Definitely needs outside help

If you’re living in a community that is lacking some or all of these factors, please don’t despair. It’s still possible to create a walking-friendly neighbourhood over time, but you might need to focus on some specific initiatives, such as a recreational walking group.

At the same time, though, if you think walking in your neighbourhood could be transformed if one or two of these things were fixed, then get active. Bring people together, prepare your case for change, and lobby the people who can help, such as local and state governments.

The drumming up support section on this site offers plenty of ideas about how to work with other organisations to get the change you want.

Footpaths or dedicated walking tracks

It’s much easier to walk around neighbourhoods where there are footpaths or dedicated walking tracks that separate pedestrians from traffic. Walking routes also need to cater to the recreational walker (leisurely routes) and the purposeful walker (direct routes to facilities such as shops, services or public transport).

Some excellent guidelines for what a best practice walking track should look like can be found in the Heart Foundation’s Active by Design web pages.

Connections between different walking routes

Broken ‘links’ between walking routes make it hard to walk around an area. Footpaths and tracks need to connect with one another, so walkers can safely move between different areas in the neighbourhood, without having to share space on the roadway with cars.

Not just houses

One of the most obvious features of walking-friendly communities is that they have stuff within walking distance – shops, cafes and restaurants, schools parks, jobs and other facilities.

It’s harder to create a walking culture in a community that doesn’t have destinations to encourage walking, but it’s not impossible. Neighbourhoods that don’t have obvious stuff to walk to can focus on walking for recreation, or walking as a social activity, instead of walking for transport.

Medium to high density living

Walking is a more attractive option in medium to high-density communities, because the distances between different places tend to be shorter, and such communities also tend to have ‘destinations’ for walking mixed in among the houses and apartments (see ‘not just houses’, above).

Heavier traffic in medium to high-density communities can also encourage walking, because it’s often quicker to walk for local trips rather than brave the traffic jams.

Traffic management

People who walk feel safer – and actually are safer – when road traffic is managed well. Traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, safe speed limits and traffic calming measures (such as speed humps and chicanes) slow traffic down, and remind drivers they share the space with, or sometimes must give way to, pedestrians.

Walking routes separated from roads that carry high volumes of traffic also help make walking a safer, more attractive and more enjoyable option.

Safety and security measures

Lighting is the most obvious way to boost a walker’s sense of security, especially at night.

But other things can create a feeling of security too, for example:

• clear lines of sight along paths, unimpeded by dense bushes;
• seeing other people around on the streets;
• being close to houses or other facilities if help is needed;
• trees and vegetation can slow traffic and provide a barrier from cars; and
• staying above ground (that is, avoiding underpasses and tunnels).

Public transport connections

Rarely, if ever, will a neighbourhood offer all the shops, jobs, services and facilities that its community needs.

However, when walking routes connect with regular, reliable public transport options, they greatly increase the access people have to the things they need using a combination of sustainable, active forms of transport.

Walking is a funding and policy priority

Some of the factors in this section will only happen if some funding support is provided – and it’s fair to say that if walking isn’t seen as a priority for a neighbourhood, that funding won’t happen.

Never the less, communities can make a big difference to the policy and funding priorities of bodies like local councils. After all, councils and governments are elected by communities.

As well as providing lots of information about why walking is important (to help you build your case), and ideas about how walking can be encouraged in communities in our taking action section (to help you offer solutions), this site offers plenty of great tips about how to find out who makes the funding and policy decisions in your communities (in our who to deal with section), and how to influence them using principles for successful advocacy.