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Jasmin Kay Ayres

Academic Year: 2009-2010

Walkable or Not?: An Assessment of Walkability Audits, their Results, and their Impact on Future Dev

Area of Concentration

  • Architecture and Urban Design

Key Terms:

Walkability Audit, Market Creek Plaza, Smart Growth, Built Environment, Design

Significance/Broader Impact:

After the Great Depression, housing construction costs were the means of funding economic growth in order to come out of recession. As a result, sprawling cookie-cutter suburban developments have become the universal symbol for housing in the United States. With similar economic trends re-appearing today, re-evaluating and re-interpreting upon the grounds of a similar concept of housing construction stimulating economic growth without making the same mistakes that planners have made in the past. So as a result, the hope is that a smarter approach to new efficiency of the built environment and promoting a healthier economy and community for Americans to eventually change, hopefully improve, quality of life they experience vis-à-vis housing lifestyles. A reconsideration of priorities in terms of building space, greater environmental impacts, social dynamics, and healthy community development of sprawling suburbs compared to a mixed-use development or master planned development will hopefully determine future steps that need to be taken in order to redefine the stereotypical American Dream.

References

Anon. The Village at Market Creek. http://thevillageatmarketcreek.com/vision.htm.
Clifton, Kelly J., Andréa D. Livi Smith, and Daniel Rodriguez. 2007. The development and
testing of an audit for the pedestrian environment. Landscape and Urban Planning
80, no. 1-2 (March 28): 95-110. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2006.06.008.

Day, Kristen, Marlon Boarnet, Mariela Alfonzo, and Ann Forsyth. 2006. The Irvine-Minnesota
Inventory to Measure Built Environments: Development. American
Journal of Preventive Medicine 30, no. 2 (February): 144-152.
doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2005.09.017.

Emery, JE, CE Crump, and P Bors. 2000. Improving opportunities for walking and bicycling
in communities. Paper Presented at: ProBike ProWalk 2000; Philadelphia, Pa.

Feijten, Peteke, Pieter Hooimeijer, and Clara H. Mulder. 2008. Residential Experience and
Residential Environment Choice of the Life-course. Urban Studies (45): 141.

Feldman, Roberta M. 1990. “Settlement-Identity: Psychological Bonds with Home Places in
a Mobile Society”. Environment and Behavior, Vol. 22 No. 2: 183-229.

Feldman, Roberta M. 1996. “Constancy and Change in Attachments to Types of
Settlements.” Environment and Behavior, 28(2): 419-445

Fleury-Bahi, Ghozlane, Marie-Line Félonneau and Dorothée Marchand. 2008. “Process of
Place Identification and Residential Satisfaction.” Environment and Behavior (40):
669.

Jacobs, Jane. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books.
Marcus, Clare Cooper. 1995. House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press.
Pikora, Terri J., Fiona C. L. Bull, Konrad Jamrozik, Matthew Knuiman, Billie Giles-Corti, and
Rob J. Donovan. 2002. Developing a reliable audit instrument to measure the
physical environment for physical activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine
23, no. 3 (October): 187-194. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00498-1.

Robinson, Julie T. and Phyllis Moen. 2000. “A Life-Course Perspective on Housing
Expectations and Shifts in Late Midlife.” Research on Aging, 22(5): 499-532
Rohe, William M. and Harry L. Watson. 2007. Chasing the American Dream: New Perspectives on Affordable Homeownership. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press
Stroutland, Sara E. 1999. “Community Development Corporations: Mission, Strategy, and
Accomplishments.” In Urban Problems and Community Development, ed. Ferguson,
Ronald F. and William T. Dickens. Brookings Institution Press.

Talen, Emily. 2002. Pedestrian Access as a Measure of Urban Quality. Planning Practice and
Research 17, no. 3: 257. doi:10.1080/026974502200005634.

Thomas, Hannah and Thomas Shapiro. (2008). “Twenty-First Century Ownership:
Individual and Community Stakes.” Community Investments.

Vidal, Avis C. and W. Dennis Keating. (2004). “Community Development: Current Issues and
Emerging Challenges.” Journal of Urban Affairs (26): 2, pp. 125–137.

Fall SRP Proposal Abstract

This proposal surrounds the birth and evolution of the walkability audit as an instrument to measure site suitability for pedestrian activity and accessibility. While existing literature has addressed the purpose of and tested the statistical reliability walkability audits, previous studies have fallen short in translating audit results into conclusions addressing the successes and shortfalls of a development for the purpose of influencing, informing, and improving future development and planning processes. The expected results of this research are that the conclusions of the walkability audit will produce a checklist of features to use in order to produce future design projects that are more walkable. If the audit does not produce such a result, the hope is that it will lead to suggestions of ways to improve the audit in order to accomplish the same goal.

Winter Senior Research Project (SRP) Abstract

The purpose of this study is to review and discuss the benefits of walkability audits, a relatively new tool in the urban planning field. Triangulation by practical application of the latest walkability audits on the Jacobs Family Foundation’s Market Creek Plaza in San Diego, CA coupled with interviews with experts and professionals who are well-versed in the planning and design aspects of the development as well as reinforcement of archival and media data of other similar case studies create the foundation that determine the effectiveness of walkability audits in the planning and redevelopment processes. This study finds that the evolution and use of walkability audits have improved the quality of pedestrian spaces, but must continue to evolve in order to improve the efficacy and functionality of pedestrian elements in new developments.

Study's Major Findings and Contributions

The purpose of this study is to review and discuss the benefits of walkability audits, a relatively new tool in the urban planning field. While existing literature has addressed the purpose of and tested the statistical reliability of walkability audits, previous studies have fallen short in translating audit results into conclusions addressing the successes and shortfalls of a development for the purpose of influencing, informing, and improving future development and planning processes. Triangulation by practical application of the latest walkability audits on the Jacobs Family Foundation’s Market Creek Plaza in San Diego, CA coupled with interviews with experts and professionals who are well-versed in the planning and design aspects of the development as well as reinforcement of archival and media data of other similar case studies create the foundation that determine the effectiveness of walkability audits in the planning and redevelopment processes. In order to make the connection between the results of the walkability audit and the project site, this study illustrates that the evaluation of the site must be done with the project guidelines, goals, and objectives embedded into analytical studies of the physical form and built environment of the study area. This study finds that the evolution and use of walkability audits have improved the quality of pedestrian spaces, but must continue to evolve in order to improve the efficacy and functionality of pedestrian elements in new developments.

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