Walkability Index Helps Journalists Highlight Planning Issues

Above, the 15-mile-long River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, here seen running through the city’s downtown. Photo: Arthur Chapman via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Reporter’s Toolbox: Walkability Index Helps Journalists Highlight Planning Issues

By Joseph A. Davis

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally did something right: its National Walkability Index. It’s not only just the thing for zoning boards, urban planners and public works departments, but for the reporters who cover them.

Maybe it’s frosting on the cake that this is at least one database that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not deleted yet. Use it while you can.

To go right to it, click here.

 

Yes, walkability is environmental.

Every trip taken without gasoline

means less air pollution and

fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Yes, walkability is environmental. Every trip taken without gasoline means less air pollution and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Also good cardio. Toolbox encourages people to ride bikes, too — but that can take different infrastructure.

 

Where the data comes from

As data goes, it’s pretty high quality (except that it’s a computed product based on certain criteria). The documentation is excellent and explains the methodology clearly enough for an English major (but technically enough for a math nerd).

Also, it’s mapped. There’s an intuitive, searchable, zoomable online map product with an easy-to-use, fast interface. Nongeeks can rejoice.

Not only that, but the resolution is incredibly fine — it goes finer than the census tract level down to the block group level. Literally a short walk.

Geeks can rejoice, too, because they can easily download all the data in a flat file. One reason the graphic interface works so well is that it is based on Esri’s ArcGIS.

Walkability ratings are based on things like sidewalks, crossings, transit stops, etc. Ultimately, these things are drawn from the EPA’s Smart Location Mapping database.

Walkability is also a different thing depending on the place. But the EPA sorts places into rural, suburban, urban and downtown. That’s good.

 

How to use the data smartly

This database can help you do local reporting on what they call the built environment. Walkability requires good local government decisions and adequate local resources. That means money.

 

In the end, a lot of local

government decisions and

resources go into walkability.

 

In the end, a lot of local government decisions and resources go into walkability. Are there sidewalks at all? Are they wide enough? Are they in good repair?

Same with crossings. Are they well-marked? Well-placed and well-engineered? Are there traffic lights? Enough of them? Do they work?

What other infrastructure can improve walkability? How about distances between residential areas, offices and shopping? How about pedestrian malls? How about safety from crime?

Not every local government thinks these things are part of their job. But not every citizen has a car, either. Most communities have seniors and people with disabilities who need walkability. Some seniors still walk in groups at shopping malls.

So the data alone is just the beginning of the story. You still have to talk to people on the street, … er, sidewalk. As always, check and groundtruth everything you can.

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 31. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.