Abstract
Research on urban walkability does not always make a clear distinction between design features supporting walkability and those leading to a sense of urban liveliness. Walkability, for this article's purposes, entails the opportunity for continuous movement across some distance and therefore engages both the local and global street networks. Urban liveliness, by contrast, may exist in isolated pockets that provide limited support for physical activity. This case study of a large, urban smart growth development in Atlanta, Georgia, provides an example of a new development with characteristics that suggest a high degree of walkability. However, observational data show pedestrians are clumped on relatively few street segments rather than distributed throughout the site, indicating it is unlikely that the site is hosting much walking between the development and its surrounds. This descriptive case study is intended to contribute to more explicit theory of how environmental design contributes to walking.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 216-234 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Environment and Behavior |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2012 |
Keywords
- New urbanism
- Public health
- Smart growth
- Urban design
- Walking