then gather data on the length and number of walking trips made by people in the area, often by using surveys, in hopes of finding correlations between walking and some features of the environment.īy now, a growing number of studies have suggested that many of the large-scale, neighborhood-level variables do have a clear impact on the number of walking trips. In many cases, these factors are initially separated into those that can be measured from maps or databases – things like block length and population density – and those small scale properties of the environment whose measurement requires observers to actually visit a street – such as the number of benches and the condition of the sidewalk. There are a variety of methods for dealing with this complexity of the real world, but the solution for many researchers working in the area has been to use statistical tools that can tease apart the impact of multiple variables. So how can one determine what makes a place walkable what factors affect whether or not people actually use the street? It seems obvious that this might depend on a combination of things – everything from the speed of traffic to the presence of a grocery store – making it difficult to imagine how to measure the effects of those individual features. Every neighborhood, every street was walkable. ![]() As he explained, “There was a time, of course, in history, when there was no such need to assess walkability. The predominance of suburban sprawl clearly adds to the relevance of this work, a goal of which is to develop a scientific approach to walkability assessment and a set of recommendations for creating more walkable, and thus potentially healthier places.Īccording to Dan Burden, the Director of Walkable Communities and a consultant on walkability, suburbanization and automobile oriented planning have forced us to relearn many of the basic lessons for creating environments intended for people instead of cars. As a result, it’s become common to see assessments of the impact of low density, single-use development on walking and other forms of physical activity. In recent years especially, transportation planners and urban designers working in this area have been joined by many in the field of public health who share an interest in the effects of the built environment on physical activity. But while any pedestrian is intuitively aware that some streets are more walkable than others, there has been a growing interest in providing a more quantitative answer to this apparently simple question. “When it comes to walkability, this is not rocket science,” he said. So what is it that makes a place walkable? Or to put it another way, what are the key features of an environment, whether it’s a street, neighborhood, or entire city, that make it conducive to walking? Common sense is probably a reasonable guide in answering this question, according to Nando Micale, Principal at Wallace Roberts & Todd. As interest in walkability grows, driven in part by rising gas prices and booming downtown populations, Philadelphia is well-positioned both to serve as a model to other cities, and to learn from the lessons of other walkable places. This fits in well with a rapidly expanding body of literature in the fields of planning and public health which is taking a more scientific approach to linking a place’s walkability to quantifiable aspects of its built environment. Though these types of rankings are remarkably good at attracting media attention, it’s not always clear what they mean for the average pedestrian.įortunately, Walk Score is particularly transparent about what its ratings try to capture the availability of nearby businesses and amenities like parks and schools. ![]() Last Thursday, the newest walkability rankings went up on the Walk Score website and as usual, Philadelphia places near the top with a #5 rating, behind San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Chicago. Sometimes it seems like every few months a new list appears claiming to rank America’s best walking cities (see two recent examples here and here). ![]()
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