Abstract:

This paper describes ways to evaluate the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including basic mobility, consumer cost savings, cost savings (reduced external costs), efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, and support for equity objectives. Current transportation planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive analysis techniques, described in this paper, are likely to increase public support for walking and other nonmotorized modes of travel.

Presented at the Transportation Research Board, 82nd Annual Meeting January 2003, Washington, DC, Paper 03-2731, where it won the TRB Committee on Pedestrian’s 2003 Outstanding Paper Award. Published in Transportation Research Record 1828, Transportation Research Board (www.trb.org), 2003, pp. 3-11 and in Volume 10, Number 1, 2004, of World Transport Policy & Practice (www.eco-logica.co.uk/WTPPhome.html).

URL: http://www.vtpi.org/walkability.pdf