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What is a walkable place? The walkability debate in urban design

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Abstract

What exactly is meant by the term ‘walkability’? In professional, research and public debates the term is used to refer to several quite different kinds of phenomena. Some discussions focus on environmental features or means of making walkable environments, including areas being traversable, compact, physically enticing and safe. Others deal with outcomes potentially fostered by such environments, such as making places lively, enhancing sustainable transportation options and inducing exercise. Finally some use the term walkability as a proxy for better design whether composed of multiple, measurable dimensions or providing a holistic solution to urban problems. This review both problematizes the idea of walkability and proposes a conceptual framework distinguishing these definitions. This matters for urban design, because what is considered a walkable place varies substantially between definitions leading to substantially different designs. By mapping the range of definitions, this review highlights potential conflicts been forms of walkability.

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Notes

  1. This lack of clarity is of course not only a problem with the term walkability. Other reviews have found similar problems with the terms ‘community’, ‘culture’, and ‘neighborhood’ in sociology and ‘suburbs’ within urban studies (Hillery, 1955; Williams, 1976; Chaskin, 1997; Forsyth, 2012).

  2. Alfonzo (2005), in one of the more sophisticated approaches to walking, proposes a hierarchy of transport and recreational walking needs mainly related to environmental and social features. The first level is feasibility, which is more personal; the second is accessibility (which includes the first two themes in this paper among other factors). The other needs are safety, comfort and pleasurability dealt with in later themes. See Mehta (2008) for a revision of this hierarchy.

  3. Southworth’s six dimensions of a walkable environment include path connectivity, ‘links to other modes, safety, path quality, and path context’ (2005, p. 249).

  4. Bauman et al (2012), in a review of reviews, of a related question, found that results are inconclusive as to whether more walking is done in places where with a positive social environment. Of course this is different to the idea that walkable places produce other health benefits like social connections.

  5. However, many measures of walkability have been tested for reliability, particularly those used in health research (Brownson et al, 2009; Charlier Associates et al, 2012; Active Living Research, 2013; National Cancer Institute, 2013; National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research).

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Urban Design International editors and several anonymous reviewers for comments on this piece.

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    Ann Forsyth

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Appendix

Appendix

Table A1 provides some examples of kinds of measurement tools used to either provide data for such multidimensional classifications or to create indices, highlighting whether such tools are likely to be used by researchers, practitioners or the public. The number of such tools is enormous, making it impossible to be comprehensive (Brownson et al, 2009; National Cancer Institute, 2013; National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research, 2013). It should be noted that those items at the top of the table measure walkability and not walking. Relatively few walkability measures have been tested to see if they actually predict walking (Cerin et al, 2006; Rosenberg et al, 2009; Boarnet et al, 2011; Zook et al, 2012).Footnote 5

Table A1 Domains of measurement tools for walkability and walking
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Table A1

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Forsyth, A. What is a walkable place? The walkability debate in urban design. Urban Des Int 20, 274–292 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2015.22

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