There is increasing emphasis in transportation planning and public health on active modes, such as walking, as a sustainable form of mobility and as a means of achieving recommended physical activity and better health outcomes. A research focus is the influence of the built environment on walking, with the ultimate goal of identifying environmental modifications that invite more walking. A key question is assessing walkability measures so that they reflect potential walking behavior. A behaviorally-meaning way to summarize walkability measures is through the concept of activity spaces, or the limited portion of an environment that can be experienced by an individual based on spatial and temporal constraints on mobility.
The latest publication from the Moving Across Places Study (MAPS) develops and applies methods for assessing built environment walkability using activity-space summary measures.
Tribby CP, Miller HJ, Brown BB, Werner CM and Smith, KR (2016) “Assessing built environment walkability using activity space summary measures,” Journal of Transport and Land Use. [Published online: 2 June 2015]