Statistics and Evidence

There are two important documents which provide a good evidence base for making your own local case for more investment into walking issues on health grounds:
 
Billie Giles-Corti, from the School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, prepared for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, 2006 an excellent  current and emerging issues paper titled The impact of urban form on public health confirming that there is strong evidence that the built environment affects the transport-mode choices of both adults and children.

A growing body of evidence confirms that neighbourhoods characterised by low density, poorly connected street networks and poor access to shops and services, are associated with low levels of walking. Moreover, Billie has made a connection that urban sprawl and low walkability appear to be associated with obesity too.

A partnership led by CABE, including Living Streets and the National Heart Forum have applied and developed many of Billie's ideas into a booklet titled Building Health which specifically explores the impact of the built environment on human health and gives recommendations for less obesegenic design.

The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2020, mental illness will be the third leading cause of disability life-adjusted years globally. Although a new field of research, it appears that access to convivial neighbourhoods not only encourages more walking, but also encourages interactions between neighbours thereby increasing a sense of community, which in turn may beneficially influence positive mental and physical health in local residents.  Walk England will keep you posted as more research is published to prove the link between the quality of public space and public health.


From a design perspective there are several key evidence documents to assist planners and architects to ensure public space is as attractive and  inviting to people on foot as possible.

These include:

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment’s report, Value of Public Space: CABE Space: 1 March 2004 which highlighted that a high-quality public environment can have a significant impact on the economic life of urban centres big or small and is therefore an essential part of any successful regeneration strategy.

As towns increasingly compete with one another to attract investment, the presence of good parks, squares, gardens and other public spaces becomes a vital business and marketing tool: companies are attracted to locations that offer well-designed,well-managed public places and these in turn attract customers, employees and services.

In town centres, a pleasant and well-maintained environment increases the number of people visiting retail areas, otherwise known as ‘footfall’.

Colin Buchanan and Partners have recently written a document titled ‘Paved with Gold’ for CABE  making the economic case for investing in more walkable neighbourhoods. 

For several years authorities in England have focused on reducing the speed of traffic to help more communities feel safer and be encouraged to walk more. This idea, borrowed from the Netherlands originally, is known as 'Home Zones' and has provided some important evidence to inform the reallocation of road space, how to slow traffic, share space on residential streets between drivers and other road users with the wider needs of residents (including people who walk and cycle, and children) and the impact of such measures on people with disabilities.


The Department for Transport recently published the Manual for Streets as a key text.

The new guidance is for practitioners involved in the planning, design, provision and approval of new residential streets, and modifications to existing ones. It aims to increase the quality of life through good design which creates more people-orientated streets and turns on its head some of the less people orientated design principles which have stood unopposed for several years and provided the framework for more car centered public space design during the previous 40 years.