Parameters of walkability: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Walkability can be understood as the walk-friendliness of a built environment. A wide range of walkability attributes are reported and measured in existing literature. However, a consensus on the relative importance of each parameter does not exist. General models for the interactions between pedestrians and their environment have only been suggested in a rudimentary form. To address these issues, an in-depth research of the relevant literature is conducted. The relevant publications on the topic are collected and categorized in four major “schools” of walkability research. From these sources, all environmental attributes that affect walk-friendliness are collected in a spreadsheet and sorted into to a number of generalised parameters. This list represents the first result of the paper: A more objective overview of all known influencing parameters of walkability, each defined clearly and unambiguously. In a further step, a number of analyses are carried out in order to compare the reported coefficients of said parameters, with the goal of estimating their effect size on walking satisfaction and walking activity. The results enable a ranking of walkability parameters based on their relative importance. Besides walking distance, which leads all walking influences by a large margin, the presence of comfortable and uninterrupted walking infrastructure, the absence of cars and good street connectivity are found to be most important for pedestrians. This research thus provides a quantitative comparison of walkability influences that to this extent has been absent from the field. The structured presentation and subsequent discussion provide a basis for practical implementation as well as further research.