Walkability, complete streets, and gender: Who benefits most?

Abstract

Does street walkability and a new complete street renovation relate to street use and gender composition? We audited two mixed-walkability complete streets ("complete less-urban" and "complete-urban"), one low-walkable street, and one high-walkable street at pre-renovation and twice post-renovation. Complete street users increased, especially for the complete-less urban street. Typically, the high-walkable street attracted the most and the low-walkable street attracted the fewest total people, males, and females; complete streets were in between. On blocks with people, females were only 29% of users; females were much less common on low- walkable streets. Street improvements might enhance gender equity.

Keywords: Active travel; Built environment; Pedestrian; Sidewalk; Walking.

Figure 1

Schematic map of change scores in person counts (average of time 2 and 3 minus time 1) per 180 m for street segments; bar widths are proportional to actual street segment sizes. Note. ^■ indicates complete street light-rail stop.