New Report Highlights the Many Benefits of Urban Walkability

The new free report, Cities Alive, by Arup, one of the world's largest engineering and planning firms, describes why and how to create more walkable cities. Informed by specialist insight and multidisciplinary expertise from across their global offices, the report highlights 50 benefits of walking explored through 16 distinct indicative themes, and lists 40 actions that city leaders can consider to improve walking policy, strategy and design. These are informed by a catalogue of 80 international case studies that will inspire action and further aid cities in identifying and evaluating opportunities. It is a terrific, attractive document.

This is an example of the shift among professional organizations toward more comprehensive and multi-modal transport planning, which is particularly important in developing country cities where the costs of automobile dependency are particularly high, and most households will never own automobiles.

“...I truly believe that if you can change the street, you can change the world.” —Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007 to 2013