The term “walk-ability” is bandied about more and more. What does it mean? Walkability generally refers to how accessible and user-friendly an area is to pedestrians: how easy, safe and convenient it is to walk from one place to the next. This is very important because (congestion and pollution problems aside) travel on foot is the final, most basic and most social form of travel. In today’s world, the built environment must certainly accommodate other forms of travel, but all too often we have designed and built our communities to accommodate the car at the expense of the pedestrian. When people are on foot, the pace is slow enough to observe immediate surroundings and the chance to meet and talk to other people exists—in other words, there is opportunity for community, something that is impossible when we are isolated from one another in our automobiles.
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