'You feel unusual walking': The invisible presence of walking in four English cities

Colin G. Pooley*, Dave Horton, Griet Scheldeman, Caroline Mullen, Tim Jones, Miles Tight

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
262 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Walking is widely recognised as good for health and for the environment, yet many short journeys in urban areas continue to be undertaken by car. This paper draws on research from a large multi-method project to analyse the factors that limit walking for everyday travel. It is argued that although most people see walking in a positive light, and almost everyone walks on some occasions, as an activity it remains barely visible within society, and is rarely recognised in the planning of urban infrastructure. Our research shows that under current urban conditions constraints imposed by family and life-style factors, perceptions of safety and convenience, and expectations about what means of everyday travel are normal severely restrict levels of walking for many people. We argue that while low levels of walking for particular purposes, especially leisure and health, are common and expected, walking is rarely seen as a visible or viable form of everyday transport. To step outside of these norms of expectation by walking more is constructed as unusual behaviour, and the fact that a substantial amount of walking does take place on urban streets is barely acknowledged. We argue that there is a need to recognise fully the walking that exists, and to plan more effectively to accommodate pedestrians so that walking is perceived as an expected way of moving around urban areas.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)260-266
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Transport and Health
Volume1
Issue number4
Early online date28 Aug 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2014

Keywords

  • Family
  • Health
  • Normality
  • Planning
  • Risk
  • Travel
  • Walking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pollution
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Safety Research
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Health Policy
  • Transportation

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