Walkability

Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian rights-of-way, traffic and road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, and safety, among others. Walkability is an important concept in sustainable urban design.

One proposed definition for walkability is: "The extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area". Factors affecting walkability include, but are not limited to:

Major infrastructural factors include access to mass transit, presence and quality of footpaths, buffers to moving traffic (planter strips, on-street parking or bike lanes) and pedestrian crossings, aesthetics, nearby local destinations, air quality, shade or sun in appropriate seasons, street furniture, traffic volume and speed. and wind conditions.

Walkability is also examined based on the surrounding built environment. Reid Ewing and Robert Cervero's five D's of the built environment, density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit, heavily influence an area's walkability. Combinations of these factors influence an individual's decision to walk.

Before cars and bicycles were mass-produced, walking was the main form of transportation. Walking was the only way to get from place to place for much of human history. In the 1930s, economic growth led to increased automobile manufacturing. Cars were also becoming more affordable, leading to the rise of the automobile during World War II. Recently, the detrimental effects of automobile emissions have led to public concern over pollution. Environmentally friendly alternatives, like improved public transportation and walking infrastructure, have become more serious elements that planners and policymakers are paying attention to.

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Wikipedia