Policy and planning for walkability

Abstract

There is a global trend to advocate for walking and more pedestrian-friendly places (European Commission, 2013; UNHabitat, 2014; WHO, 2018). This widespread policy agenda can be attributed to decades of multidisciplinary research and planning exercises showing the positive impacts of more walkable places and people walking (Berg et al., 2017; Mackenbach et al., 2014). To illustrate these findings, the report ‘‘Cities alive: Towards a Walking World” (ARUP, 2016) lists 50 benefits categorized in social, economic, environmental, and political sectors (Fig. 1). Pedestrians travel on foot to reach specific destinations, engage in cultural and socio-economic activities, walk and use public spaces for physical or restorative exercises, with the possibility of combining different purposes in the same walk. The positive impacts, together with the ubiquity of walking and the disparity of their purpose, have drawn the attention of a wide variety of policy makers who increasingly see walkability as a key factor to address current challenges in the areas of public health, urban and transport planning, economic and social development, environmental sustainability, and cultural enrichment. This surge of interest came after a steady decline in walking activity in western societies in the 1970s, mainly attributed to suburban sprawl and the creation of car-oriented urban landscapes. Such developments along with an increasing sedentary lifestyle and diet changes, were directly related to new crisis, such as the obesity pandemic, traffic-related high mortality, lack of social cohesion, and environmental deterioration (Marshall et al., 2009). In the search for solutions, researchers, practitioners, and advocates focused on the alleged benefits of walkable places and active walking communities.