5 Walkability

Take a moment to consider what comes to mind when you hear the term “walkability.” Do you imagine a specific place or think of sidewalks? Perhaps you envision a street without cars. If you’re drawing a blank, that’s understandable too. Even for those of us who have recently become familiar with the concept, it can be challenging to provide a concise definition, or even consider the idea of there being one strange.

We often only notice the lack of walkability in a space when it’s absent. While significant effort has been dedicated to understanding and designing spaces for motorized vehicles over the last few decades, walkability has only recently become a focus in planning processes.

 

Think of your city and how it is designed, can you walk in it without weaving through haphazardly parked cars, broken sidewalks, and other obstacles? Unfortunately, planning for walkable cities has received far less attention, funding, and seriousness than its motorized counterparts. Shown alongside is some data from the ‘Comprehensie Mobility Plan for Bengalurur (2020)’ by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport. Pedestrian infrastructure receives the least amount of money by a factor of nearly 20 times.

All further augmentation of urban road capacity, be it at-grade or along elevated corridors, should pay particular attention to the equitable allocation of road space, and should prioritise movements of public transport vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists. - CMP 2020, DULT

This is not unique to Bangalore. Most Indian cities have undergone a rapid urban expansion that has mostly been geared towards cars, resulting in sprawls that are impossible to navigate without them. As a result, we often find ourselves in cities where walking is either inconvenient or downright dangerous, particularly for those with disabilities or who are otherwise marginalized (“Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Bengaluru” 2020).

Figure 5.1: Without proper footpaths or easy connectivity to less busy roads, pedestrians are left to navigate a busy highway right after they leave the Kengeri metro station.

Over the years, there have been many, many attempts at getting to the root of what making something walkable means.

Research has suggested that a range of factors contribute to walkability, including the presence of sidewalks and crosswalks, street lighting, traffic calming measures, proximity to destinations such as schools and shops, and the overall design and layout of the built environment (Spears 2017). These factors can vary from place to place and even from one street to the next, making it challenging to create a single, definitive definition of walkability. Planners, policymakers, and community activists in India are working together to create spaces in cities that prioritize pedestrians, with more accessible sidewalks, dedicated bike lanes, and improved public transportation. These efforts are not only good for public health and the environment but also local economies. Studies have shown that neighborhoods with higher walkability ratings tend to have higher property values and more vibrant local businesses (“Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House. | Socialcapitalgateway.org” 2011; Spears 2017).

When residents have a better understanding of how their neighborhoods are designed, they are more likely to push for changes that prioritize pedestrians and create more vibrant, walkable spaces. Fortunately, people are taking more interest in reclaiming spaces for pedestrians than ever before.

One way of doing this is through walkability audits. Walkability audits involve evaluating the walking environment using both quantitative and qualitative metrics. This process allows residents and community members to identify problem areas and suggest potential solutions for making their neighborhoods more pedestrian-friendly.

While there is a wealth of data available on walkability at a macro scale, these methods presented in this book allow you to conduct audits at a micro-scale. By collecting data at the street and neighborhood level, you can gain a deeper understanding of how your surroundings impact your walking experience. This approach is especially helpful for identifying areas that need improvement but may have been overlooked in large-scale analyses.

The methods presented in this book aim to provide a toolkit for conducting walkability audits that can be tailored to the specific needs and contexts of different neighborhoods, and hopefully empower individuals and communities to take a closer look at their surroundings