The Social Benefits of Walkability

Alex Davies at Treehugger writes:

"Besides the health and environmental benefits you get from walking instead of driving, walking around a neighborhood increases the number of social interactions you have. Rogers points out that high levels of positive social capital correlate to higher quality of life, through improved health and economic conditions."

The study is titled, "Examining Walkability and Social Capital as Indicators of Quality of Life at the Municipal and Neighborhood Scales."

From the press release:

"Survey participants self-identified the walkability of their neighborhoods by indicating the number of locations they could walk to in their community; any neighborhood with a mean response of more than seven walkable locations (out of a possible 13) was designated "walkable" by the researchers. To measure social capital, they utilized a well-established scale developed by the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University, which is headed by "Bowling Alone" author and social capital scholar Robert Putnam."