Pathways to Walkable Cities

Pathway Actions

ⓘ Pathway Actions
These ten pathway actions are known to help enable more walkable cities. The case studies illustrate some of places where the pathways are being taken and will hopefully inspire more.

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Measuring and understanding the needs of people to walking

ⓘ The scale of walking activity and clarity on how gender, age, ability and income influences the demand to walk and needs of citizens is critical.

Engaging communities in their walking experiences

ⓘ Citizens are best placed to comment on actual neighborhood walkability.

Assessing the walking environment

ⓘ The extent that the environment supports and encourages walking can be measured to help understand how reasonable the amount of time and effort required to walk there.

Securing political commitment for walking

ⓘ Support from elected Presidents, Transport Ministers, Mayors and Transport Directors are critical to delivering effective policy that benefits people walking.

Setting design standards for people walking

ⓘ Mandatory standards that include detailed measures which meet the needs of people walking provide a reference for delivering safe, equitable and accessible public space.

Allocating money for walking

ⓘ Securing new finance - from climate, health, environment or transport funds - or reallocating existing transport funding to walking ensures the needs of people walking get met.

Publishing a walking policy or plan

ⓘ Policies and action plans that make people walking a priority need to include a commitment to RETAIN the people walking already; PROTECT people walking from ever getting hurt; and ENABLE people to walk by improving accessibility and comfort.

Signature walking projects

ⓘ Projects that benefit people walking include those that deliver: a dedicated, unobstructed and continuous space to walk that is of consistent quality, clean and maintained; Safe road crossings with reasonable time given to cross and wait; Seating and rest areas, lighting, ramps for gradients, shelter from the climate and green infrastructure to enhance comfort and enjoyment; and, an experience that is secure from crime, safe from traffic and confident to navigate.

Evaluating the impact of walking policy/projects

ⓘ Safety, Accessibility and Comfort are the essential objective measures for evaluating successful walking projects complemented by feedback from citizens.

Celebrating walking

ⓘ Events and campaigns that celebrate the health, wellbeing and social benefits of walking keep people walking and enjoying it.

Global Walking Indicators

ⓘ Global Walking Indicators
These 5 headline walking indicators have been generated using a likert scale applied to existing data sets. An explanation of the source data, the custodians and the limitations is provided and should be noted. It is hoped that they help further understand how to measure and value walkability, recognise the need for more data, and stimulate interest in the 36 Global Walkability indicators set by the International Measuring Walking team in 2019.

Policy

ⓘ Data available from 207 countries (99.5% of the world): 103 have a walking policy; 87 do not; and 17 were not able to be qualified. Of those that do have a policy 44% are high income countries; 48% middle income and 8% low income countries. Data from original desk top research by Walk21 in July 2020. Thanks to Toby Walker and Aida Kaffel.

Activity

ⓘ Data available from 52 countries (25% of the world: 19/54 in Africa; 8/36 in Americas; 17/49 in Asia; 3/49 in Europe and 5/20 in Oceania). Most active for transport in the world are the citizens of Niger (141 minutes) and least active citizens of Timore-Leste (4.9 minutes). Data from World Health Organisation Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) Question: How much time do you spend walking or bicycling for travel on a typical day? The mean minutes reported in the STEPwise approach to non communicable disease risk factor surveillance. The data includes cycling minutes. The data was collected over multiple years. https://www.who.int/ncds/surveillance/steps/reports/en/. Thanks to Dr Fiona Bull, Unit Head for Physical Activity, WHO.

Safety

ⓘ Data available from 201 countries (96% of the world) for the year 2019. The leasts safe place to walk in the world, based on road safety deaths, is Central African Republic and the safest place to walk is Iceland. Data from Global Health Data (GHD) Exchange from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. http://ghdx.healthdata.org/

Accessibility

ⓘ Data available from 106 of the largest cities in every country (51% of the world) : 23 in Africa; 15 in America; 31 in Asia; 34 in Europe; and 3 in Oceania). Portugal citizens (98.71%) are most connected to public transport. Saudia Arabia citizens (8.63%) are least connected to public transport. The city data is not representative of the reality for the entire country. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-11-02-01.pdf and https://data.unhabitat.org/datasets/11-2-1-percentage-access-to-public-transport/data Thanks to Stefanie Holzarth, Urban Mobility Lead, UN Habitat.

Comfort

ⓘ Data available from 41 countries (20% of the world): 9/54 in Africa; 9/36 in Americas; 10/49 in Asia; 10/49 in Europe and 3/20 in Oceania. 3 Star streets are required to have a footpath, pedestrian refuge, street lighting and 50 km/hr traffic. The Percentage of the network given only relates to the total percentage of streets that IRAP have audited for pedestrians in that country. The most comfortable streets in the world are in the UK (94%) and the least comfortable streets are in Cote D'Ivorie (0.1%). (https://www.irap.org/3-star-or-better/. Thanks to Monica Olyslagers, Safe Cities and Innovation Specialist, International Road Assessment Programme.

International Charter for Walking

The International Charter for Walking provides a common policy framework to clarify what a walkable community needs to get right to maximize its walking potential.

A signature on the charter is a commitment to the eight principles in the charter, and 34 illustrative actions have been agreed upon by experts globally to support and encourage everyone to walk!

Learn more about it!

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