'The Power of Intersection Density' | Ped Shed
A new paper, Travel and the Built Environment: A Meta-analysis is getting a lot of buzz on planning blogs right now. Ped Shed’s Laurence Aurbach writes that after studying 50 studies on travel and the built environment researchers Robert Cervero and Reid Ewing have found that:
Of all the built environment measurements, intersection density has the largest effect on walking — more than population density, distance to a store, distance to a transit stop, or jobs within one mile. Intersection density also has large effects on transit use and the amount of driving. The authors comment,
This is surprising, given the emphasis in the qualitative literature on density and diversity, and the relatively limited attention paid to design.
In other words, intersection density is the most important factor for walking and one of the most important factors for increasing transit use and reducing miles driven, but gets relatively little attention in research and in public policy.
SG
