A Walking-Friendly Environment?: How to Measure It

Introduction

In the last decade, there has been a significant paradigm shift in the area of urban planning and urban mobility from car-oriented towards pedestrian- or people-oriented urban design. In the last half of the twenty century cities were planned and design around motorized vehicular modes of mobility, with cars dominating many urban landscapes. Automobility as a trend, particularly in the period after World War II, as pointed out by Jamei et al. (2021), was promoted by a rapid population growth, and increasing urbanisation rates. In addition, necessity of a car in people’s daily lives and a consequential “car-oriented” urban design was accelerated by the process of urban sprawl, that is, decentralization of urban services and housing at the edge of cities. On the other hand, urban planners and decision-makers disregarded the importance of sustainable and active modes of urban transportation (Hynes, 2022). The pervasive usage of private cars has many obvious negative impacts on the environmental, social and economic levels for the society (Dobesova & Krivka, 2012); it contributes to urban traffic congestion, noise and air pollution; consumes disproportionate amounts of scarce public space (Gehl, 2010), that could have otherwise been allocated to pedestrians and public activities, and requires high investments in infrastructure for motorised vehicles. It also leads to “a disconnection in and between local communities and an increase in urban decay” (Kay 1998, in Hynes, 2022). The most profound negative consequences of such persistent automotive use are related to reduction of physical activity in general, and walking in particular. With the proliferation and globalisation of car-oriented urban design, many cities around the world have experienced a significant decrease in walking activities of their citizens. Recent developments and practices, however, show that urban planners and local governments throughout the world make active efforts to reverse such trends, drawing on the literature that widely acknowledges the benefits of low-intensity physical activity, such as walking. Walking not only has a direct positive effect on people’s health and welfare, but also, indirectly, through the external effects, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, noise, traffic congestion, etc. On a personal level, as pointed out by Hollenstein & Bleisch (2016), walking contributes to longevity and good health. Additionally, as pointed out by Singh (2016), walking may increase “individual peace of mind, community trust and decrease crime rates by supporting face-to-face contacts and community networks”. According to Liu et al. (2022), people who make 9994.3 and more steps per day have a 75% lower risk of all-cause death than those who walk less than 1895 steps per day. On a societal level, walkability contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution. In addition, walking improves social equity by benefiting low-income residents who depend on this type of urban mobility for their daily trips (Jamei et al., 2021). A great share of people, particularly in densely populated and underdeveloped countries and cities, still depend on walking and cycling. Across African cities, for instance, 50% of daily trips are made on foot (Wood, 2022). As pointed out by Kang (2018), walking is “the most democratic method of mobility”, as it allows access to essential services and, consequently, greater equality in the use of these services. Among other benefits related to promoting active modes of urban mobility such as walking and cycling, Pérez et al. (2017) point to significant economic benefits resulting from the prevented deaths due to changes in the amount of walking and cycling in the case of Barcelona. Namely, by employing the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT), they demonstrate that changes in transport policies in Barcelona introduced to increase pedestrian-friendly areas, and to reduce car usage have contributed to health and environment wellbeing, while not increasing the number of pedestrian nor cyclist traffic injuries.