Walkability Means What, To Whom?:Difficulties and Challenges in Defining Walkability (original) (raw)
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WHAT DEFINES WALKABILITY: WALKING BEHAVIOR CORRELATES
At one point in time, cities grew as compact and vibrant entities focused on the downtown. In these close-knit environments, residents had the ability to walk or bicycle to destinations due to the fact that they lived in close proximity to where they worked and entertained. However, as development patterns slowly changed, cities began to sprawl outward causing an automobile dominated society that has lead to a number of negative effects, including traffic congestion and increased sedentary lifestyles.
WALKABILITY AS AN URBAN DESIGN PROBLEM
The planning and design of the walkable environment is receiving more and more attention for its various benefits related to public health, sustainability, economy, or social life. Therefore, there is a growing need for knowledge about the walkability of the built environment. While urban planning, design, and transportation research have also examined walking in urban environments, a recently growing field of research usually referred to as walkability research have been actively investigating the relation between the built environment and walking behavior through correlation analysis. Although one must acknowledge the value of current walkability research to be used as the framework which can make significant contributions to urban design research and practice, it also has a few shortcomings in terms of applicability. There is also a problem that the design factors that are often discussed as promoting walking or creating 'pedestrian-friendly environments' in urban design theories and discourses are often based on little evidence and that these factors have been shown to be insignificant in the quantitative analyses on the amount of walking. This project aims to support urban design knowledge and practice and to contribute to the broader field of "walkability" by refining the methods and measures used to analyze the relation between walking behavior and physical environment. Its goal is to integrate knowledge from the medical field of walkability with urban design research and provide new empirical knowledge about the concrete level in which urban design and architectural practice operates.
What kind of built environment favours walking? A systematic review of the walkability indices
2016
Neighbourhood walkability provides important insights if an environment encourages (or discourages) walking. One of the most commonly used approaches to measure neighbourhood walkability is the walkability index. Walkability index is constructed as a composite measure of variables that are considered to influence walking. Typically, these include the characteristics of the built environment, the quality of the walking environment (safety and security) and pedestrian characteristics. However, there is a continued lack of a systematic understanding on the association between built environment variables with walking, which has important implications to effective planning and policymaking. By systematically reviewing publications between year 2000 and 2016, this paper examines the various factors of the built environment associated with walking in developing the walkability index, their combination, and the methods adopted to construct as well as evaluate the index. Results show that th...
Local walkability index: assessing built environment influence on walking
Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series
Walking is a more sustainable transport mode, and governments around the world are trying to deliver highly walkable areas to their people. Due to its importance, walkability has been a research topic in recent years. Vast empirical studies have reported evidence related to the influence of built environment on walking as a major physical activity. Considering the recent literature, this study developed a framework to quantify walkability by applying a set of indicators related to built environment. The indicators were normalised, weighted and integrated into an overall walkability index. The research was conducted on Chaharbagh Street, which is a major and ancient street in the Isfahan metropolitan area, Iran. The proposed framework would be helpful in investigations of whether a specific area is an appropriate option for a car-free plan based on its built environment features. The outcome of the study could be applied to understand issues related to pedestrian infrastructure and t...
Exploring the Relationship Between Health and Walkability
Open House International, 2019
This study aimed to broaden Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by including healthy urban performance attributes of the residential neighbourhoods as an additional predictor for walking behaviour. First, the study reviewed the literature on TPB and walkability in residential environments, and then constructed a TPB model based on walkability to set the hypotheses. The study explored the correlations among walkability attributes and walkability behaviour through a survey conducted with residents in Ankara, Turkey (n= 220). To analyse the data, first confirmatory factor analysis and later, structural equation modelling were used. The findings of the study highlighted two aspects of planning for a walkable neighbourhood: (i) a walkability model based on the three constructs of TPB should not neglect the measured and experienced urban performance; (ii) utilizing pedestrian environment for walking as fully as possible requires a collaborative and an experiential approach as well as a multi-parameter decision-making process.
Walkability in Different Contexts in Neighbourhood Planning: An Overview
2020
Walking has been shown to be a healthy and eco-friendly activity. Over the last decade, the study of different walkable places has increased and has been encouraged because walkability is a unique attribute of each setting. With the Neighbourhood as a primary frame of reference this paper summarises and compares walkability studies that have taken place in different contexts, within different cities and countries. A bibliometric study was done to show the spread of walkability studies in academic literature. Selected studies were then summarised to highlight their theoretical premise, methodology and results. The studies were then compared based on their scales, objective assessment of the environment and assessment of pedestrian perception. The study provides an overview of the approaches and methods that can be taken to assess walkability in different Neighborhoods.
Walkability in Different Contexts in Neighbourhood Planning
Architecture Research, Vol. 10 No. 1, 2020, pp. 27-43., 2020
Walking has been shown to be a healthy and eco-friendly activity. Over the last decade, the study of different walkable places has increased and has been encouraged because walkability is a unique attribute of each setting. With the Neighbourhood as a primary frame of reference this paper summarises and compares walkability studies that have taken place in different contexts, within different cities and countries. A bibliometric study was done to show the spread of walkability studies in academic literature. Selected studies were then summarised to highlight their theoretical premise, methodology and results. The studies were then compared based on their scales, objective assessment of the environment and assessment of pedestrian perception. The study provides an overview of the approaches and methods that can be taken to assess walkability in different Neighborhoods.
BMC public health, 2016
Physical activity is essential for health; walking is the easiest way to incorporate activity into everyday life. Previous studies report positive associations between neighbourhood walkability and walking but most focused on cities in North America and Australasia. Urban form with respect to street connectivity, residential density and land use mix-common components of walkability indices-differs in European cities. The objective of this study was to develop a walkability index for London and test the index using walking data from the Whitehall II Study. A neighbourhood walkability index for London was constructed, comprising factors associated with walking behaviours: residential dwelling density, street connectivity and land use mix. Three models were produced that differed in the land uses included. Neighbourhoods were operationalised at three levels of administrative geography: (i) 21,140 output areas, (ii) 633 wards and (iii) 33 local authorities. A neighbourhood walkability ...
Walkability: Perceived and measured qualities in action
2014
The research into walkability has two common approaches to the variables: one depends on measuring the spatial configuration of street networks and the other depends on operationalizing urban design qualities such as imageability, enclosure, transparency and complexity by measuring the actual physical environment. Environmental perception has often been a subject in research into wayfinding behaviour, but not so much in research into walkability. In this paper, we argue that it is possible to obtain a more accurate walkability forecast by comparing spatial configuration measures with the environmental perceptions of pedestrians to evaluate their effects on pedestrian movement levels. In order to do this comparison, three case areas were selected, all of which are central retail districts in İstanbul, and which have a similar socio-economic user profile, similar public and private transportation links with the city and a similar relationship with the waterfront. All the three case ar...
Journal of Transport & Health
Background: Many studies have used the concept of 'walkability' to assess how conducive a neighbourhood is to physical activity, especially active travel. Studies in the United States and Australia have traditionally used a road-based network system of intersection density to derive a walkability index. However, other studies suggest that analyses based on footpath networks may provide a more robust basis for assessing the walkability of built environments in the European context as they better capture alternative opportunities for physical activity such as parks and greenways. To date, no studies have examined whether a road-or footpathbased network is more closely related to actual physical activity behaviour. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to examine associations between active travel and walkability indices based on both road-and footpath-based intersection density and to establish which measure provided the best fit to the data. Methods: Cross-sectional survey and geographical information system (GIS) data were collected from February 2010-January 2011. A series of crude and fully adjusted zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses examined associations between road-and footpath-based walkability and the average minutes per week of active travel. Results: Model fit indices suggested that the models using road-based walkability provided a marginally better fit. However, regression results indicated similar findings with respect to the effect of road-and footpath-based walkability on active travel. Conclusion: Results suggest that footpath-based indices of walkability are comparable to road-based indices in their associations with active travel and are an alternative model, particularly for assessing environmental change in non-road-based built environment interventions.