Healthy Places
Everyone is aware of the benefits of walking for our health and well-being, but how exactly can place making help in achieving this?
A study carried out by Owen et al. (2007) highlighted some interesting findings in what motivates Australian adults to walk. It was predicted that neighbourhood walkability would be more strongly related to walking for transport, as opposed to walking for recreation. This was found to be true, with an average of 185 minutes a week spent walking for transport and 125 minutes a week for recreation. It was further found that higher income residents walked less to transport, however they were more likely to consider distance to public transport when buying a house. Makes sense?!
What was interesting was that the relationship between neighbourhood walkability and frequency of walking for transport or recreation had no solid statistical relationship. This seems rather surprising since most would assume people would like to stroll through well-designed streets . Street connectivity, land use mix and retail floor space appear to have no relationship to the amount of walking trips Australian’s make.
The question then lies, what does?
Older people, with no children at home and in an area purposely chosen due to its distance from transport were the keenest of walkers. So too were people with at least 10 years of education. Meanwhile females, with children and high incomes were the least likely to walk for transport or recreation.
If this is the case, then how can place making assist in creating an environment that older people will continue to enjoy? Furthermore, how can it encourage those who don’t walk to do so? Finally, if proximity is so important to some when choosing where to live, why don’t they use it?
These are very complex questions and the best way to answer and implement will be a challenge.
Any suggestions?
