Creating walkable communities: Understanding trade-offs

Abstract

Implementing community design strategies can offer benefits related to walkability; however, they may also come with trade-offs to other community needs and desires. We examined public sentiment for 2 trade-offs among 2014 SummerStyles survey respondents (n = 3,995). About 33% of adults reported strongly favoring safer street design even if driving is slower; only 19% reported strongly favoring community design with walkable destinations even if homes are closer together. Walking frequency was positively associated with strongly favoring trade-offs, while differences by other demographic characteristics depended on the tradeoff. Addressing public sentiment for potential trade-offs may be important when promoting walkable design strategies.