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ResearchDigesttransPortation PoliCy

Study Finds That Those at Income Extremes Are 50 Percent More likely to Walk in Cities Than Those in the Middle Class

In the study “More than Just Exercise: Walking in Today’s Cities,” Andrew Mondschein, a research scientist with the Rudin Center for Transporta-tion and Management at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, finds that those who choose to walk are principally the poor and the rich, not those in the broad socio-economic middle.

And if that’s true, as the study suggests, then policy mak-ers, planners, and activists still have a lot to learn about the role walking plays in people’s lives and a city’s welfare, and especially how to get people out of their cars for the sake of cleaner air, less conges-tion, and healthier hearts.

In the study, Mondschein finds that city pedestrians fit into one of two categories: “life-style” or “necessity” walkers.

These two types of urban way-finders take to the streets on foot at roughly equivalent rates, but for different reasons. lifestyle pedestrians walk in order to see and be seen, expe-rience their urban surroundings in a more robust way, meet up with friends, and, though less common, for exercise.

The “necessity” walker puts shoe leather to asphalt to offset

the cost of travel by other means, public or private, that is, to save money out of necessity.

In the middle, writes Mond-schein, are those who lack time or flexibility to avail themselves of the benefits that walking pro-vides and are more dependent on their car or choice of transit.

Mondschein’s study will be presented in January at the annual meeting of the Trans-portation Research Board (part of the National Academies of Science). It is based on the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, a dataset with detailed information on individual trips, trip purposes, and travelers’ position in the social hierarchy.

“Particularly for high-density areas,” he writes, “walking shows a very distinct pat-tern where individuals at either extreme of the income-education scale choose to walk over 50% more often than those in the middle.

“Notably,” the study adds, “this pattern is not replicated among the other ‘alternative modes.’ Transit use gener-ally declines with the increase in socio-economic status, and bike travel is flat.”

To reduce vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, cities have invested in streetscape

modifications, such as wider sidewalks and pedestrian plazas. But changing the built environment may be less than successful if lower-income people are walking primarily of necessity or, as the analysis also found, higher-status individuals are choosing to walk as a complement to other modes of travel and not as a substitute.

Alternatively, some cities hope that higher tolls or congestion pricing can reduce driving. But while raising the cost of automobile use may cause more to walk, increased walking might come at the price of reduced mobility for the middle class, as the middle tends to have farther to travel and makes more trips than the lower end of the socio-economic ladder.

A more-promising way to cut VMT may be to increase access to information technologies,

thereby reducing uncertainty and other impediments to walk-ing. In that way more people could find out before set-ting out on foot to a popular restaurant or movie whether the trip is likely to be worth the extra physical effort.

For now, Mondschein recom-mends further study of higher-status individuals in particular in order to understand, in ever-more refined ways, where they walk and why, and the impact the lifestyle walker has on the local economy and the well-being of urban communities.

“This type of walking may not directly result in VMT re-ductions or increased public health, but it may help explain why neighborhoods like SoHo in New York, South Beach in Miami, lincoln Park in Chicago, or any number of other great walking neighborhoods nation-wide persist and thrive.” n

lifestyle pedestrians walk in order to see and be seen, experience their urban surroundings in a more robust way, meet up with friends, and, though less common, for exercise.

BY ROBERT POlNER

Ever wonder who is walking America’s vast

urban streets?