What is Walkability

Some of you may think of “walkable” neighborhoods as somewhere you would like to walk. Certainly there may be environments which encourage leisure time walking. The “walkability” concept employed in the IPEN project methodology is different from this as it comes from the transportation and urban planning fields and is concerned with environments that encourage you to walk or bike for transportation. “Walkable” neighborhoods in this context are those where you can walk or bike directly to multiple destinations. Hence two important factors in the “walkability index”, used to select neighborhoods for study, are street connectivity and mixed land use: schools, homes, offices and shops are all within easy reach of each other.

The photos below illustrate this point. Photo A may be what you think of as a walkable neighborhood, with sidewalks and greenery. But in transportation terms it is less walkable as there is no where to walk or bike to, it is isolated and disconnected. Photo B is a more walkable neighborhood as there are many roads leading to many different destinations.

Low Walkability	High Walkability
Isolated and disconnected	More places within easy walking distance

Direct route, multipal route options	Longer route, only one route option
Illustration: Frank, L.D. "Health & Community Design"	Greenwald, M.J. Transportation Research Record 2001

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