Promoting walking via ease of wayfinding

Abstract

Walking is an important health and travel behavior which has become less popular over the years. Among the many factors behind this decreased popularity are the auto-centric community environments that discourage walking. Walkable communities are gaining increasing acceptance as a way to promote walking, and studies have identified various built environmental factors associated with walking. However, community features related to wayfinding have not been fully considered as components of walkable communities. This chapter brings attention to wayfinding as an important topic to be added to the current discussions on walkable communities and as an integral element of a walkable community that requires further attention by researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. The first half of the chapter focuses on the importance of wayfinding in promoting walking and discusses conceptual links among walking, community environments, and wayfinding. The second half is devoted to discussing implications for policies and practices and the guiding principles to promote walking via ease of wayfinding.