"Overall support for the pedestrianenvironment," or walk ability, has grown increasinglyimportant as the world urbanizes and motorized modesthreaten to displace or constrain travel on foot. Thisconcern encompasses virtually every aspect of the pedestrianexperience. Walk ability takes into account the quality ofpedestrian facilities, roadway conditions, land usepatterns, community support, security, and comfort forwalking (Litman). Each of these facets of the pedestrianenvironment impacts the use of walking as a primary mode oftransport. The complexity of the urban pedestrianenvironment naturally lends itself to micro-level analysisto locate the need for improvements; however, to gain anoverview of a city, it is necessary to develop macro-levelindicators that can identify the general state of thepedestrian environment. While these indicators cannotdiagnose all walk ability problems, they can give a sense ofhow one urban area compares to another in similarcircumstances and they have the potential for becoming aninfluential aspect of World Bank urban infrastructurediagnosis. Urban Transport indicators are being reviewed asone component of the current Transport Results Initiativewhich is led by the World Bank's central Transport Unit.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
