Walkable Infrastructure
Table of Contents
Introduction
Accessibility & Safety for Everyone
This page explores "walkable" infrastructure, but this doesn't mean infrastructure only for people who can walk. We're talking about human-focused infrastructure over car and truck-focused infrastructure which has been steadily taking over worldwide. Our goal is to make communities and roadways safe for people who walk or use wheelchairs, ride bikes, skateboard, roller-skate, or push babies in prams. Simply slowing traffic down is a great starting point for safety, but 15 minute communities which push fossil-fuel vehicles outside of downtown and living areas provides cleaner air for everyone too.
Public Transit Connectivity
Public transit is essential for reducing emissions, reducing congestion, reducing crime, and helping people at every economic level access basic needs such as school, medicine, and job opportunities. Public transit suffers when communities aren't walkable, since this prevents those who need public transit the most, from being able to reach their connection points. Public transit also makes walkable spaces more accessible for those who might not live in a specific area.
Benefits of Walkable Infrastructure
Accessibility
Walkable communities are a major step towards creating child-friendly, women-friendly, and elderly friendly spaces.
Disability & Life Changes
As accessibility and disability rights become a more prominent topic, solutions such as improved walkability are coming into sharper focus. When we make our streets safer with disability in mind, we increase the chances that people will be able to continue using these spaces throughout early childhood, past injuries, sickness and pregnancies, and into old age with less interruption to the basic right to move freely within our communities.
As people age and lose the ability to drive, walking around a community helps keep them socially engaged, self reliant, plus both physically and mentally healthier for longer.
Medical Care
A wide range of medical or mental health issues can make access to medical care extremely difficult. Anxiety over driving and parking, epilepsy, bipolar, vision and physical issues can make driving totally unsafe or even impossible. When we have access to public transit, or the options to simply walk or bike ride to an appointment, it can remove the barriers caused by car-centric infrastructure.
Schools
Walkable communities make local schools more accessible both for kids with busy parents and those who might not be able to go to higher education because of the cost of travel to and from school, or complexity of borrowing a vehicle or getting rides from overworked parents and friends.
Work
We all know Work From Home is far better for the environment and for most people's mental health, vs the daily traffic jams to and from work. Lack of transportation however can actually bar perfectly qualified people from well-paying jobs.
Better Public Health
Cleaner Air
Not only is cleaner air better for people with respiratory illness including asthma, but it also reduces risks to other organs including hearts and brains. Less babies are born prematurely where air is cleaner, children have higher IQs and test scores.
Improved Cardiovascular Health
Walking and clean air combine to improve people's cardiovascular health. Walking in poor air conditions can create worse health outcomes, but as people rely more on walking instead of driving, community-wide health and healthcare costs improve.
Economic Benefits
People who aren't wasting a large sum of money on car payments, fuel, parking paces, and maintenance have more money to spend on other things. Customers move much more slowly on foot or by pedal, giving us time to absorb our surroundings and see local businesses that we often miss when driving. We're also more likely to stop for a meal, snack, or drink while walking or using active transportation, to replenish our fluids and calories.
Reduced Crime Rates
When people slow down and aren't separated by car doors, there are "more eyes on the street" which discourages crime. Businesses becomes safer, as do the people traveling.
Walkable Infrastructure
The first step to ensuring your community has safe walking infrastructure is to perform an audit so that the existing features can be assessed, and a plan can be created for which places are in most desperate need of upgrades.
Active Transportation
This can include walking as well as bike riding, wheelchair or pushchair use, skate boarding, roller or inline skating, and human powered scooters. Electric bicycles can help people struggling with health conditions to climb hills or go distances they may not be able to manage on their own. Similarely electric wheelchairs and scooters can help people with mobility challanges to use walkable spaces that might otherwise be too much effort to travel through otherwise.
Greenbelts & Greenways
These green spaces are created for a number of reasons such as protecting wild spaces and farmland against non-stop urban growth, to provide green space that can absorb floodwaters and protect waterways from urban or agricultural pollution. On a biological level, greenways are vital for animals impacted by urban growth, providing food, shelter, and safe passage.
Safe transit routes are one of many benefits greenways and greenbelts provide for communities, but not all are being used to their full potential. Bringing greenways and greenbelts up to code will make them accessible for wheelchair and pushchair users. This can turn them into special places where people can breath clean air, avoid fast-moving vehicles, recuperate from injuries and build up their strength in a soothing environment.
East Coast Greenway | Safe Greenways are Essential
2 minute video explains why greenways are an important part of walkable infrastructure.
Car-Free Living
Not everyone wants to give up ownership of their private vehicle(s) especially those with certain health conditions or need to travel long distances, but it is a dream for a growing number of people, especially younger generations.
Due to car-centric infrastructure and lack of walkability or public transit, many people are forced to buy expensive cars (everything is expensive when you can barely make ends meet) which require expensive insurance, fuel, repairs, and inspections. With rising inflation and living costs, the cost of owning a vehicle is pushing more and more people into harsh decisions about paying rent, bills, food, or maintaining a costly vehicle that will help get them to work, school and/or medical care.
To help the working class, students, and retirees, urban planners need to focus on what changes can be made to make car-free living not only possible for their communities, but actively enjoyable and above all, safe!
Passive Transit
This refers to modes of transportation such as private vehicles, buses, taxis, trams, and trains which don't rely on human power to move. While they are not considered an integral part of walkable spaces, however they are still going to be an inevitable part of travel for people coming to and leaving from these places.
With careful planning, we can reduce the impact of these vehicles on people and the environment, such as using protected bike lanes, bus-only lanes, underground lanes and parking, underground or above ground rail stations, and so on.
Buses & School Buses
Historically buses have belched out dangerous emissions, but as diesel is switched out for electric and hydrogen they are increasingly helping to clean up air in communities around the world.
Buses can pose a big risk to pedestrians and active transport users, as an impact form a bus is much greater than a small car, however bus-only lanes in concert with more walkable infrastructure can help reduce the chance of fatal accidents.
Rails
Rail systems including trains, metro systems, trams, funiculars, and bullet trains can all be incorporated into walkable infrastructure to minimize potential risk to pedestrians or other active transit users. These vehicles are very efficient and continuing to switch to greener energy sources, meaning they have a particularly low impact on air quality.
Walk & Bike to School Program
Zoning Codes & Ordinances
Europe
UK
School Streets Toolkit (PDF in English) "Setting up a School Street is relatively simple and can make a huge difference to encouraging families to walk to school while improving the air quality in the area"
Stryd Ysgol (PDF in Welsh/PDF yn Gymraeg) "Mae sefydlu Stryd Ysgol yn gymharol syml a gall wneud gwahaniaeth enfawr i annog teuluoedd i gerdded i’r ysgol tra’n gwella ansawdd yr aer yn yr ardal."
North America
Canada
Walkability Resource Package Tools for advocates seeking walkable communities "Are you trying to make a case for traffic safety improvements in your community? Proper signage helps. This resource package is designed specifically for community advocacy groups looking to make improvements to active transportation infrastructure."
USA
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) is a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists. PBIC's mission is to improve the quality of life in communities through the increase of safe walking and bicycling as a viable means of transportation and physical activity. To accomplish that mission, the PBIC manages several websites, produces a variety of reports, guides and case studies, and offers training and technical assistance.
Walkscore Walk Score ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 US cities on the basis of walking proximity to daily services and amenities.
10 Minute Walk: Resources "Find and download park resources by category "
Arizona
Walkable Urban (WU) Code "As part of the Reinvent PHX project, a new urban and transit-oriented zoning code, the Walkable Urban (WU) Code, was adopted by City Council on July 1, 2015 (Ordinance G-6047). The Walkable Urban (WU) Code is Chapter 13 of the City of Phoenix Zoning Ordinance. The code regulates development in proximity to light rail stations and is envisioned to replace existing zoning for properties within the Interim Transit-Oriented Zoning Overlay Districts (TOD-1 and 2, Sections 662 & 663 of the Zoning Ordinance).
The WU Code approval by the City Council only created the regulations in the Zoning Ordinance. Properties within the five Reinvent PHX Transit Oriented Districts (Gateway, Eastlake-Garfield, Midtown, Uptown, and Solano) will still need to go through a rezoning process, with extensive public hearings, to establish the WU Code on a specific property."
Massachusetts
WalkMassachusetts: Resources includes videos, maps, example letters, and pamphlets including the following PDFs:
New York
Groups & Organizations
Click the Walkability Organizations button to find groups near you or explore the many resources these groups offer. There are also more links to related topics and similar directories.
Bike Advocacy Groups
Many bike advocacy groups also support and help work towards safer roads and infrastructure in general. If you can't find a local walkability group in your area, you might find allies among the bike advocacy groups in your area.
Maps
North America
USA
Walk Friendly Community Map "A Walk Friendly Community is a city or town that has shown a commitment to improving and sustaining walkability and pedestrian safety through comprehensive programs, plans, and policies. Communities apply to the program to receive recognition in the form of a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum designation. [With this map] you can sort and view profiles for communities that have been designated since the program began in 2011."
Washington
Explore the Walkability of DC Neighborhoods (Interactive) "Select a neighborhood to learn more about who lives in that community"
Grants & Funding
Asia
Livable Cities: Financing Partnership Facility "The urban operations of ADB benefits from the support of notable trust funds, which are collectively referred to as the Urban Financing Partnership Facility. Under this umbrella, strategic, long-term, multi-partner investments on innovative urban solutions are implemented. These investments help to achieve the vision of livable cities." These include:
Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) eligible countries include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam.
North America
USA
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program "provides $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution. Authorized under Section 60114 of the Inflation Reduction Act, this two-phase program provides $250 million for noncompetitive planning grants, and approximately $4.6 billion for competitive implementation grants."
Community Change Grants The "program supports the growing network of advocates, organizations, and agencies working to advance walkability. Grants are awarded to innovative, engaging, and inclusive programs and projects that create change and opportunity for walking and movement at the community level."
Oceana
Australia
Western Australia
The Sustainability Grants Program (in the City of Cockburn) "offers funding for projects related to six sustainability themes. Open to small businesses, schools, not-for-profits, and collective households, successful applicants can receive up to $4,000 for their project."