Walkability: The Land Use – Public Health Connection

Posted on Sep 10, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Susie Collins

Here’s an interesting article discussing walkable neighborhoods and the correlation between people walking more and improved health. It’s written by Beth Conover at Headwaters Consulting, who has over 20 years experience implementing sustainable environmental and economic practices. It’s a smart concept, and us canaries should be interested promoting this kind of growth because we benefit in many ways: not only is the walking just plain good for health but less vehicle use means cleaner air for us to breathe.

Here’s Ms. Conover’s post:

Earlier this week I chanced upon the walkscore website, which ranks the walkability of hundreds of United States neighborhoods by calculating the average distances between homes and basic services to determine their ease of accessibility to people on foot. From the site:

Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stumble home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car-or you don’t own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors.

What makes a neighborhood walkable?

A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a discernable center, whether it’s a shopping district, a main street, or a public space.

Density: The neighborhood is compact enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to run frequently.

Mixed income, mixed use: Housing is provided for everyone who works in the neighborhood: young and old, singles and families, rich and poor. Businesses and residences are located near each other.

Parks and public space: There are plenty of public places to gather and play.

Pedestrian-centric design: Buildings are placed close to the street to cater to foot traffic, with parking lots relegated to the back.

Nearby schools and workplaces: Schools and workplaces are close enough that most residents can walk from their homes.

Streets Designed for Everyone

Complete Streets are roads are designed for everyone who uses them, including bicyclists, pedestrians of all ages and abilities, and people getting on and off transit vehicles. These streets are:

Accessible: There are wheelchair ramps, plenty of benches with shade, sidewalks on all streets, etc.

Well-connected: Streets form a connected grid that improves traffic by providing many routes to any destination.

Built for the right speed: Lanes are narrow or traffic calming is in place to control speed.

Comfortable: Pedestrian medians at intersections, count-down crosswalk timers, bicycle lanes, protected bus shelters, etc. make the street work better for those outside of a car.

It’s a beautifully simple concept, and one that’s at the heart of current land use planning and public health efforts. In our car-centered culture, “walkability” has become an elusive (and so desirable and increasingly marketable) quality. It’s something our ancestors took for granted: ready, car-free access to life’s amenities, with an intangible boost to quality of life (related to exercise, knowing your neighbors and the makings of a desirable “place”) thrown in.

As detailed in many recent studies, many of the same land use principles that support environmental health also often support improved public health. Some of the greatest public health challenges of our time – obesity and respiratory illness – have been traced to inactivity and poor diet, which, in turn, appear to result from living and working in places that are car-centered and do not encourage (or actively discourage) individual physical activity and healthy food choices. It is hard to log 10,000 steps per day on a pedometer if you spend all your spare time driving to and from work, school and a big box shopping center. Walkable neighborhoods improve the well-being of those who live in them by reducing the circumstances that lead to problems like obesity and respiratory illness.