Walking around the world: innovation and inspiration for delivering and supporting best practice for

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Walking around the world innovation and
inspiration for delivering and supporting best
practice for walking Rodney Tolley Director,
WALK21 and Honorary Research Fellow,
Staffordshire University, UK
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Presentation outline

• Walking benefits and barriers
• Examples of major progress in walking
• Through hardware
• And software
• Progress on data
• The International Charter for Walking and
  benchmarking progress
• Emergence of National Partnerships

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What is Walk21?

• A non-profit organisation which champions the
  development of healthy, sustainable and efficient
  communities where people choose to walk
• Has a vision to create a world where people
  choose and are able to walk as a way to travel,
  to be healthy and to relax

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What does Walk21 do?

• Supports professionals
• Walking promotion in various towns and cities
• Benchmarking against key measures
• Masterclasses for local professionals
• Roadshows to provide vision and inspiration for
  practitioners and the political powerbase
• Archives of walking research
• National conferences, workshops and walkshops
• The International Walking Charter
• Walk21 international conferences
• Contact
• www.walk21.com

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What relevance does walking have for the great
issues of 2009?

• Global climate change
• Peak oil/fuel prices/credit crunch
• Personal health and well being?

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Walking as an effective antidoteto a major
element of carbon emissions

• Walking more and more often is a natural,
  painless contribution to the sector with the
  fastest growing emissions
• Short distance car trips
• Cold start Catalytic converters do not work
  until warm
• Cold start engines highly inefficient and energy
  intensive
• Exactly the kind of trips than can be replaced by
  walking and cycling
• Huge potential in most Australian cities

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Relevance of walking to fuel prices and recession?

• Collapse of demand for gas guzzlers
• 89 of the price falls in the US have been in
  driveable suburban housing
• USA1 extra Walkscore point is worth 300-5000
  in higher value
• UK 1 extra point on the PERS scale adds 5.2 to
  residential price and 4.9 to retail rents

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Walking and health
From the health promotion point of view, walking
is the most important form of physical activity
that should be encouraged to improve public
health Hillsdon, M and Thorogood, M. A
systematic review of physical activity promotion
strategies, Journal of epidemiology and community
health, 1995
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Walking benefits walking is more than just a
mode of transport

• Supports inclusive mobility
• Encourages community cohesion
• Increases personal security
• Provides freedom for children
• Underpins public transport
• Supports more road safety for all users

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Walking is a pre-condition for an economically
healthy city

• A good walking environment is a good economic
  environment

The slower we travel, the more we spend
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Conclusion? The invisibility of walking

• Governance
• Walking is 'hidden' as it is so basic to all
  planning and transport activities, and so
  undemanding in terms of government finance, that
  it somehow slips through the net in strategy
  formulation
• (Metropolitan Transport Research Unit 1996)
• Capacity
• Low public capacity to imagine how it could be
  better
• Little education of professionals on planning for
  walking
• Inadequate investment

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The current situation around the world for walking

• Strong consensus in 2006 worldwide survey
• We WANT to walk more
• Personal better health, more recreation
• Environmental local issues
• We are HELPED to walk more
• Infrastructural space and quality for
  pedestrians
• Regulatory slowing down cars
• But we are SCARED to walk more
• Social - fear for ourselves and our children
  (traffic and personal safety)
• And we are PREVENTED from walking more
• Political pro-car policies

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Promoting walking messages

• What works?
• Walking for health message very powerful
• What didnt work?
• Personal economic messages
• What needs to work?
• Dealing with the contextual environments for
  walking traffic, speed, crossing roads,
  location of facilities, fear
• Walking not a bolt on extra to business as
  usual, i.e. more car traffic

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An explosion of interest around the world in
walking

• The Walk21 Conference Series
• First global conference, Walk21, London, February
  2000 aimed to
• Confirm importance of walking issues
• Provide an international platform
• Highlight best practice
• Identify research, networking and funding
  opportunities
• Then Perth, San Sebastian, Portland, Copenhagen,
  Zurich, Melbourne, Toronto, Barcelona

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Walk21 New York City, October 2009More
footprints, less carbon
http//www.streetfilms.org/archives/walk21-nyc-wor
ld-pedestrian-leaders-take-manhattan/
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Walk21 XI The Hague, November 2010 Getting
Communities Back on their Feet

• Themes
• Walkable communities are measurable
• Where people walk, money talks
• Walkers and cyclists can co-exist to create a
  sustainability culture
• Safe, attractive and accessible environments are
  a community right

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Examples of major progress in walking

• Hardware
• Local/neighbourhood
• Arterial
• Shared spaces
• World cities
• Software
• Safe Routes to Schools
• International Charter for Walking
• Data
• Benchmarking against best practice
• Emergence of National Partnerships

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Walkability challenges dieting main roads

• The Complete Streets solution
• Reducing speeds and traffic danger
• Widening footpaths, adding cycle lanes
• Improving public transport to encourage modal
  switch
• Greening the street and making it more attractive
  

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Walkability dieting city centresTheWalk Bendigo
project 2006 -

• Improving conditions for walking and cycling
• Reclaiming city streets and boulevards from
  through-roads
• Whole city centre to become shared space

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• The Walking Plan for London
• By 2015
• 10 increase in modal share for walking
• 10 increase in average walking trips
• Increase perceived walkability of London
• Legible London

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NOT just European cities

• In USA in 2009 50 of residential demand is
  walkable urban, but only 5-10 of supply in
  this category
• Price per sq ft for walkable urban and driveable
  suburban has completely flipped
• Building walkable urban development will be a
  major driving force for the US economy for the
  next 30 years
• (Chris Leinburger, NYC Walk21 2009)

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Dieting world citiesNYC Summer Streets
Streets from Central Park to Brooklyn Bridge
opened to walkers, cyclists, human beings for 3
August Saturdays, 2008
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World Class Streets
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New York City Walk21Major Conclusions

• The scale of avoidable chronic stress caused by
  failing everyday environments premature deaths
  caused by diseases associated with inactivity
  and preventable injuries caused by vehicle
  crashes is now known to be huge and on the rise.
  
• As global evidence of the pandemic grows
  politicians are under pressure to take
  responsibility and we must share our knowledge to
  save lives

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New York City Walk21Major Conclusions

• As demonstrated by New York in the 1970s people
  will vote with their feet and leave communities
  where administrations stop paying attention to
  the basics of community life.
• A safe, pleasant and connected community needs
  investment and commitment to stay economically
  and socially viable and the community needs to be
  involved and engaged if the vision is to be
  sustained beyond a political term

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New York City Walk21Major Conclusions

• 3. A public plaza programme which aims to
  transform iconic places by reclaiming space for
  communities can be quick to implement, a visible
  indicator of progress and make a real difference
  to peoples perceptions and value of their local
  environments.
• This is an inspirational approach for other
  communities who want to choose a more sustainable
  city.
• New York is congratulated for being bold enough
  to change Broadway - one of the most iconic
  traffic filled streets in the world - making
  decision makers across the world ask
• If New York can do it, why cant we?

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NOT just about city centres

• Stockholm WHOLE city is to be fossil-fuel free
  by 2050 walkability is key for this
• Policy of replacing urban sprawl with urban
  stroll
• Recognises that more driveable suburbia dilutes
  urban efficiency and reduces quality of life
  more is less
• Retrofitting suburbs not necessary to visit the
  centre to be a city dweller
• Competition for investment to make suburbs
  walkable the YIMBYs
• (Kristina Alvendaal, NYC Walk21, 2009)

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Not just hardware use software too

• Soft' transport policy measures
• Workplace and school travel plans
• Personalised travel planning, travel awareness
  campaigns, and public transport information and
  marketing
• Car clubs and car sharing schemes
• Teleworking, teleconferencing and home shopping
• People do change
• In three UK sustainable travel towns car use
  fell by 12 2004-6 following a suite of
  transport measures including travel plans and
  household marketing of the alternatives to car
  travel, with NO engineering interventions

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SRTS (Safe Routes to School) goals

• Where its safe, get kids walking and biking
• Where its not safe, make it safe

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USA Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Programme

• First activity in SRTS in USA not until 1997
• Now 612m over 5 years!
• 2009 SRTS Bill proposes raising this to 600m PER
  ANNUM!
• Key issues
• Many successful projects have small beginnings
• Do not despair if things seem difficult at first

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Progress with data

• Problem
• Walking data often not collected
• Available data often not comparable, validity
  unclear
• ? comparisons difficult or impossible

• Promising changes
• Increasing interest to measure walking (by cities
  etc.)
• New evaluation methods developed
• New technologies and equipment placed on the
  market
• ? Window of opportunity

Daniel Sauter, Urban Mobility Research,
Switzerland
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Main dimensions of Measuring Walking

• How much?
• What is the quality?
• What are the perceptions?
• What are the institutional conditions?

Daniel Sauter, Urban Mobility Research,
Switzerland
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Objective

• Establishing a set of international guidelines
  for the collection, analysis and dissemination of
  quantitative and qualitative techniques for
  measuring walking.
• (WALK21 conference conclusions Melbourne 2006)
• ? Guidebook / reference book with
  recommendations by international experts

Daniel Sauter, Urban Mobility Research,
Switzerland
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Long-term perspective on Measuring Walking

• International Charter for Walking

International Standards for Data Collection
Data Collection and Quality Management
Procedures
Phase 1 Creating the foundation ? defining
important dimensions (8 principles)
Phase 2 Standardising harmonising ? defining
what and how to measure walking
Phase 3 Monitoring managing
2006 - 2010
2010 and beyond
2003 - 2006
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Opportunities in phase 3

• Collecting data
• Benchmarking
• Data pooling exchange
• Dissemination, marketing
• Numbers ? city with highest share of people
  walking (e.g. school children
• Environment ? most walkable city, most pleasant
  to stay in
• Perceptions? city with the most smiles, happiest
  pedestrians
• Policy ? city with best walking/sojourn policies,
  strategies
• Daniel Sauter, Urban Mobility Research,
  Switzerland

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The International Charter for Walking

• Recognise the benefits of walking
• Acknowledge the universal rights of people to be
  able to walk safely
• Commit to reducing the physical, social and
  institutional barriers that limit walking
  activity
• Work with others to help create a culture where
  people choose to walk
• Launched 2006hundreds of communities around the
  world have signed

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2009 Benchmarking

• Understanding the characteristics, needs and
  abilities of walkers

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Emergence of National PartnershipsCanada Walks

• What is Canada Walks?
• Mission walkable communities are the cultural
  and social norm in Canada
• Why was Canada Walks established?
• To give a national structure to existing
  walkability work
• To streamline and coordinate
• What are the goals of Canada Walks?
• Increase the number of Canadians walking, both
  for pleasure and for transportation.

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Canada Walks activities

• ICANWALK.CA website
• Best practice - a virtual Canadian Centre of
  Excellence
• Project management
• Walking-related projects events, e.g. Active
  and Safe Routes to School, School Travel
  Planning, World Record Walk
• Communications and marketing
• Awareness of walkability issues, runs marketing
  campaigns
• Consulting
• Brings walkability expertise into communities via
  consulting services,
• e.g. community engagement workshops and
  walkability roadshows

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Emergence of National Partnerships Walk England

• A social enterprise to work in partnerships to
  create local opportunities for people to choose
  to walk
• Brings together people who want to walk more,
  with those health, transport and environmental
  professionals responsible for supporting their
  choice
• 50 practical projects being delivered by the
  Travel Actively consortium of the leading
  walking, cycling and health organisations in
  England
• The consortium is lead by Sustrans and includes
  Cycling England, Living Streets, National Heart
  Forum, Dept for Transport, Walk21

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Walk England Top Ten Initiatives

• Annual national conference
• Coordinate a series of inspirational elected
  member briefings to raise the local political
  profile and extend the strategic vision for more
  walking.
• Implement a qualitative and quantitative
  measuring methodology to record who walks, where
  they walk and why they walk in England, leading
  to an affordable monitoring framework and
  evidence base.

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Walk England Top Ten Initiatives

• 4. Organise a programme of motivational public
  meetings to identify representative local
  community voices for people who walk in England
  and a practical list of issues and investment
  priorities
• 5. Target, through a promotional campaign, people
  who choose not to walk for short journeys and
  those who dont do enough physical activity to
  benefit their health

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Walk England Top Ten Initiatives

• 6. Facilitate a sequence of relevant master
  class events for professionals to share
  expertise, develop partnerships and increase the
  measurable returns on money being spent to
  encourage more local walking.
• 7. Launch a ground miles scheme for businesses
  to reward their employees who choose to walk to
  work and while on business.

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Walk England Top Ten Initiatives
8. Build a network of walking ambassadors within
the NHS and local authorities and support teams
of trained volunteers to take people walking to
improve their health 9. Invest in a streets of
gold programme targeting area improvements to
places where people want to walk more but dont
feel safe or that they have the opportunity 10.
Develop flagship walking routes in every
community by 2012
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Key issues and conclusions

• Around the world, there is a stunning
• renaissance in interest in walking as
• transport and user of public space
• Hardware making places walkable, makes them
  liveable
• Software encourages people to use public space
• Walkability has a positive impact in a range of
  areas
• One methodology, multiple outcomes

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The world has changedwe are in a new environment

• Growth and change must be achieved in a new
  environment of
• Climate change
• High fuel cost, price churn and reduced
  availability
• Obesity crises
• Ageing of the population ( gtdisability)
• Economic instability
• So sustainability is the key
• Greening the economy
• Growth in significance of active transport

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Centrality of walking in urban policy

• Can any of the following policies be delivered
  without high quality walking conditions?
• Climate Change targets City Health Plans
• Tourism Development Strategies Retail
  Development
• Town Centre Management Crime and Disorder
• Public Spaces Air Quality Management
• Neighbourhood Revitalisation Public
  Transport
• Economic Regeneration..

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The key question. What kind of place do you
want to live in?
People walking are the indicator species for
quality of life
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• Thank you!
• rodney.tolley_at_walk21.com