Towards a walkability model for strategic evaluation of policy action and urban active transport interventions

This article presents a recently developed walkability modelling tool that draws on a number of UK national datasets to construct a statistical picture of the potential of streets to be used for walking. Using components common to standard North American models, but adapted for the UK context, the model is novel in its integration of space syntax analysis as a measure of network accessibility as well as in its use of large data surfaces that are not constrained by geographical administrative units. The study area of Greater London is used to validate the model against actual pedestrian activity measurements from across the city. A range of results from the analysis are presented. This approach enables the integration of the model with numerous other datasets and spatial data structures used in transport applications, expanding its capabilities from research into the realm of active travel infrastructure planning and evaluation