Using the Space Syntax Walkability Index to increase levels of walking

Before March 2020, the reality of daily commuting for many people involved stress, noise and pollution. All this before the working day even started. Then it happened on the way home as well. Little wonder that one of the biggest reasons people cite for not wanting to return to the office after the pandemic is the commute.?

Challenge

The UK government has tasked Local Authorities with increasing levels of walking to work as an environmentally friendly, health-conscious, preferred mode of travel. On one hand, this would seem to be the perfect opportunity to try to change people’s behaviour as they transition to a ‘new normal’; on the other, it would appear to be an almost impossible task.?

To succeed in getting more people to walk to work, Local Authorities need to ensure that the factors which may hinder an individual’s decision to walk to work are mitigated. For instance, ensuring that people live within walking distance of work, that their town or city is convenient to walk around, that they have the time to undertake the walk, and are in good enough health to walk comfortably.

But to complicate things further, there are other variables, which arise daily and that can impact an individual’s decision to walk. For example, if it’s winter, it’s raining and they have an important meeting first thing, someone will worry that they will arrive at work looking a mess. So they would rather drive, even if it takes a bit longer.

So how can a Local Authority influence someone’s decision to walk to work, when this is affected by so many changeable variables, which, like the weather, they cannot control??

Where do people currently walk to work??

A useful starting point is to understand where people currently walk, then to look at the variables that a Local Authority can shape.?

For the last 30 years, Space Syntax has been analysing the impact that the spatial layout (streets, paths and roads) can have on people’s behaviour. Streets don’t tend to change quickly; once a street is in place, it is likely to be there for hundreds if not thousands of years (just look at the number of Roman roads we still use in the UK!). This makes the spatial network of a place a helpful ‘fixed point of reference’ when considering ways to encourage more people to walk to work. And there are many places in the UK where the street network is well-connected to support multiple kinds of walking – both for leisure and for getting to work. But the street network is only one part of the built environment – there might be a really good network of streets that are perfect for walking, but nothing to walk to: no jobs, schools, shops or parks.?

Space Syntax has created a Walkability Index, which shows where the street network combines with land uses, to support walking. These places can be easily identified using our new online, web-based tool,?LINE.

But just because somewhere has a high score on our Walkability Index, it doesn’t mean people are actually walking to work in these areas. As we’ve seen, that decision is dependent on many other factors. The critical point to note for Local Authorities though, is people?could?walk to work, if other factors were addressed.

To understand the influence of these other factors we carried out statistical analysis to create a multi-variate regression model. Our model includes the underlying walkability of the built environment, city size, population, age, income, family size and housing type?as potential explanatory variables for why people walk to work.?This model explains 89% of the reasons why people walk to work on average across all Local Authorities.

And because local authorities are made up of smaller areas which each have their own social and spatial characteristics, we also developed a model at the smaller scale of an MSOA?(an area with a population of around 5,000-15,000 people) with the same explanatory variables as in the Local Authority model. This model explains 66% of the reasons why people walk to work on average across all MSOAs?in England.

Our findings?

The research we’ve undertaken shows that these social and spatial characteristics have independent causal effects on the number of people who walk to work. For instance, in any given area, having a greater proportion of people between the ages of 18 and 29, or a higher number of smaller housing units (3 beds or less), with fewer children, and a higher Walkability Index score contributes to a greater proportion of people?walking to where they work. These places tend to be in larger urban areas, with more employment opportunities, and residents tend to live relatively close to jobs they can walk to.?

There are questions on the longer-term impact of policy decisions and market forces, but regardless of why these areas developed in this way, these are the characteristics associated with higher levels of walking.

Our research shows that places where more people walk, aside from having good street connectivity, also have many other characteristics in common. For example, the combination of multiple, mixed land uses and connected street and pedestrian networks (all measured by our Walkability Index) means that, within a 15 minute walk, residents may easily access many kinds of different uses?(shops, schools, places of work and leisure).

Area which score highly on our Walkability Index have significantly more people walking to work. In other words, if it’s not physically possible to walk to work people won’t - there aren’t many highly walkable areas where few people walk to work, nor less walkable areas where many people walk (scatter below). There may be places where a younger, healthier population, with more time, overcome the constraints of the built environment and walk to work, but these are exceptions.???

Quick win places with potential to increase walking

By looking at the differences between actual levels of walking and where the model identifies the characteristics are in place for higher levels of walking, we can identify a set of quick win places – these are the MSOAs that are shown in blue on the map above.

However, because it might not be possible to change all of the characteristics associated with places where more people walk (such as the age or income of residents) we’ve identified the places that already have the physical conditions in place to enable more walking – these are shown in the map below. Points from blue to red show areas that score from low to high on the Walkability Index.

In some places, especially the edges of big cities like London, people may be using Public Transport instead, but this does not explain all areas.?

Why aren’t people walking when the conditions seem right for them to do so?

We think Local Authorities are best placed to take over the investigation, since our experience tells us that the reasons for underperformance are often related to small-scale localised issues. These might be a lack of lighting on certain stretches of streets or a lack of signage, or it might be that a nudge-style campaign relating to walking could help, with incentives provided for leaving cars at home.?

Conclusions?

Our analysis can’t answer all the questions around walking or find the various kinds of localised solutions but it can tell Local Authorities which places are less likely to need large scale, costly infrastructure projects to encourage people to walk to work – as well as identify those that do.?

There are many places in the UK which already have good infrastructure in place to support walking. However, not many people are walking there. Our analysis allows policy-makers to quickly identify where these places are and focus on public health or nudge-type interventions, rather than spending money on building more hard infrastructure where it isn’t needed.?This is vitally important for time-pressured, cash-strapped officials and leaders, who need to make sure that their budgets are spent carefully for optimal impact.??

Places without the infrastructure to support walking require a longer-term approach made through policy, urban planning and design. Again, our analysis can help identify these areas, and set out the physical conditions required to support walking in the future.???

If you would like to talk to us about how our approach could help you increase levels of walking in your area then please get in touch.?

[email protected]

Ed Parham , Eleri Jones , Po Nien Chen , Ella McCoshan