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Does walkability matter? An examination of walkability’s impact on housing values, foreclosures and crime
... The importance of pedestrian-friendly environments are on the rise in various fields of urban planning, transportation planning, and medicine, be it for reasons of health, safety, sustainability or economic growth (Ewing & Cervero, 2001;Gilderbloom, Riggs & Meares, 2015). The reduction of emissions if a person decides to walk instead of using motorised transport or walking to improve health is an example of this. ...
... Non-motorised transport (walking and cycling) not only speaks to environmental concerns related to motorised transportation emissions, but also has numerous health benefits -as various studies have shown (Adkins, Dill, Luhr & Neal, 2012;Ewing & Cervero, 2010;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). ...
... Non-motorised transport (walking and cycling) not only speaks to environmental concerns related to motorised transportation emissions, but also has numerous health benefits -as various studies have shown (Adkins, Dill, Luhr & Neal, 2012;Ewing & Cervero, 2010;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Lo (2009) outlines that walkability is an essential component of accessible, equitable, efficient, sustainable, and liveable communities. ...
The necessity of pedestrian-friendly environments is evident when looking at the multitude of benefits that it offers. These benefits include improved social integration, stimulating economic growth, and accessibility.
The safety of pedestrians is not guaranteed, with a third of all road fatalities on South African roads being pedestrian fatalities. With the increased urbanisation among people from rural areas, there is a need for the development of safer non-motorised transport, especially because two-thirds of the population rely on walking as a mode of transport. In central areas of cities, effort has been done to enhance the walkability of the area, however, residential areas are often last on the list when it comes to the implementation of appropriate sidewalk infrastructure. It is observed that, although dangerous, pedestrians in residential areas increasingly use the roadway for walking. Sidewalks form an integral part of efforts to facilitate pedestrian access, which, in turn, support an effective and successful transportation network. This study examined the most essential attributes that contribute to the walkability of residential areas. More specifically, this study evaluated the factors contributing to the use or avoidance of sidewalks in residential areas.
For this purpose, a case-study was performed in a residential area where the problem of pedestrians using the roadway was identified to be quite severe. To this end, the residential area of Universitas in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa was selected. A survey research methodology was followed, where data was collected through questionnaires and physical surveys. This study also employed a Conjoint Analysis technique, which is a multivariate technique used to understand an individual’s preference, in order to identify the levels of importance with regards to sidewalk attributes. The Conjoint Analysis was used to objectively identify and categorise sidewalk attributes (walkable width, number of obstacles, walking surface, and changes in elevation) that contribute to the use or avoidance of sidewalks.
The findings revealed that attributes such as walkable width and the number of obstacles are significant parameters which influence the use of sidewalks in residential areas. Furthermore, the results revealed the relative importance of each evaluated attribute, which provided valuable insight into the prioritisation and possible budget allocation towards these attributes when it comes to the development of walkability. Finally, the Conjoint Analysis results were evaluated against pedestrians’ genuine willingness to make use of selected sidewalks within the study area. The evaluation revealed that the utility values produced by the Conjoint Analysis could be used to predict how likely it is that a pedestrian would use a specific sidewalk. Additionally, other significant concerns influencing neighbourhood walkability, such as personal safety and conflict with motorised traffic, were also identified by respondents.
The results and findings of this study were used to recommend alternative planning and design guidelines that contribute to the development of walkability in residential areas. It is envisaged that, if the plausible recommended planning and design guidelines are implemented, the walkability of the study area will improve substantially.
... L. Brantingham & Brantingham, 1993; P. L. Brantingham & Brantingham, 1984). Studies in this vein have specifically focused on physical environmental features of urban areas such as land use (Boessen & Hipp, 2015;Inlow, 2020;Kurtz et al., 1998;Stucky & Ottensmann, 2009;Twinam, 2017), land use heterogeneity (Browning et al., 2010;Wo, 2019a), presence/density of different types of businesses (Bernasco & Block, 2011;Bernasco et al., 2016), street network connectivity (Frith et al., 2017;Kim & Hipp, 2020a), to name a few. ...
... Among the studies to assess whether topography impacts crime, most have focused on the natural physical features of areas, namely elevation or slope (Breetzke, 2012;Byun & Ha, 2016;Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Haberman & Kelsay, 2020;Megler et al., 2014;Ye & Becker, 2018). These studies imply that streets at a higher elevation or with steeper slopes are at a low risk of crime. ...
... Pathways are crucial elements of the physical environment because they affect the travel patterns of potential offenders and suitable targets; and therefore, the level of criminal opportunities in geographic units. Previous studies have empirically confirmed that street network configurations are important for understanding the level of crime in place (Davies & Johnson, 2015;Frith et al., 2017;Johnson & Bowers, 2010;Kim & Hipp, 2020a). These studies have employed various measures to capture the extent to which a given area is connected with others via the street network (also referred to as street network connectivity). ...
Few studies have investigated how features of the land surface and the street
network affect spatial crime patterns. Accordingly, for the current study, we
estimated negative binomial regression models to test for main and moderating
effects of elevation, slope, and betweenness on crime across San
Francisco street segments. While significant effects were observed for all
topography measures assessed, we found that elevation differences in the
surrounding ¼ mile (i.e., hilliness) reduces the risk for crime more so than the
elevation and slope of the segment itself. In comparison, betweenness based
on the street network produced a higher risk for crime. We also determined
a conditional effect between elevation differences in the surrounding ¼ mile
and betweenness. To supplement the regression analysis, we produce maps
that show the predicted values of the different crime outcomes for each
segment in our sample, thereby underscoring certain policy and practical
implications of our findings.
... Walkability is a composite built environment measure and refers to the capacity of neighborhoods to create traversable, compact, safe, and physically-enticing places for walking (Forsyth, A., 2015). During the last decades the benefits of walkable communities on public health (Stevenson, M., et al., 2016, Nieuwenhuijsen & Khreis, 2016, housing markets (Gilderbloom et al., 2015), and environmental sustainability (Frank et al., 2006,Frank et al., 2010a have been widely reported. For neighborhood and equity advocates though, positive effects created by dense and walkable urbanism are not often seen as good news for their communities, mainly due to increasing concerns about the displacement of socio-vulnerable groups (Quastel et al., 2012). ...
... Other authors have been warning us about differences in pedestrian streetscapes between communities of contrasting socio-demographic and racial characteristics (Thornton et al., 2016). Moreover, such socio-spatial implications are often caused by increases that walkability poses in local housing markets (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Since, by improving urban form and pedestrian-friendliness of neighborhoods, gentrification processes might also come up, social sorting actions should be prevented (Quastel et al., 2012). ...
... On this basis, Frank et al. (2006) provided evidence that more walkable neighborhoods can decrease vehicle miles traveled by 6.5% and reduce NOx emissions by 5.6%. Other authors reported positive effects of walkability in housing markets, crime, and foreclosure (Gilderbloom et al, 2015). On the other hand, some researchers indicated contradictory results and suggested that walkability has significant impacts on housing prices only if it is included in better-specified models that account for other neighborhood attributes (Boyle et al., 2014), while others demonstrated that walkability tends to create criminogenic environments (Dong, 2017). ...
Prior research has reported that people living in more walkable places gain significant health, and environmental sustainability benefits. However, the positive impacts of walkable urbanism are not often inclusive and might affect minority groups. On this basis, this paper develops a composite GIS-based walkability measure (0-1) for Berlin metro area and investigates the association of walkable neighborhood design with ethnic diversity (i.e., Entropy Index). We explore this relationship by applying spatial regression models (i.e., OLS, GWR), while we control the effects of traffic-related air pollution (i.e., NO2), building height, and children density. Our findings suggest that for the total of 447 Berlin neighborhoods which were examined only one out of three had walkability scores greater than 0.5 as well as that community ethnic diversity is negatively related to walkability (β=-0.159, p<0.01).
... A second study similarly found that walkability was related to more aggravated assault in Miami-Dade County (FL) blocks (Cowen et al. 2018). In contrast, Gilderbloom et al. (2015) found evidence of neighbourhood walkability having protective effects on crime using a sample of tracts in a medium-sized US city. Specifically, they employed Walk Score data to measure the level of walkability in tracts and demonstrated from their regression analysis that tracts with higher walkability were associated with lower property crime, violent crime and murder. ...
... As a result, many cities and municipalities are considering the adoption of strategies that would increase the walkability of its neighbourhoods. Yet, few empirical studies have assessed the consequences of neighbourhood walkability for crime control, despite the fact neighbourhood walkability produces a high volume of nonresidents to residents in concert with a high volume of public spaces and commercial activity (Gilderbloom et al. 2015;Dong 2017;Lee and Contreras 2021). Accordingly, for the present study, we examined the linear and nonlinear effects of walkability on crime using block groups from nine cities. ...
... The first key finding was that neighbourhood walkability consistently exerted crimeproducing effects, controlling for a range of factors known to be associated with crime. Prior studies have commonly analysed a limited number of crime types in relation to neighbourhood walkability (Gilderbloom et al. 2015;Dong 2017;Cowen et al. 2018) which raises the question whether walkability effects are crime-specific or crime-general. Our findings clearly show evidence of the latter; and therefore, serves to address the somewhat mixed findings on the relationship between neighbourhood walkability and crime (Lee and Contreras 2021). ...
The criminological literature suggests that neighbourhood walkability might produce unintended consequences, namely that walkability is associated with higher crime rates because it affords potential offenders an abundance of weakly guarded targets. To address this proposition, we investigate linear and nonlinear effects of walkability using a sample of block groups located across nine US cities. Results from our negative binomial regression models show that an index of walkability is associated with higher crime rates and that these effects are robust across cities. We also estimate crime models that test the main effects of the four indicators which comprise the walkability index, because of the recognition that certain dimensions of walkability might have a greater impact on crime.
... A growing body of research has explored the benefits of enhanced walkability in urban environments, including positive economic (Bereitschaft, 2017;Litman, 2003;Pivo & Fisher, 2011;Gilderbloom, Riggs, & Meares, 2015), environmental (Frank & Engelke, 2005;Frank, Stone, & Bachman, 2000;Ewing & Cervero, 2001) and public health (Craig, Brownson, Cragg, & Dunn, 2002;Frank & Engelke, 2005;Sallis et al., 2009) outcomes. Recently, studies have shifted to focusing on the more implicit and harder to quantify benefits of walkability (Xu, Yu, Lee, & Frank, 2018;Won, Lee, & Li, 2017). ...
... Most development in urban space is developed privately by real estate companies (Dong, 2015). The effects of new urbanist features, such as mixed land uses and more connected street networks, on single-family home values has been well studied (Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Litman, 2003;Pivo & Fisher, 2011). Developers and commercial real estate companies are now looking to understand the effects of new urbanist features on their property investment portfolios. ...
... Others have surveyed the perceptions of developers and community residents who felt demand for more walkable communities, many of which follow new urbanism design practices, has gone unmet (Levine & Inam, 2004;Levine et al., 2005;Levine & Frank, 2007). Property price premiums have been noted in areas that are more walkable and pedestrian-oriented (Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Pivo & Fisher, 2011). Pivo & Fisher (2011) surmise that some of the demand for more walkability can be correlated to the increased cost in mobility and time restrictions on already time-strapped individuals. ...
In this paper, we assess the potential impact of walkability on commercial property sales prices in Omaha, Nebraska in the years during and following the "Great Recession." Walkability was determined using Walk Scores provided by Walkscore.com; commercial property sale prices were acquired from the Douglas County, NE (the core county of the Omaha metro) Assessor's Office. The relationship between commercial sales price and walkability between 2008 and 2018 was evaluated using a multiple linear regression model based on hedonic price theory. A variable to indicate time period (either 2008-2012 to denote "recession years" or 2013-2018 to denote "post-recession years") was added to the model to investigate the potential impact of walkability on sales prices while controlling for the effect of the Great Recession. We observed a significant positive relationship between walkability and commercial property sales prices across all models.
... Walkability is conceptualized as the extent to which the characteristics of the built environment may or may not be conducive to residents in the area walking for leisure (e.g., with a baby stroller), traveling (e.g., in a wheelchair), or exercise (e.g., jogging) [1] . Beyond walking, walkability impacts many aspects of urban living [2] such as health [3] , residential housing value, and neighborhood crime [4] . In view of the fact that 65% world's population will be urban residents by 2050 [5] , walkability is not only an essential concept for semantically-rich information retrieval but also an important analytical concept in infrastructure for human-centered smart, sustainable, and resilient city development [6] . ...
... Researchers have developed many indices and approaches for assessing walkability at the macroscale (city) [7] , neighborhood scale [4] , and microscale [2,[8][9] . However, it is costly and time-consuming to apply the traditional methods (e.g., audit tools) to the citywide pedestrian paths due to the vast amount, heterogeneous conditions, and frequent changes. ...
The walkability of pedestrian paths serves as an urban semantic infrastructure for the global smart city development. However, traditional methods cannot fulfill the task of personalized walkability assessment on (i) automation of assessment, (ii) the level of details, and (iii) meeting the personalized demands of pedestrians (e.g., with a wheelchair). This paper presents a novel as-built building information model (BIM) approach based on ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) smartphone and deep transfer learning. First, an ‘as-is’ 3D point cloud is scanned by AR smartphone. Then, an as-built BIM containing semantic objects such as paved footway, guardrail, and obstacles can be created with pre-trained 3D point classification models. Finally, calculation of walking characteristics of the semantic as-built BIM leads to personalized walkability assessment. A pilot study involving five walking characteristics was conducted on a real case near the University of Hong Kong for the personalized requirements of five types of pedestrians: (1) people in wheelchair, (2) leisure traveler with a baby stroller, (3) business traveler with a rolling luggage, (4) senior people, and (5) exerciser (joggers). The results of the pilot study showed that the personalized walkability was correctly assessed using the proposed as-built BIM approach. With advanced ubiquitous computing devices, the proposed approach is expected to apply to everyday AR smartphones to enable crowd-sourcing and real-time assessment of the personalized walkability for pedestrian paths. The semantic as-built BIM, as an intermediate solution in this approach, can also open new avenues for many innovative smart city applications to foster a smart, sustainable, and resilient future.
... The impact of some of the measures of walkability mentioned above is signicant. For instance, the Walk Score is not only displayed in real estate websites like Zillow.com, it has also been used in works such as Gilderbloom et al. (2015) and Boyle et al. (2014) to measure the impact of walkability on housing prices. ...
... Works like Manaugh and El-Geneidy (2011), Boyle et al. (2014), and Gilderbloom et al. (2015) provide support to a multi-dimensional approach, where walkability depends on the access to infrastructure (e.g., intersection density or access to sidewalks), characteristics of the urban environment (e.g., mix between commercial and residential use), and proximity to dierent amenities. However, the questions of what variables should be included in the calculation of a walkability index, and how they should be weighted remains unaddressed until now. ...
This paper uses data on the price and location of garages to build a market-driven measure of walkability for New York City and Chicago. The measure is based on the idea that the walking cost is embedded in parking prices as drivers wish to park close to their destination. The paper lays out and estimates a theoretical model of price competition between garage operators that explains the dynamic between parking prices and walking costs. This model is later used as the framework to measure the cost of walking. Based on the estimated cost of walking, I calculate a Walkability Index that uses data on the location characteristics of all census tracts in New York City and Chicago. The Walkability Index combines several elements that affect willingness to walk based on the urban planning literature. The Walkability Index shows a strong correlation with other walkability measures and with the proportion of non-car commuters in New York City.
... Population distribution in the cities is made according to their SES, reflecting the wealth of these places. A walkable environment with better accessibility by different transport modes results in higher property values, which reduces the diverse population status with income capacity to access these places (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Property value defines the ability of different socio-economic groups to acquire or rent houses (Drewnowski et al., 2014;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). ...
... A walkable environment with better accessibility by different transport modes results in higher property values, which reduces the diverse population status with income capacity to access these places (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Property value defines the ability of different socio-economic groups to acquire or rent houses (Drewnowski et al., 2014;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Property value is influenced not only by the features of the property itself, but also by different built environment characteristics; namely, neighbourhood perception, the streetscape's qualities, and mostly by accessibility (Carr et al., 2010). ...
... We assume that improved walkability may allow people to maintain social distance while moving in their neighborhood streets. However, studies have shown positive correlation between walkability, higher housing prices, and low minority populations (Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Knight et al., 2018), characteristics which may also influence COVID-19 prevalence. ...
... Walkability was only significant in the immediate time period. Studies have shown walkability to increase property values (Gilderbloom et al., 2015), making any area only affordable to higher income skilled laborers who can avoid exposure to the virus by working from home. At the same time, higher walkability may also encourage more people to walk without the physical distance suggested to avoid virus exposure. ...
COVID-19 has significantly and unevenly impacted the United States, disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable communities. While epidemiologists and public health officials have suggested social distancing and shelter-in-place orders to halt the spread of this virus, the ability to comply with these guidelines is dependent on neighborhood, household, and individual characteristics related to social vulnerability. We use structural equation modeling and multiple data sources, including anonymized mobile phone location data from SafeGraph, to examine the effects of different social vulnerability and built environment factors on COVID-19 prevalence over two overlapping time periods (March to May and March to November of 2020). We use Chicago, Illinois as a case study and find that zip codes with low educational attainment consistently experienced higher case rates over both periods. Though population density was not significantly related to the prevalence in any period, movement of people made a significant contribution only during the longer time period. This finding highlights the significance of analyzing different timeframes for understanding social vulnerability. Our results suggest social vulnerability played an influential role in COVID-19 prevalence, highlighting the needs to address socioeconomic barriers to pandemic recovery and future pandemic response.
... Measuring walkability -Walkability can be measured using several models; for example, WalkScore that measures how accessible daily living activities by walking [46,47], Walkshed [48,49], and Walkonomics [50,51]. Wimbardana et al. [52] aimed at understanding and evaluating the environment of walkable routes by using the pedestrian environmental data scan (PEDS) tool, which records the physical data of the built environment and can present the data spatially. ...
... Yamagata et al. [54] developed a comprehensive multidata wellbeing assessment system based on image assessment and machine learning technique, for smart communities for evaluating streetscapes, in which one of the main parameters for measurement was walkability. Gilderbloom et al. [46] investigated the impact of walkability on the quality of neighborhoods using Walkscore™ and discovered that walkable neighborhoods show a positive impact on housing foreclosure and neighborhood crime. ...
Current urban planning of central neighborhoods is focused on mobility transformation towards more sustainable methods of public transportation and walkability that increase social interactions. Central urban neighborhoods in many cities may suffer from deterioration due to lack of personal security that result in diminished walkability. The lack of personal security might exclude residents from those areas and create a troublesome circle of deterioration, and may emphasize spatial inequality. It may also establish different patterns of the neighborhood infrastructure usage for different social groups, such as using specifically more secure streets and public spaces. The main goal of this paper is to define the routes and spaces where people walk and use in their neighborhoods in which they feel safe, and to understand how different social groups walk-through and use the same urban environment. This is analyzed by the security rating index (SRI) model, a GIS-based mapping model, which is used to identify and rate secure urban areas for better walkability. The SRI results are compared to an interview, which was given to different social-group representatives, urban data that was collected using a mobile application, and to vandalism data analysis from the municipality. The security and walkability analysis assessment took place in the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, Israel.
... Moreover, this policy can contribute to the development of infrastructure that ensures a more sustainable city. Furthermore, increasing the walkability of cities and the quality of public transport can also contribute to social inclusion [35,36]. The reduction in GHG through this policy will highly depend on the adoption of cycling, walking, and public transport by the population. ...
Cities across the world are becoming more engaged in tackling climate change and contributing to the achievement of international agreements. The city of Curitiba in Brazil is no exception. In December 2020, the city published PlanClima (Plano Municipal de Mitigação e Adaptação às Mudanças Climáticas), a climate plan developed with local and international organizations. PlanClima aims to guide policies and actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This study focuses on selecting and qualitatively evaluating transport policies that contribute to the city’s 2030 climate and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With PlanClima’s analysis for the transport sector in mind, nine targets for 2030 are identified and connected to different transport policies. To evaluate the possible interactions between the policies and the different dimensions of the SDGs, four types of linkages were designed: essential, uncertain, limited, and opposite. These categories were developed to evaluate the several dimensions in which a policy can have a positive or negative impact. The results show that the implementation of zero emission zones/low emission zones, green public procurement, subsidy schemes for the uptake of clean vehicle technology, and the digitalization of the transport system through smarter public transport and digital platforms that couple bike sharing, taxis, and public transport are some of the measures that can contribute to the achievement of Curitiba’s targets and ensure a positive impact on the sustainable development of the city. The study highlights how different policy instruments can contribute to achieve the city’s targets, thus providing guidance to policymakers.
... Moreover, greater distance from bicycle paths or the occurrence of steep approaches is negatively correlated with cycling activity [19]. Research shows that walkability contributes to real estate value [20] and positively affects the sustainable development of districts, decreasing the level of exclusion and crime [21]. However, the mere increase in building density can be seen as a factor that worsens the quality of the district, even though it has no negative impact on real estate prices [22]. ...
Cities occupy only about 3% of the Earth’s surface area, but half of the global population lives in them. The high population density in urban areas requires special actions to make these areas develop sustainably. One of the greatest challenges of the modern world is to organize urban spaces in a way to make them attractive, safe and friendly to people living in cities. This can be managed with the help of a number of indicators, one of which is walkability. Of course, the most complete analyses are based on spatial data, and the easiest way to implement them is using GIS tools. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to present a new approach for measuring walkability, which is based on density maps of specific urban functions and networks of generally accessible pavements and paths. The method is implemented using open-source data. Density values are interpolated from point data (urban objects featuring specific functions) and polygons (pedestrian infrastructure) using Kernel Density and Line Density tools in GIS. The obtained values allow the calculation of a synthetic indicator taking into account the access by means of pedestrian infrastructure to public transport stops, parks and recreation areas, various attractions, shops and services. The proposed method was applied to calculate the walkability for Kraków (the second largest city in Poland). The greatest value of walkability was obtained for the Main Square (central part of the Old Town). The least accessible to pedestrians are, on the other hand, areas located on the outskirts of the city, which are intended for extensive industrial areas, single-family housing or large green areas.
... Recent studies have increasingly examined the association of walkability scores with residential prices in different submarkets, such as single-family homes, high-end condominiums, and affordable apartments (Boyle et al., 2014;Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Kim and Kim, 2020;Li et al, 2014Li et al, , 2015Rauterkus and Miller, 2011;Zhang et al., 2019). While many studies disclose the insignificance of walkability in determining the value of high-income, low-density, and car-dependent neighborhoods, one research shows that walkability benefits can be capitalized into office, retail, and apartment values across American cities (Pivo and Fisher, 2011). ...
Asian cities have increasingly been promoting the creation of walkable built environments as a catalyst for local economic development in global competition. However, the economic influences of pedestrianization are still debatable without sufficient quantitative assessments in Asia's commercialized cityscape along with mega-rail projects, high-rise buildings, and traffic-choked streets. This research examines the net capitalization effects of skywalk network and pedestrian zone schemes on office towers and retail streets using the case of Hong Kong. The sets of hedonic regression models in a quasi-experimental research framework show mixed results. The expansion of skywalk networks produced positive capitalization effects on podium-level office units connected by footbridges near metro rail exits, while having insignificant impacts on street-level retail units. The models also reveal that the implementation of pedestrian zone schemes generated insignificant capitalization effects on street-level retail units regardless of rail proximity. The evidence gives some credence to the notion that the creation of walkable built environments in Asian cities would contribute to capital accumulation through mega-rail plus international office tower projects. However, the findings also infer that pedestrianization initiatives in global competition would lead to neither commercial revitalization nor gentrification on local retail streets around metro rail stations.
... On the other hand, the built environment is found to influence crime behavior by affecting perception of crime committers (Bernasco and Block 2011;Ceccato and Uittenbogaard 2014). Typically, according to routine activity theory, increasing land use mix or street connectivity can enhance street activity, thereby reducing neighborhood crime due to the increase in natural surveillance (Jacobs 1961;Gilderbloom, Riggs, and Meares 2015;Phillips and Sandler 2015). Little empirical evidence on the contributions of increasing land use mix or street connectivity on the prevention of crimes has been offered by empirical studies, however (Sohn 2016). ...
Environmental factors have both direct and indirect impacts on crime behavior decision making. This study aimed to examine to what degree the occurrences of violent crimes can be affected by social and built environment over space. Although a few studies have attempted to model crime rate using spatial regression models, there is a lack of comparison of spatial regression models. Particularly, the eigenvector spatial filtering type of spatial regression models has reportedly been effective in urban and regional studies, but it has not been widely applied to crime data. In this study, we aimed to examine whether the spatial filtering type of spatial regression models outperforms conventional types of spatial regression models in modeling violent crime rates over space. Moreover, we aimed to investigate the impacts of land use mix and street connectivity on the occurrences of violent crimes as the routine activity theory explained. In empirical studies, two types of spatial regression models (i.e., spatial error model and eigenvector spatial filtering model) were selected and estimated successfully to model local-scale violent crime rates across New York City. The eigenvector spatial filtering models outperform the spatial error models as well as the nonspatial models. Model estimation results show that occurrences of violent crimes (i.e., assaults and robberies) can be well determined by socioeconomic and built environment factors and thereby environmental factors can affect the occurrences of violent crimes. The contributions of socioeconomic and built environment factors to violent crime can offer insights on urban planning and policymaking toward violent crime prevention. Particularly, this study offers new evidence on the routine activity theory that increasing land use mix and street connectivity can enhance street activity, thereby reducing occurrences of violent crimes. Policymakers and urban planners should continue to enhance street activity through increasing land use mix and street connectivity. In addition, eigenvector spatial filtering models are advocated for use in crime or other applications in urban and regional studies.
... Commute time [28] and median vehicle ownership rates [29] can also increase the probability of default. Neighborhoods that are more walkable have been associated with fewer foreclosures [30]. Location-efficient mortgages may be a very effective tool to leverage access to affordable housing in transit-rich large metropolitan areas [31]. ...
Transportation is the second-largest expenditure category for households, accounting for nearly 20 cents of every dollar spent annually across the U.S. Only housing costs exceed transportation, and combined they represent a substantial burden on households. A primary economic connection between housing and transportation costs is related to the tradeoffs that households make in terms of residential location and what they have left of their household budget to spend on other needs. Families are forced to spend thousands of dollars annually on owning and operating private vehicles, forego wealth creation, and the ability to enjoy other benefits of homeownership. This analysis examines combined housing and transportation costs at the state level to regional economic performance. It contributes to the literature by testing the geographic scope of household expenditure burdens at this scale. Along with previous literature, this analysis provides evidence about the connection between the local and regional economic vitality and the burden of the combined effects of housing and transport on households. Overall, the results suggest that, from 2008 to 2018, these household cost burdens were a function of economic activity, household characteristics, and location in the state of Virginia.
... There are evidences of locational factors that strongly influence the value of real estate, such as the area of the property, covered space, structural characteristics of the building, walkability, security, provision of urban amenities like electricity, natural gas, solid waste collection, sewerage system, paved streets, clean drinking water, distances to the markets, schools, work places, recreational sites & health facilities, are among the significant spatial factors which mainly affect the value of a residential property. The Hedonic models for the valuation of real estate properties can be established, using non-spatial techniques like ordinary least squares (OLS) method or spatial techniques, such as geographically weighted regression (Boza, 2015;Erickson et al., 2011;Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Machin, 2011;Pace & Gilley, 1998;Pagourtzi et al., 2003;Shabana et al., 2015). Hedonic valuation of real estate properties are usually based on four sets of explanatory variables; the structural characteristics, locational attributes, environmental features and lastly the neighborhood traits whereas selling prices are considered as response variable in a multiple regression (Freeman, 1981). ...
This study undertook the urban immovable property valuation in two major cities of Punjab; Lahore and Faisalabad, using big data and advanced spatial analysis techniques to explore the significant impact of location-specific parameters on the urban immovable property prices. In order to compute the immovable property values, we employed Big Data analytics in Geographic Information System (GIS). The traditional hedonic price models give little importance to the spatial characteristics of individual housing units and revolve around the structural attributes of houses. However, the spatial heterogeneity should be considered while appraising the residential property prices since the house characteristics may vary over space. To address this issue, we established different valuation models based on the ordinary least square regression and the Fast Geographic Weighted Regression (FastGWR) model, a scalable open source implementation of python and Message Passing Interface (MPI) that can process millions of observations. These valuation models estimated the total net worth of the residential real estate market in the study area. The results demonstrate the excellent performance of our valuation models and display the spatial heterogeneity with higher accuracy. The valuation models explained the relationship of explanatory variables to response variable up to 75% for Faisalabad and around 85% for Lahore. Results show that the floor area, proximity of health facilities, recreational sites and market places add premium to, while nearness of educational institutions, worship places and solid waste transfer stations or dumping sites lessen the property values in both the cities however, closeness of industrial units and graveyards capitalize negatively in Lahore but positively in Faisalabad. ii PREFACE The largest source of provincial revenue in Punjab is the taxes levied on property transfers, such as stamp duties, mutation and registration fees, as compared to the other tax sources. Since 1980, the District Collector's (DC) real property valuation rates are used to calculate provincial tax liabilities, such as capital value tax, property tax, and stamp duties which are substantially lesser than the market price. In 2016, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) introduced new valuation tables for the collection of capital gains tax and withholding tax at the federal level and kept revising since 2018 on annual basis but the rates of revised valuation tables are still significantly less than the fair market values. Magnitude of under invoicing (the percentage difference between the disclosed price for legal documentation or tax payments and fair market price) is very much high in real estate market of Pakistan in general. This study investigated the spatial heterogeneity of the real estate property values as a basis for the formulation of a sophisticated and a scientific valuation model. Our motivation for taking up this study is that the current system of valuation of immovable properties by the government agencies (DC rates and FBR rates) is inefficient, non-scientific and inconsistent. Further, the official valuation methods do not account for the spatial attributes of the real estate properties that is why their valuation remains far lower than the fair market values of the immovable properties. Moreover, there is no mechanism to record actual market transactions in Punjab. Due to poor official property valuation system and low regulatory oversight, most of the gains go unreported, which in turn gives rise to black economy practices and loss of revenue for the national exchequer. So, there is a dire need to develop a more sophisticated system of valuation of immoveable property based on spatial variables, that will not only bridge the gap between official rates and market rates for the extended revenue collection but also to help the sellers and buyers to avoid market speculation practices which make the property inflated.
... The Walk Score measures walkability on a scale from 0 to 100 by analyzing several walking routes to nearby amenities (e.g., grocery stores, schools, parks, restaurants, and retail stores) and pedestrian friendliness (e.g., population density, average block length, and intersection density). The validity of this measure has been demonstrated in other academic research (Duncan et al., 2011;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). For the analysis, walk scores at the neighborhood- level were used. ...
Calgary offers many public transportation options, including light rail transit (LRT), bus rapid transit (BRT), and local buses as well as facilities for non-motorized travelers. Yet the individual and synergistic effects of these mobility options on residential property values in Calgary have not been clearly understood. By using a multilevel hedonic modeling approach, we examine the independent and interactive economic impacts of different transportation options on Calgary's residential properties in 2017. Our findings suggest that proximity to LRT and better neighborhood walkability can appreciate residential property values, whereas proximity to major roads and bus service tend to depreciate the values, although the degree and significance vary by property type. When proximity to LRT is coupled with high walkability, more appreciation of property values is expected, particularly in the case of attached houses and apartment properties. Our results imply that urban planners and city officials should strive to create safe and pedestrian-friendly environments near LRT stations that could lead to more dynamic civic activities.
... Localized differences in health manifest in housing prices (Nau & Bishai, 2018), with a substantial literature showing that housing prices capitalize risk factors including safety (Autor et al., 2017;Tita et al., 2006), exposure to environmental hazards (Bayer et al., 2009;J. Currie et al., 2015;Davis, 2004Davis, , 2011, and walkability (Davis, 2011;Gilderbloom et al., 2015). However, despite evidence that healthcare factors ex- (McDonough et al., 2006). ...
I find an increase in the prices of affordable housing that is offset by a commensurate decrease in the price of luxury housing; I also observe a small increase in migration into Massachusetts versus into neighboring states. My second paper seeks to better understand the effects of climate migration on housing markets. Examining the impacts of displacement due to Hurricane Katrina, I show that housing prices decreased in destination neighborhoods that received the largest numbers of movers, relative to neighborhoods that did not receive large inflows. Effects are larger in predominantly Black destination neighborhoods than in predominantly White destination neighborhoods. I also find larger effects in places that received more economically disadvantaged movers relative to similar neighborhoods that received more advantaged movers.
... Improving mobility statewide can create other favorable outcomes for industries outside of transportation; studies have found greater walkability to be linked with higher neighborhood housing values and reductions in crime and neighborhood abandonment (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). Engineering changes can help to cultivate a space that encourages residents to stay in the state. ...
An online survey was developed to evaluate the environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic factors that support or discourage the mobility of teenagers. Distributed to adults (18–25 years old) in Connecticut, the survey gathered retrospective data on their travel behaviors as teenagers, as well as associated attitudes and beliefs about different transportation modes. Seventy-one percent of participants indicated that a family car was their predominant source of transportation. Public transportation was the main source for 14% of participants. Fewer than 10% of participants indicated that a personal car, walking, or other means was their primary source of transportation. Participants who lived in less densely populated areas as teenagers were more likely to report barriers to public transportation access. These same participants were also more likely to report neighborhood walkability issues, including the absence of continuous sidewalks and bike paths. These factors are likely associated with teenagers' reliance on family cars for transportation. Recommendations for improved connectivity and promotion of currently available public transportation options are provided.
... Foreclosures behave like a contagion on property values. There is evidence indicating that foreclosures between 90-400 meters of a property decrease the sales price anywhere between 1% and 3% for up to five years after a foreclosure (Biswas, 2012;Harding, Rosenblatt, & Yao, 2009 (Gilderbloom, Riggs, & Meares, 2015). ...
Population-level engagement in adequate leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) can improve mental and physical health and potentially save billions in health care costs. Despite these potentially positive outcomes, inadequate LTPA engagement is prevalent in the United States with urban residents’ living in poverty when compared to residents not living in poverty. The joint effects of the built and social environments, as they relate to LTPA, is a growing area of research and advocacy. Related to this, multiple urban neighborhoods across the United States are redeveloping parks and anticipating various health promotive co-benefits for neighborhoods. However, assessment of post redevelopment impacts on characteristics such as crime, physical disorder, and property values are infrequent and a current research gap. This dissertation uses spatial and quantitative statistical methods to address the question of, “Is park redevelopment associated with changes in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), blight crime, and property values, in neighborhoods with at least one redeveloped park?” Specifically, this work studies Detroit, Michigan, United States of America which recently released a redevelopment plan to improve 163 of its 308 parks with 36 done in the first phase (2016 – 2017). Using the 500 Cities: Local Data for Better Health dataset, this dissertation will assess differences in LTPA prevalence in census tracts that had parks redeveloped 2006 – 2015 (n= 99) compared to tracts without redeveloped parks (n= 62) (Paper I). The following two papers compare census tracts (n= 31) with at least one park completed in Phase 1 to matched census tracts without a redeveloped park, to assess changes to physical disorder (i.e., blight) and crime (Paper II), and property values (Paper III). There were several key findings across these studies. The neighborhood percentage of LTPA was not associated with park redevelopment. While the crime rate per 1,000-population is increasing in the City of Detroit, neighborhoods with at least one redeveloped park had non-significant changes in rates of reported crime following park redevelopment compared to neighborhoods without redeveloped parks. This same research study found that neighborhoods with at least one redeveloped park had non-significant changes in violent crime rates per 1,000-population compared to neighborhoods without any redeveloped park. The final question of this study found that total blight fines per parcel were significantly higher in neighborhoods with at least one redeveloped park; however, the confounding of total park acres in the census tract made the association insignificant in the full repeated measures model. Finally, valid arm’s length (VAL) sales price did not change following park redevelopment. However, the effect of park redevelopment on VAL differed based on additional greenspace (i.e., greenway) where there was a higher VAL sales price in neighborhoods with redeveloped parks and additional greenspace. In addition, neighborhoods with at least one redeveloped park and more than five acres of total park space reported a lower VAL sales price compared to neighborhoods with more than five acres of total park space and no redeveloped parks. These findings more broadly provide urban neighborhoods nationwide with methods to measure health-related changes in their neighborhoods following park redevelopment and respond to questions from Detroit residents and decision-makers. Further, decision-makers should be cautious before making up-front assertions in publicly available published plans that changes will occur following park redevelopment without first testing the associations.
... Neo-traditional neighborhood design refers to developments based on the urban form of traditional neighborhoods both in the Western societies and the MENA region (Crane, 1998;Masoumi, 2019). Walkability was a significant characteristic of traditional neighborhoods (Sallis et al., 2004;Gilderbloom, Riggs, and Meares, 2015). Today, while the sprawled urban forms of newest American, Australian and Canadian cities are car-oriented, the dense urban forms of European, Japanese and Chinese cities, encourage walking and cycling (Comtois et al., 2013). ...
Unlike literature and studies coming from high-income or Western countries, the existing conducted on the Middle East and North Africa fail to draw a nearly complete image of the characteristics of passenger travel behaviors in the urban areas of the region. This gap necessitates a holistic review of the previous studies and comparing their results of those of the international findings. This paper summarizes the status of urban travel behavior studies on the MENA region under eight categories of socioeconomics, land use, perceptions and attitudes, urban sprawl, neighborhood design, public transportation use, active mobility, and new technologies and concepts. Descriptive literature review and desk research depicts both lack of research results or data and differences between the behaviors in the MENA region and the Western countries. Moreover, based on the background review, this paper provides a list of recommendations for having more sustainable mobility in the MENA region.
... The strong relationship between attachment and aspects of walking suggest that those attached to walking tend to seek walkable places. The results are somewhat similar to prior studies on walkability and attachment (Choi & Kim, 2021;Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Lee & Shen, 2013). Due to the total effect, the influence of attachment to walking on subjective well-being is the strongest, suggesting that the more people are involved in walking, the better their subjective well-being. ...
Despite the environmental and health importance of tourist walking, specific research on walking and tourism is limited, with walking in leisure and work contexts often being used as a proxy. To fill this gap, this study identifies the effects of perception of air quality and mitigating climate change on attachment to walking relevant to walkable places and subjective well-being, along with comparing tourism, leisure, and work activity groups in walking, verifying six hypotheses. The findings of this study shed light on the effects of environmental factors (perception of air quality and climate change mitigation) on attachment to walking, providing new knowledge to the tourism and active transport literature. Attachment to walking and walkable place are key predictors for walkers' subjective well-being. Importantly, walking when a tourist is significantly different from walking for leisure and work, providing potential insights for the development of behavioural interventions to encourage walking. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Walking accessibility to everyday destinations, such as schools, restaurants and greenspaces has been associated with better health (Creatore et al., 2016), lower crime rates, fewer foreclosures and increased property values (Gilderbloom et al., 2015). These associations taken together make promotion of pedestrian accessibility to urban amenities a fundamental strategy in urban planning (Anderson and West, 2006;Czembrowski and Kronenberg, 2016). ...
Modelling walking distance enables the observation of non-linearities in hedonic property pricing of accessibility to greenspace. We test a penalized spline spatial error model (PS-SEM), which has two distinctive features. First, the PS-SEM controls for the presence of a spatially autocorrelated error term. Second, the PS-SEM allows for continuous non-linear distance decay of the property price premium as a function of walking distance to greenspaces. As a result, compared with traditional spatial econometric methods, the PS-SEM has the advantage that data determines the functional form of the distance decay of the implicit price for greenspace accessibility. Our PS-SEM results from Oslo, Norway, suggest that the implicit price for greenspace access is highly non-linear in walking distance, with the functional form varying for different types of greenspaces. Our results caution against using simple linear distances and assumptions of log or stepwise buffer-based distance decay in property prices relative to pedestrian network distance to urban amenities. The observed heterogeneity in the implicit property prices for walking distance to greenspace also provides a general caution against using non-spatial hedonic pricing models when aggregating values of greenspace amenities for policy analysis or urban ecosystem accounting purposes.
... Hence, high walkability can potentially promote capable guardianship by filling outdoor spaces with more people and increasing more "eyes on the street." To a certain degree, findings that imply walkability has the potential to decrease the rate of specific crimes, like aggravated crime and murder crime (Gilderbloom et al., 2015;Lee and Contreras, 2021), resonate with the ideas above. Following this logic, we can infer that a high level of walkability is likely to inhibit assault occurrence and magnify the informal surveillance and guardianship behavior induced by green space. ...
Criminal behavior has been traditionally linked to green space. However, studies on the relationship between green space and crime vary in their conclusions and even contradict each other. This variability is primarily attributed to the mixing-up of specific crimes and the less-explored influencing mechanisms. This study considers Toronto and focuses on a specific kind of crime, assault, for exploring whether green space influences the neighborhood assault rate. If so, then how does it affect the assault rate? By considering the neighborhood as the spatial analysis unit, the indicators of green space and its component structure (namely the composition of trees, shrubs, and grass) are included in the regression analysis model used in this study. The dual effect (both positive and negative) of walkability on crime is treated as the moderator in the regression model. Our analysis revealed that high percentages of green space, tree area, and grass area potentially inhibit assault occurrence, while the shrub area percentage has no statistically significant association with the assault rate. When walkability reaches a certain degree (84th or/and 50th percentiles in this study), it can enhance the inhibitory impact of the green space and its component structure (including trees, shrubs, and grass) on the assault rate. Comparatively, this reduction effect is more significant for green space composed of grass. Therefore, we can infer that increasing the percentage of trees and grass, while simultaneously improving walkability, can reduce residents’ risk of being assaulted at the neighborhood level.
... Walking is usually recognized as an active transport mode that encourages good public and private health and well-being, contributes to a feeling of community and positive sense of place, and, importantly in the current concerns of climate and environmental change, can help reduce traffic congestion, and hence, air pollution and emissions, as well as resource depletion (Leyden 2003;Forsyth and Southworth 2008;Ewing and Handy 2009;Gilderbloom et al. 2015;Hall et al. 2017). ...
One of the most common activities among tourists is walking, providing visitors with a range of different experiences of the places they visit. These experiences can vary, depending on the time of the year, weather, and, most importantly, the motivations of the individual. Much attention has gone into understanding the ways in which built and natural environments create opportunities for people to walk. However, the motivations and walking behaviors of tourists can differ from those of local residents. This paper explores walkability by adopting a systematic review of literature on different databases. The descriptive theme is focused on the general importance of walkability and four major themes on tourist walking studies are identified. The findings from the studies and their limitations point toward a need for further study, with a focus on local residents and tourists in order to understand whether there are differences and to understand the attributes that may affect their walking behaviors and experiences.
... Normally walkability is related to the level of service for pedestrians and is associated to street width, number of lanes, safe driving speed, crossing improvements, presence of trees, and other facilities (Dowling et al. 2008). However, walkability goes further, with researchers starting to demonstrate the socioeconomic benefits of walkable areas for communities (Adkins et al. 2017), e.g., housing prices and safety (Gilderbloom et al. 2015) as well as public health improvements, e.g., through the decrease of cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes (Frank et al. 2007;Creatore et al. 2016). ...
Soundscape studies are showing the importance and the benefits regarding the sonic the environment in our daily lives. The soundscape paradigm shift, not just negative aspects, common on environmental noise studies, is highlighted, but also how the sonic environment can be recovering to the welfare of communities. Thinking on the valuation of settings, past studies focused mainly on how much the environmental noise cost society. This kind of valuation followed several methods like hedonic pricing, contingent valuation, and benefits transfer methods based just on economic factors involving socio-economic aspects. This study aims to show a new approach which fits better with the soundscape paradigm shift established by the ISO 12913. The study highlights the valuation of positive and negative aspects of the evaluated soundscape, together with the interaction of socio-economic and socio-cultural, psychoacoustic, landscape, thermal-comfort, and air quality aspects, which are other stimuli that can influence our general environmental perception. Context also has great importance. Through the diversification of data collection (soundwalks and interviews) with different target public, it was possible to ensure the coverage and understanding of this aspect on soundscape studies and the development of the proposed Soundscape Cost Index. The index shown in this work can explain 58% of the combination of the above-mentioned aspects related to public spaces users' soundscape expectations, helping to redirect public authorities' efforts to provide healthy and comfortable public areas and ensure a reliable and better life quality.
In the active living community, Walking is one of the oldest and most basic forms of transportation. Although, walking has generally received little or no attention in the planning, and development of urban communities. Having more walkable communities is a connection and intersection of three overlapped layers of the research main domains; urban physical features, perceptional qualities, and individual reactions. The research has developed operational definitions for the urban physical features believed to be related to walkability, investigating the interaction between human activities and individual reactions as a feeling of safety and comfort, through a clear perceptional dimension of image-ability, legibility, complexity, etc., within-group of urban physical features as street width, proportion, buildings height, etc. However, the research aims to extract the conceptual walkability framework elaborated from the literature and offering empirical study based on a quantitative tool of the formative scenario analysis. Moreover, the research is addressing an assessment approach to have an insightful indication of the values of the variables based on the conceptual walkability framework, as opportunities to improve conditions for walking to make communities more Liveable. Finally, the research offers a field survey instrument, through applying the formative scenario analysis technique to study walkability in one of the mixed-use neighborhood gated community, indicating the impact of each variable and its relative weight, concluding with the graphical representation, and the impact matrix of the walkable variables of the studying area.
One’s gender, ethnic, and racial identification in urban life affect their social experiences,
and as an example, their transportation choices. Investigating social factors (including gender identification) influencing Muslim women’s walking behavior is the core question of this dissertation. During the last two decades, the walkability discourse changed its emphasis from 5Ds (e.g., density, design, diversity, distance to transit, and destination accessibility) and their significance in promoting walking behavior to the interconnectedness of walkability and social equity. The level of accessibility to urban resources was depicted as one of the key drivers for social equity in urban areas. The essential point is that walkability discourse has predominantly focused on macroscale studies that utilize federal and national data. This exaggerated emphasis on macro-scale data has diminished researchers’ ability to understand qualitative data and fine factors that impact one’s decision to walk or not walk in urban neighborhoods. Although there are studies focusing on social and cultural factors affecting walking behavior in the last ten years, there is an enormous lack of micro-scale studies, that are significant specifically in case studies targeting hard-to-reach population (e.g., Muslim community). Micro-scale studies reveal social inequalities and health disparities in urban areas, and deciphers individuals’ desires, needs, and concerns related to their multimodal transportation choices. Conducting micro-scale studies is even more critical for traditional communities with specific religious or cultural values, which limits their social life and diminish their access to urban opportunities.
This dissertation focuses on socio ecological model of walking behavior and applies the
model to Muslim women’s walking behavior in the Detroit Metro Area.
For this dissertation, I draw first on a two year and half participant observation in public
spaces, religious ceremonies, and personal interactions with Muslim women in observed cities in the Detroit Metro area. After a long pre-recruitment process, I came up with criteria to identify gatekeepers to access the community to ease recruitment of Muslim women for semi-structured interviews. The second phase of this study consisted of 78 semi-structured interviews with Muslim women in the Detroit Metro Area. Each interview took between 35 and 120 minutes.
Study participants were Muslim women in the age range of 18-55 residing in the Detroit Metro Area. The preliminary findings of the study revealed that different forms of microaggression played a significant role in discouraging Muslim women from walking in their own neighborhoods. Two following factors were also considerably mentioned by study participants: 1) the percentage of Muslims living in every observed urban neighborhood (representing the level of residential segregation) and 2) their feeling of being discriminated against in their own urban neighborhood.
These two chapters (8 and 9) investigate the key Livable Streets concepts. It summarizes literature concerning how traffic speed and volume affect local residents’ physical, mental, and social health. This research indicates that people’s ability to move around as pedestrians and bicyclists, and residents’ ability to make social ties with neighbors, are diminished by the negative impacts of motor vehicle traffic, which can be called the “traffic barrier effect” or “community severance”. Chapter 8 explores how traffic effects various physical, mental, and social determinants of health. It includes a discussion related to the full costs of these barrier and severance impacts, providing policy guidance on pricing. Capturing the full cost and compensating those impacted by traffic was a major point made in the original version.
Chapter 8 provides a review of current literature related to research Livable Streets helped foster, with a focus on the effects of traffic speed and volume on people’s ability to move around as pedestrians and bicyclist, and residents’ ability to make social ties with neighbors, often referred to as the “traffic barrier effect” or “community severance”.
This chapter is organized into two parts: The first discusses the physical, mental, and social determinants of health; and second, a policy discussion related to the direct costs related to these barrier and severance effects. This all sets things up for the next chapter, which provides an in-depth a case study looking at the barriers and severance caused by traffic, based directly on the original research of Livable Streets.
Perception of space is a multifaceted process, where humans may direct their behaviour within the environment through the influence of sensory stimuli, cognitive processing and subjective evaluation. Yet in streets, perceptual studies commonly focus on the physical structure of the environment while undermining the psychological and subjective components that shape the environmental perception. This paper has adopted a perceptual-cognitive approach to construct a multisensory perceptual social and physical model. It addresses visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory stimuli as well as pedestrians’ preference score to extract main components of the street perception. Critical review of the literature, the expert’s validation, a pilot study, and the exploratory factor analysis are thoroughly used in this study. Factor analysis extracted eight components associated with perception, including Sociability, Mobility, Convenience, Contentment, Urbanization, Pollution, Safety, and Nature. The results exhibit and discuss the latent correlations between street attributes and perception.
Despite evidence of the importance of neighborhood built environment features in relation to physical activity and obesity, research has been limited in informing localized practice due to small sample sizes and limited geographic coverage. This demonstration study integrated data from a local pediatric health system with nationally available neighborhood built environment data to inform local decision making around neighborhood environments and childhood obesity. Height/weight from clinic visits and home neighborhood measures from the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency and WalkScore were obtained for 15,989 6-17 year olds. Multilevel models accounted for the nested data structure and were adjusted for neighborhood income and child sociodemographics. In 9-17 year olds, greater street connectivity and walkability were associated with a 0.01-0.04 lower BMIz (Ps = .009-.017) and greater residential density, street connectivity, and walkability were associated 5-7% lower odds of being overweight/obese (Ps = .004-.044) per standard deviation increase in environment variable. 45.9% of children in the lowest walkability tertile were overweight or obese, whereas 43.1% of children in the highest walkability tertile were overweight or obese. Maps revealed areas with low walkability and a high income-adjusted percent of children overweight/obese. In the Kansas City area, data showed that fewer children were overweight/obese in more walkable neighborhoods. Integrating electronic health records with neighborhood environment data is a replicable process that can inform local practice by highlighting the importance of neighborhood environment features locally and pointing to areas most in need of interventions.
Two broad categories of barriers to improving pedestrian and bicycle transportation are concerns about traffic safety and personal security. Gathering residents’ perceptions of these barriers can help public agencies develop effective and equitable strategies to create more sustainable transportation systems. We analyzed open-ended responses to the 2020 Milwaukee Safe and Healthy Streets survey to identify common traffic safety barriers (e.g., driver behavior such as speeding and red-light-running) and personal security barriers (e.g., undesirable street behaviors such as gun violence, robbery, and assault) to walking and bicycling. Then, we developed binary logistic models to identify perceptions of neighborhood characteristics, and individual demographic characteristics related to perceiving walking or bicycling as unsafe with respect to traffic or personal security. For walking, respondents’ traffic safety concerns were most strongly associated with perceptions of fast neighborhood traffic speeds, and personal security concerns were associated with perceptions of poor neighborhood cleanliness. For bicycling, both traffic safety concerns and personal security concerns were most strongly associated with poor neighborhood opportunities for exercise. At an individual level, living in a zero-vehicle household and having self-reported poor health were associated with rating traffic safety for both walking and bicycling as unsafe; having disabilities was associated with rating walking as unsafe. In almost every aspect of our analysis, respondents living in lower-income communities reported greater barriers to pedestrian and bicycle safety and security than residents from wealthier neighborhoods. The results emphasized the importance of both the social and physical environment for improving pedestrian and bicycle transportation.
New strategies to improve the quality of urban pedestrian environments are becoming increasingly important in sustainable city planning. This trend has been driven by the advantages that active mobility provides in terms of health, social, and environmental aspects. Our work explores the idea of walkability. This concept refers to the friendliness of the urban environment to pedestrian traffic. We propose a framework based on the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology to rank streets in terms of walkability levels. The city of Lisbon (Portugal) is the location of the streets under examination. Findings confirmed the framework’s replicability and suggested the possibility of this strategy being used as a support tool for designing urban policies.
Enhancing the walkability of urban streets is an effective means to improve public health, alleviate traffic congestion, and enhance the living environment. In China, the government has actively encouraged green travel and promoted improvements in the walk system. The walkability of the built environment is affected by many factors. In addition to the configuration of daily life facilities, street greening can have significant effects on walkability. To explore the rationality of street life facilities and understand the impact of the natural attributes of the block space (street-level greening) on the quality of the walking environment, we evaluated the walkability of Zhongshan Road in Qingdao, China and optimized the algorithm of the walk score. In this study, we selected residential areas as the starting point and modified the weight coefficients for facilities to evaluate the walkability of streets. Traditional research methods were combined with street view image capture, and the rate of the attenuation factor was used for the new optimization algorithm. We discussed the rationality of street life facilities and increased the green vision rate using a correction index. By comparing changes in walkability before and after joining, we analyzed the necessity of including new indicators. The results show that the average walking index of Zhongshan Road is 79.74, and the overall performance is good, showing a high trend in the west and a low trend in the east, and a high trend in the south and a low trend in the north. According to the general walking index, western stations and southern coastal areas have higher scores, and living facilities are well equipped; old northern and eastern residential areas have lower scores. Among them, the average weight of bookstores is 0.74, and the average weight of parks is 0.69. To meet residents’ needs for daily leisure activities, adding bookstores or similar facilities in community parks would be necessary to improve daily facilities and services. The average green viewing rate of Zhongshan Road is 20.48%, which is lower than the best visual perception value of 25.00%. Comparing the walking index changes before and after adding the green viewing rate, the high-scoring area shifted from the west to the south, and the west walking index has the most significant decline. Street greening has a certain impact on the quality of the walking environment. The results and conclusions of this study can be used as a reference in developing street walkability indicators and further improving the evaluation system.
Using nearly 20,000 single-family house transactions for Orange County, California, we analyzed the effect of walkability of properties on their closing prices. We found that walkability does not have a noticeable effect on prices at an aggregate level. However, after splitting the data according to the number of garage spaces, we found that for houses with zero to one garage space, walkability had a positive impact on prices; for two-car garage properties, the walkability effect was negligible; for properties with three or more garage spaces, the effect became negative and statistically significant. So a high walkability is a valuable amenity for small houses with up to a one-car garage, but a disamenity for larger homes with three or more garage spaces. We further examined whether the impact of walkability on prices was nonlinear and found that nonlinearity existed for houses with two or three garage spaces. Our findings of the effect of walkability on prices have practical implications for real estate stakeholders.
Creating walkable places and increasing urban vegetation in neighborhoods have emerged as important planning strategies to promote health, social, and environmental benefits. Although past studies have found that walkability and tree canopy are associated with crime, little research has comprehensively examined how neighborhood walkability and tree canopy are associated with street crime. The current study fills this gap by analyzing the relationship among walkable access to amenities measured by Walk Score, urban tree canopy, and the five-year violent and property street crime rates (2014-2018) across an entire city. This study used the case of Austin, Texas to investigate the association exists between 1) neighborhood walkability and street crime and 2) tree canopy and street crime. We also assessed whether the association between neighborhood walkability and street crime was moderated by tree canopy. The first set of models based on a negative binomial regression showed that neighborhood walkability was positively associated with both violent and property street crime rates while tree canopy was inversely associated with violent and property street crime rates. The second set of models revealed a nonlinear relationship between neighborhood walkability and the street crime rate. The final set of models showed that tree canopy cover can moderate the relationship between street crime and neighborhood walkability, suggesting that tree canopy can somewhat offset the negative influence of walkable neighborhoods, such as crowdedness and noise, in relation to street crime. The findings have implications for developing evidence-based planning, design, and policy strategies to create livable streets and prevent street crime by planting more trees in walking-friendly environments.
Value uplift refers to the increase in property value attributable to proximate transportation infrastructure. The empirical literature is generally supportive of the argument to capture a fraction of such additional value to operate public transportation systems. Unfortunately, attention to the relative value of different transportation infrastructure besides rail infrastructure is not evident in the literature. The gap in the literature is problematic because an accurate estimate of the total revenue potential from present transportation infrastructure investments is not realistic nor is an accurate estimate of the value uplift potential from future transportation infrastructure investments realistic. In order to fill the gap, adoption of a geographically-weighted approach expands the temporal scale of analysis to more than a decade and the spatial scale of analysis to an entire heavy rail system in order to properly contextualize the value uplift from pedestrian infrastructure and from rail infrastructure. Results advance the state of knowledge on value uplift to show the range of value uplift attributable to walkability in proximity to heavy rail stations. Overall, the results warrant further research to better understand why the estimate of the value uplift attributable to walkability is higher than the estimate in the empirical literature.
Smart cities produce high volumes of data that could be shared through APIs. This open data could be used to overcome the challenges of urbanization. This research aims at using the Location-based-services APIs to measure the attractiveness of a residence location for people who are searching for long-term rental apartments. The research uses the days on market as an indicator for residence attractiveness. This will occur through the developing a machine learning model to predict days on market whereas the urban features are part of the predictors. The research utilizes transaction data and profile information for long term rental apartments crawled from a real estate website. The research assumption has been tested using the principal component regression. Several machine learning models have been evaluated. The Gradient Boosting Regression is selected based on its performance. Shapley value is used to determine the comportment of the predictors in machine learning model. Although the urban feature component is a relatively weak predictor, but it is statically significant, whereas walkability, transit availability, and bikeability negatively influence the days on market while traffic congestion has a positive impact. These shows that renters prefer well serviced areas even when it is congested.
Pedestrians, while walking alone, feel unsafe and vulnerable in certain outdoor spaces at certain times of the day. This fear of victimisation often leads pedestrians to avail costlier alternatives, such as taking viable detours or abandoning walking altogether and switching to alternative forms of transport. This fear reduces the appeal of walking, the most basic transport mode, and one that is essential for preserving our physical and mental health. In this study, we introduce walk-sharing, a hypothetical buddy-service, which is aimed at encouraging people to choose walking when it is viable, and not pursue alternative modes. In walk-sharing, a potential pedestrian will get matched to another so that they are able to walk together, instead of walking alone, and thus overcome any potential fear that arises out of seemingly unsafe walking environments. To understand whether walk-sharing can be beneficial for the community, this study will outline its core concepts and explore its viability under different plausible scenarios. We use agent-based modelling techniques under synthetic and realistic scenarios to understand the conditions in which walk-sharing will produce acceptable outcomes.
The Complete Streets movement has been steadily gaining attention in the United States over the last 16 years. Adoption of policies that encourage street designers to consider the needs of all users—and not only automobile users—have become more widespread, with over 1,400 US jurisdictions formally embracing Complete Streets policies. The promised benefits of Complete Streets policies are far reaching, but rigorous studies proving these benefits are rare. This paper reviews the state of the practice of Complete Streets and some attempts to catalogue the outputs and outcomes of Complete Streets projects, and analyzes case studies to determine best practices.
The Zimbabwean nation has been struggling to gain economic development momentum in the multi-currency era despite numerous efforts being made by policy makers. The economy has since operated with budget deficits and high consumption expenditures in the form of wages for civil servants and little capital expenditure for proper development in the longer term. The Zimbabwean economy has lagged behind many economies which have been on the same economic level some few decades ago, yet there still exist inadequate effort and improper arrangements for its civil servants to provide services timeously and effectively. The study analyzed qualitatively the impact that the demand for cheap transport by government workers to/from work has on the production or service delivery in the public sector. Using an electronic survey technique, the study managed to confirm that public sector workers are failing to report to work early and are leaving work early due to poor transport arrangements and transport challenges. The welfare of workers does not match the costs of commuting using other methods apart from them using public sector transport and the revitalized ZUPCO transport and ZUPCO franchised transport. Working less than the statutorily stipulated time impacts negatively on economic development and stability, causing the nation to remain in the economic deep. The study recommends welfare of civil servants to be addressed so that they are able to commute timeously to work. More flexible methods of offering services should be sought and adopted to reduce pressure on transportation during peak hours. Increasing public sector fleet and effectively managing it is ideal. Private players in the transport sector should be accommodated through favorable contracts that enables them to make profit. Macroeconomic stability and economic growth may not be attainable if public sector workers transport challenges are not effectively and correctly addressed.
Walking accessibility, which is defined as the ease of reaching essential destinations in the walk-in catchment area, may affect property prices because residents are more likely to be willing to pay for this attribute. In addition, different categories of public services may have varied influencing directions and magnitude. These two hypotheses are tested in this study. Taking Xiamen, China as a case study, we estimate the cumulative opportunities of public services on foot and develop a set of hedonic pricing models to estimate whether and to what extent walking accessibility contributes to price premiums. Using a database of 22,586 second-hand residential properties in 358 multi- or high-story residential complexes, we find that (1) walking accessibility to public services contributes to the variations in property prices and plays a role in determining property prices; (2) different categories of services have vastly divergent, even opposite, influencing impacts; and (3) walking accessibility to primary schools, commercial centers, and sports and cultural centers have positive effects on property prices whereas walking accessibility to comprehensive hospitals adversely affects property prices. Robustness checks further guarantee the plausibility of this study.
Improving walkability has the potential to play a major role in improving both accessibility and the public health dimensions of our cities. Walkability research to-date has focused on the influence of the built environment on physical activity associated with health and active transport outcomes. While the probable desirability of walkability to real estate value is recognised by the embedding of walkability indices such as WalkScore in property listing platforms, there is a paucity of research exploring this assumption. This research addresses this gap by undertaking an empirical study to quantify the economic value of walkability to residential property. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of hedonic price modelling to test measures of walkability with a case study. We find that WalkScore is positively related to prices for detached houses in Sydney, Australia but has no significant relationship to unit prices. Possible reasons and directions for future work are discussed.
This book seeks to shed light on the role of environment-friendly transport accessibility in determining property prices in Chinese cities. Many environment-friendly transport modes, including walking, metro, bus rapid transit (BRT), and bus are examined. Spatial econometric models, quantile regression models, and machine learning techniques are used. This book contributes to people's understanding of the relationship between environmental-friendly transport accessibility and property prices. Moreover, it is of value to policymakers, including (1) informing urban planners/designers to plan/design cities with an adequate level of environment-friendly transport accessibility; (2) offering an evidence-based approach to implementing value capture schemes for financing investments in urban infrastructure; and (3) providing the basis for mitigating the negative externality of proximity to the transit corridor, jointly constructing comprehensive hospitals and other compatible amenities, and so forth.
In the active living community, Walking is one of the oldest and most basic forms of transportation. Although, walking has generally received little or no attention in the planning, and development of urban communities. Having more walkable communities is a connection and intersection of three overlapped layers of the research main domains; urban physical features, perceptional qualities, and individual reactions. The research has developed operational definitions for the urban physical features believed to be related to walkability, investigating the interaction between human activities and individual reactions as a feeling of safety and comfort, through a clear perceptional dimension of image-ability, legibility, complexity, etc., within-group of urban physical features as street width, proportion, buildings height, etc. However, the research aims to extract the conceptual walkability framework elaborated from the literature and offering empirical study based on a quantitative tool of the formative scenario analysis. Moreover, the research is addressing an assessment approach to have an insightful indication of the values of the variables based on the conceptual walkability framework, as opportunities to improve conditions for walking to make communities more Liveable. Finally, the research offers a field survey instrument, through applying the formative scenario analysis technique to study walkability in one of the mixed-use neighborhood gated community, indicating the impact of each variable and its relative weight, concluding with the graphical representation, and the impact matrix of the walkable variables of the studying area.
Paying attention to the sustainability of houses and any effort in this direction can be extremely important in achieving more sustainable societies. In this regard, sustainability assessment tools and more specifically the certificates that are used to evaluate the sustainability of urban houses can play major roles and, therefore, present points that need to be as efficient as possible. The study is an attempt at analyzing the efficiency of BREEAM (The British Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), as one of the most advanced and highest used certificates (in the world) in the housing sector, based on the results from a systematic literature review. To achieve this goal, the scoring system used in the BREEAM International New Construction 2016 is evaluated in order to see if the credits and weightings that are assigned to the assessment issues are aligned with the trends existing in the recent literature related to urban housing sustainability. The results of a previously published systematic review of 118 recent papers are used to extract the most important factors (and their importance degrees) affecting the sustainability of urban houses on a global scale. The analysis outcome shows significant differences in the prioritization of factors and the importance degree given to each factor between the BREEAM evaluation process and the literature review factors.
Background:
Although a number of environmental and policy interventions to promote physical activity are being widely used, there is sparse systematic information on the most effective approaches to guide population-wide interventions.
Methods:
We reviewed studies that addressed the following environmental and policy strategies to promote physical activity: community-scale urban design and land use policies and practices to increase physical activity; street-scale urban design and land use policies to increase physical activity; and transportation and travel policies and practices. These systematic reviews were based on the methods of the independent Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Exposure variables were classified according to the types of infrastructures/policies present in each study. Measures of physical activity behavior were used to assess effectiveness.
Results:
Two interventions were effective in promoting physical activity (community-scale and street-scale urban design and land use policies and practices). Additional information about applicability, other effects, and barriers to implementation are provided for these interventions. Evidence is insufficient to assess transportation policy and practices to promote physical activity.
Conclusions:
Because community- and street-scale urban design and land-use policies and practices met the Community Guide criteria for being effective physical activity interventions, implementing these policies and practices at the community-level should be a priority of public health practitioners and community decision makers.
This report will be of interest to public agencies responsible for the planning, design, and operation of urban streets. This report provides a method for assessing how well an urban street serves the needs of all of its users: auto drivers, transit passengers, bicycle riders, and pedestrians. The project developed and calibrated a method for evaluating the multimodal level of service (MMLOS) provided by different urban street designs and operations.
There are ways to quantify the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort, and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including accessibility, consumer cost savings, public cost savings (reduced external costs), more efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, and support for equity objectives. Yet current transportation planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive analysis techniques are likely to increase public support for walking and other nonmotorized modes of travel.
... and gasoline consumption ( Frank , Stone and Bachman 2000, Ewing and Cervero 2001, Frank and Engelke ... the risk of default would be 0.9% for a property with a Walk Score between 9 ... However, if WALKSCORE were 80 or more, the OLTV for the same average property could ...
Foreclosures have become one of the most important problems facing cities and the U.S. economy. However, not all communities are affected equally. Our goal is to better understand factors that affect variation in neighborhood foreclosures in a typical, mid‐sized U.S. city—Louisville, Kentucky. While previous findings indicate that a key explanatory variable leading to rising neighborhood foreclosures is the proportion of racial minorities, our analysis finds that in a fully specified model, race does not predict differences between black and white homeowners. On the other hand, an analysis of investors predicts high foreclosure rates in African‐American neighborhoods. The effect of percent nonwhite is caused by several key intervening variables, including the presence of investor foreclosures, the absence of neighborhood walkability, and the prevalence of high‐cost loans. In the past, walkability and investor behavior have largely been ignored by social scientists studying neighborhood variation in foreclosures and the role of race in rising foreclosures. In this article, we examine how speculation by investors in majority African‐American neighborhoods along with degree of walkability and the concentration of high‐priced loans have contributed to recent increases in foreclosures and variation across neighborhoods. Together, the findings demonstrate that these three factors help to better explain the contemporary causes of greater foreclosures in African‐American neighborhoods.
Secondary units, or separate small dwellings embedded within single-family residential properties, constitute a frequently overlooked strategy for urban infill in high-cost metropolitan areas in the United States. This study, which is situated within California’s San Francisco Bay Area, draws upon data collected from a homeowners’ survey and a Rental Market Analysis to provide evidence that a scaled-up strategy emphasizing one type of secondary unit – the backyard cottage – could yield substantial infill growth with minimal public subsidy. In addition, it is found that this strategy compares favorably in terms of affordability with infill of the sort traditionally favored in the ‘smart growth’ literature, i.e. the construction of dense multifamily housing developments.
Problem: Many voices within the planning community have called for replacement of the dominant model of suburban development with a more traditional style of development. Traditionally designed communities, featuring a mix of residential and commercial land uses and pedestrian connections between these uses, offer many potential environmental, social, and health benefits. Adoption of policies that encourage traditionally designed communities depends in part on public support, but evidence on the extent and nature of such support is largely anecdotal.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess trends in public support for traditionally designed communities and to provide insights into factors associated with that support.Methods: The study uses data from comparable surveys of nationally representative samples of American households in 2003 and 2005. The surveys described a traditionally designed community and asked respondents, “How much would you support the development of communities like this in your area?” The survey also included questions on respondents' sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes on a variety of issues, expectations about the likelihood traditionally designed communities would have certain characteristics, and how important these characteristics were to them.Results and conclusions: In 2003, 44% of respondents expressed support for developing traditionally designed communities in the areas where they lived. This support increased significantly to 59% in 2005. Support was strong among all groups except rural residents, and increased among all groups between 2003 and 2005. This support was positively related to expectations that such communities would be child-friendly and negatively related to expectations that they would have space limitations. Respondents perceived such communities as likely to allow older people to live independently, and they also rated this characteristic as highly important.Takeaway for practice: Public support for developing traditionally designed communities is strong, widespread, and growing. Although such communities find less support in rural areas and raise concerns over limited space, they have appeal as child- and elderly-friendly places. Though there is evidence that supply of traditionally designed communities does not meet demand, this evidence of growing support may foster policy changes that will help to close the gap.Research support: This research was funded by the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The authors examine the characteristics and experiences of rent-to-own customers using a nationwide survey of 532 customers and 11,575 non-customers. The authors find that most customers have low incomes and education levels, but most have a motor vehicle and some type of credit card or bank account; most customers use RTO transactions to purchase merchandise, not merely as short-term rentals; and most customers are satisfied with the transactions and are treated well if they are late making a payment, though some experience abusive collection practices. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for public policy.
This paper presents the results of research to develop a national method for the multimodal assessment of the quality of service provided by an urban street. The method considers the level of service from the point of view of four types of travelers typically using the urban street: auto driver, transit passenger, bicycle rider, and pedestrian. Video laboratories and transit onboard surveys were used to develop data sets of the quality of service perceived by the general public for each of the modes of travel on the urban street. The laboratories were conducted in several different metropolitan areas of the United States. Four level-of-service (LOS) models were developed, one for each mode. The four LOS models share a common measure, user satisfaction. The models assign a letter grade LOS (A–F) based on the street cross section, intersection controls, and traffic characteristics (auto, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian volumes on the street). The models can be used in combination to compare the trade-offs of different street cross sections from the unique perspectives of each mode. The models are particularly useful for testing the impacts of converting auto through lanes to bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, and wider planter strips.
This paper describes ways to evaluate the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including basic mobility, consumer cost savings, cost savings (reduced external costs), efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, and support for equity objectives. Current transportation planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive analysis techniques, described in this paper, are likely to increase public support for walking and other nonmotorized modes of travel.
Many agree that increasing physical activity will improve public health. This paper reports on empirical findings on the relationship between the density of the residential environment, walking and total physical activity. Using multiple objective and self-reported measures for 715 participants in the US, and improved techniques for sampling and analysis, it finds that density is associated with the purpose of walking (travel, leisure) but not the amount of overall walking or overall physical activity, although there are sub-group differences by race/ ethnicity. Overall, higher densities have many benefits in terms of efficient use of infrastructure, housing affordability, energy efficiency and possibly vibrant street life. But higher densities alone, like other built environment features, do not appear to be the silver bullet in the public health campaign to increase physical activity.
Available evidence establishes correlations between the built environment and walking, but not a causal relationship, leading researchers to debate whether "self-selection explains the observed correlations: do residents who prefer to walk choose to live in more walkable neighborhoods? Using data from a survey of residents of eight neighborhoods in Northern California, this article presents new evidence on the possibility of a causal relationship between the built environment and walking behavior. This work improves on most previous studies by incorporating travel attitudes and neighborhood preferences into the analysis of walking behavior, and by using a quasi-longitudinal design to test the relationship between changes in the built environment and changes in walking. Both analyses show that the built environment has an impact on walking behavior even after accounting for attitudes and preferences.
This study examines the relationship between transportation-, location-, and affordability-related sustainability features and default risk in multifamily housing. It finds that sustainability features can be used to improve the prediction of mortgage default and reduce default risk. The study uses 37,385 loans in the Fannie Mae multifamily portfolio at the end of 2011:Q3. The results suggest two implications for practice. First, certain aspects of sustainability can be fostered without increasing default risk by adjusting conventional lending standards. Second, lenders could improve their risk management practices by taking stock of sustainability features when loans originate.
Research in transportation, urban design, and planning has examined associations between physical environment variables and individuals' walking and cycling for transport. Constructs, methods, and findings from these fields can be applied by physical activity and health researchers to improve understanding of environmental influences on physical activity. In this review, neighborhood environment characteristics proposed to be relevant to walking/cycling for transport are defined, including population density, connectivity, and land use mix. Neighborhood comparison and correlational studies with nonmotorized transport outcomes are considered, with evidence suggesting that residents from communities with higher density, greater connectivity, and more land use mix report higher rates of walking/cycling for utilitarian purposes than low-density, poorly connected, and single land use neighborhoods. Environmental variables appear to add to variance accounted for beyond sociodemographic predictors of walking/cycling for transport. Implications of the transportation literature for physical activity and related research are outlined. Future research directions are detailed for physical activity research to further examine the impact of neighborhood and other physical environment factors on physical activity and the potential interactive effects of psychosocial and environmental variables. The transportation, urban design, and planning literatures provide a valuable starting point for multidisciplinary research on environmental contributions to physical activity levels in the population.
This chapter focuses on the issues in current city planning and rebuilding. It describes the principles and aims that have shaped modern, orthodox city planning and rebuilding. The chapter shows how cities work in real life, because this is the only way to learn what principles of planning and what practices in rebuilding can promote social and economic vitality in cities, and what practices and principles will deaden these attributes. In trying to explain the underlying order of cities, the author uses a preponderance of examples from New York. The most important thread of influence starts, more or less, with Ebenezer Howard, an English court reporter for whom planning was an avocation. Howard's influence on American city planning converged on the city from two directions: from town and regional planners on the one hand, and from architects on the other.
We briefly outline the information-theoretic (I-T) approaches to valid inference including a review of some simple methods for making formal inference from all the hypotheses in the model set (multimodel inference). The I-T approaches can replace the usual t tests and ANOVA tables that are so inferentially limited, but still commonly used. The I-T methods are easy to compute and understand and provide formal measures of the strength of evidence for both the null and alternative hypotheses, given the data. We give an example to highlight the importance of deriving alternative hypotheses and representing these as probability models. Fifteen technical issues are addressed to clarify various points that have appeared incorrectly in the recent literature. We offer several remarks regarding the future of empirical science and data analysis under an I-T framework.
This book attempts to understand the likely correlates of size and growth in the context of US cities, once other factors are taken into account. It offers speculations on an underlying dynamic which accounts for both the size and growth of US cities, and the associated effects. -C.Laverick
A provocative look at the true forces that shape housing markets, challenging mainstream theories of supply and demand and calling for a new way to provide shelter to our cities' most overlooked inhabitants-the elderly, the disabled, and the poor.
Purpose:
To determine the relationship between urban sprawl, health, and health-related behaviors.
Design:
Cross-sectional analysis using hierarchical modeling to relate characteristics of individuals and places to levels of physical activity, obesity, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease.
Setting:
U.S. counties (448) and metropolitan areas (83).
Subjects:
Adults (n = 206,992) from pooled 1998, 1999, and 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).
Measures:
Sprawl indices, derived with principal components analysis from census and other data, served as independent variables. Self-reported behavior and health status from BRFSS served as dependent variables.
Results:
After controlling for demographic and behavioral covariates, the county sprawl index had small but significant associations with minutes walked (p = .004), obesity (p < .001), BMI (p = .005), and hypertension (p = .018). Residents of sprawling counties were likely to walk less during leisure time, weigh more, and have greater prevalence of hypertension than residents of compact counties. At the metropolitan level, sprawl was similarly associated with minutes walked (p = .04) but not with the other variables.
Conclusion:
This ecologic study reveals that urban form could be significantly associated with some forms of physical activity and some health outcomes. More research is needed to refine measures of urban form, improve measures of physical activity, and control for other individual and environmental influences on physical activity, obesity, and related health outcomes.
This chapter aims to provide an assessment of the potential for the private rented sector to provide an alternative to homeownership for households either priced out of owner occupation or for whom the risks of home purchase are too high. The analysis highlights many issues underlying policy debates over rental housing and affordability. It helps to unravel whether potential tweaks to the rental offer, subsidised or not, make a significant difference. Of great importance is the institutional framework under which rental provision occurs - the range of suppliers in existence, the legal and social rules under which they operate and their place in the wider framework of housing availability. It also investigates the impact of extending security of tenure and of introducing second-generation rent controls in parts of the sector. Finally the potential for attracting large investors is considered by assessing the role of economies of scale.
By taking advantage of two recent data sets with exceptional spatial detail, this research is a comprehensive and spatially disaggregate study of the relationship between the built environment and residential property values in the Boston, Massachusetts, metropolitan area. The study computes 27 built environment variables at a 250 m x 250 m grid cell level, uses factor analysis to extract five built environment factors to mitigate multicollinearity, and integrates built environment factors into hedonic price models. Spatial regression techniques are applied to correct spatial autocorrelation. Residential property values are found to be positively associated with accessibility to transit and jobs, connectivity, and walkability and negatively related to auto dominance. Built environment effects depend on neighborhood characteristics.
Problem: Localities and states are turning to land planning and urban design for help in reducing automobile use and related social and environmental costs. The effects of such strategies on travel demand have not been generalized in recent years from the multitude of available studies.Purpose: We conducted a meta-analysis of the built environment-travel literature existing at the end of 2009 in order to draw generalizable conclusions for practice. We aimed to quantify effect sizes, update earlier work, include additional outcome measures, and address the methodological issue of self-selection.Methods: We computed elasticities for individual studies and pooled them to produce weighted averages.Results and conclusions: Travel variables are generally inelastic with respect to change in measures of the built environment. Of the environmental variables considered here, none has a weighted average travel elasticity of absolute magnitude greater than 0.39, and most are much less. Still, the combined effect of several such variables on travel could be quite large. Consistent with prior work, we find that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is most strongly related to measures of accessibility to destinations and secondarily to street network design variables. Walking is most strongly related to measures of land use diversity, intersection density, and the number of destinations within walking distance. Bus and train use are equally related to proximity to transit and street network design variables, with land use diversity a secondary factor. Surprisingly, we find population and job densities to be only weakly associated with travel behavior once these other variables are controlled.Takeaway for practice: The elasticities we derived in this meta-analysis may be used to adjust outputs of travel or activity models that are otherwise insensitive to variation in the built environment, or be used in sketch planning applications ranging from climate action plans to health impact assessments. However, because sample sizes are small, and very few studies control for residential preferences and attitudes, we cannot say that planners should generalize broadly from our results. While these elasticities are as accurate as currently possible, they should be understood to contain unknown error and have unknown confidence intervals. They provide a base, and as more built-environment/travel studies appear in the planning literature, these elasticities should be updated and refined.Research support: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
... 100 (most walkable). By the Walk Score measure, walkability is a direct function of how many destinations are located within a short distance (generally between onequarter mile and one mile of a home). Our measure of walkability ...
A source of one of the more serious problems of evaluation research is the typical finding that evaluated programs have little
or no effectiveness. Recently, claims have been made that the problem of no effect may be attributed to the inadequacy of
current evaluation methodology. In this paper, the reasons for no effect in current program evaluation are analyzed theoretically.
In order to cope with this problem, an alternative evaluation method, the “multi-goal, theory-driven” approach, is proposed.
The principles, procedures, and justification of this new evaluation approach are discussed. Finally, the advantages of applying
the multi-goal, theory-driven approach to program evaluation are illustrated.
The effectiveness of house price index methods depends on the quality and appropriateness of the data employed. This article describes and compares the types of data available. The comparison criteria include ability to adjust for quality; availability of buyer and seller characteristics, financing information, length of time on the market, and locational detail; representativeness; sample size; availability lag; length of time covered; and cost. The results highlight the importance of the match between data type and the proposed use of the house price index. While no data type is ideal, transaction and assessment data are highly rated because of their completeness and increasingly widespread availability. Mortgage transaction data are valuable for evaluating pools of mortgages and modeling defaults. Multiple listing service data are often well suited to local studies. The American Housing Survey has the most detailed property characteristics but must be fairly highly aggregated because of sample-size limitations.
Proponents of metropolitan consolidation identify a range of benefits that may be realized through merger, including improved financial health. There is little agreement as to the actual outcomes across localities that have consolidated, even when limiting the scope to the four major urban mergers, including the merger of Louisville, Kentucky with Jefferson County in 2003, which is under consideration here. One likely reason for conflicting results is the limitation of reflexive analysis as a means of assessing financial impact. In the private sector, analysts would use financial ratio analysis to determine whether the new merged entity was financially healthier after merger. Though a political merger differs from a private sector merger, financial ratio analysis can still be used for pre- and post- analysis of merger effects on financial health. Further, when enough time has passed since merger, quasi-experimental designs like interrupted time series can test the hypothesis that merger had no significant financial impact on the entity at all.
"Active living research" has been accused of being overly "physically deterministic" and this article argues that urban planners must continue to evolve research and address biases in this area. The article first provides background on how researchers have dealt with the relationship between the built environment and health over years. This leads to a presentation of how active living research might be described as overly deterministic. The article then offers lessons for researchers planning to embark in active-living studies as to how they might increase validity and minimize criticism of physical determinism.
We investigated the validity of Walk Scores and Transit Scores from the Walk Score website using several objective geographic information systems (GIS) measures of neighborhood walkabiltiy and transit availability based on 400- and 800-m street network buffers. Address data come from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey Geospatial Dataset, a school-based sample of public high school students in Boston, MA with complete residential address information (n = 1,292). GIS data were used to create multiple objective measures of neighborhood walkability and transit availability. We also obtained Walk Scores and Transit Scores. We calculated Spearman correlations of Walk Scores and Transit Scores with the GIS neighborhood walkability/transit availability measures as well as Spearman correlations accounting for spatial autocorrelation. Several significant correlations were observed between Walk Score and 400-m buffer GIS measures of neighborhood walkability; all significant correlations were found for the 800-m buffer. All correlations between Transit Scores and GIS measures of neighborhood transit availability were also significant (all p < 0.0001). However, the magnitude of correlations varied by the GIS measure and neighborhood definition. Relative to the 400-m buffer, correlations for the 800-m buffer were higher. This study suggests that Walk Score is a good, convenient tool to measure certain aspects of neighborhood walkability and transit availability (such as density of retail destinations, density of recreational open space, intersection density, residential density and density of subway stops). However, Walk Score works best at larger spatial scales.
This paper considers how empirical models of urban housing markets might be constructed as a basis for policy analysis. It is suggested that this is fundamentally more difficult than national or regional models, because of particular characteristics of urban markets-notably, the importance of social interactions, non-linearity and segregation. However, recent advances in the modelling of social interactions point to a possible way forward. The paper begins by reviewing some aspects of this literature and shows how the models generate non-linearities consistent with recent work on thresholds in local housing markets. Simple cellular automata are also used to demonstrate this point and how segregation may arise. A review follows of work on discrete choice models, which include social interactions within their structure. Bringing all the tools together, it is suggested that there is now the potential to construct urban housing models, although a great deal of theoretical and empirical work remains to be done.
The literature suggests that individuals will be healthier if they live in Active Community Environments that promote exercise and activity. Two key elements of such environments are walkability and safety. Examining data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, 1988-1994 and using a multilevel analysis, we found that individuals who live in counties that are more walkable and have lower crime rates tended to walk more and to have lower body mass indices (BMIs) than people in less walkable and more crime-prone areas, even after controlling for a variety of individual variables related to health. Among lifelong residents of an area, lesser walkability and more crime were also associated with respondents reporting weight-related chronic illness and lower ratings of their own health. The effect of high crime rates was substantially stronger for women than for men, and taking this interaction into account eliminated gender differences in walking, BMI, weight-related chronic conditions, and self-reported poor health. The results suggest that to promote activity and health, planners should consider community walkability, crime prevention, and safety.
For many decades, it has been argued that the
U.S. remains racially segregated because of discrimination in the
real-estate market reflecting whites' desire to isolate themselves from
African Americans. The only modest declines in black-white segregation
since the prohibition of such discrimination in 1968 have provoked a
competing hypothesis: residential segregation persists because blacks
prefer to live in racially isolated neighborhoods and are reluctant
to live in largely white areas. These ideas have not been subject to
empirical scrutiny.
We use open- and closed-ended survey data from more than 2,000 African
Americans in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality to examine
blacks' preferences and the important related issue of what drives
those preferences. We find that African Americans overwhelmingly prefer
50-50 areas, a density far too high for most whites — but their
preferences are driven not by solidarity or neutral ethnocentrism but
by fears of white hostility. Moreover, almost all blacks are willing to
move into largely white areas if there is a visible black presence. White
preferences also play a key role, since whites are reluctant to move
into neighborhoods with more than a few African Americans.
With federal policy beginning to shift from auto-centric planning, provision for pedestrian and bicycle access is now mandated in federally supported projects. However, the field of transportation planning has little in the way of theory and methods to guide design and planning for walkable cities. Walkability is increasingly valued for a variety of reasons. Not only does pedestrian transportation reduce congestion and have low environmental impact, it has social and recreational value. Recent research suggests that walking also promotes mental and physical health. The quality of the pedestrian environment is key to encouraging people to choose walking over driving. Six criteria are presented for design of a successful pedestrian network: (1) connectivity; (2) linkage with other modes; (3) fine grained land use patterns; (4) safety; (5) quality of path; and (6) path context. To achieve walkable cities in the United States it will be necessary to assess current walkability conditions, revise standards and regulations, research walking behavior in varied settings, promote public education and participation in pedestrian planning, and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary education between transportation engineers and the design professions. Journal of Urban Planning and Derveloping