Article from NYU Research Digest featuring a report on walking in today's cities by Andrew Mondschein, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Urban Planning

1. t ra n s po r t a t i o n p o l i cy
Study Finds That Those at
Income Extremes Are 50 Percent
More Likely to Walk in Cities
Than Those in the Middle Class
By Robert Polner
E ver wonder who is walking America’s vast
urban streets?
In the study “More than Just the cost of travel by other
Exercise: Walking in Today’s means, public or private, that is,
Cities,” Andrew Mondschein, to save money out of necessity.
a research scientist with the In the middle, writes Mond­
Rudin Center for Transporta- schein, are those who lack time
tion and Management at the or flexibility to avail themselves
Robert F. Wagner Graduate of the benefits that walking pro-
School of Public Service, finds vides and are more dependent Lifestyle pedestrians walk in order to see and be seen, experience their
that those who choose to on their car or choice of transit. urban surroundings in a more robust way, meet up with friends, and,
walk are principally the poor Mondschein’s study will be though less common, for exercise.
and the rich, not those in the presented in January at the
broad socio-economic middle. annual meeting of the Trans- modifications, such as wider thereby reducing uncertainty
And if that’s true, as the study portation Research Board (part sidewalks and pedestrian and other impediments to walk-
suggests, then policy mak- of the National Academies of plazas. But changing the built ing. In that way more people
ers, planners, and activists still Science). It is based on the environment may be less than could find out before set-
have a lot to learn about the 2009 National Household Travel successful if lower-income ting out on foot to a popular
role walking plays in people’s Survey, a dataset with detailed people are walking primarily of restaurant or movie whether
lives and a city’s welfare, and information on individual trips, necessity or, as the analysis also the trip is likely to be worth
especially how to get people trip purposes, and travelers’ found, higher-status individuals the extra physical effort.
out of their cars for the sake position in the social hierarchy. are choosing to walk as a For now, Mondschein recom-
of cleaner air, less conges- “Particularly for high-density complement to other modes of mends further study of higher-
tion, and healthier hearts. areas,” he writes, “walking travel and not as a substitute. status individuals in particular
In the study, Mondschein shows a very distinct pat- Alternatively, some cities in order to understand, in ever-
finds that city pedestrians fit tern where individuals at hope that higher tolls or more refined ways, where they
into one of two categories: “life- either extreme of the income- congestion pricing can reduce walk and why, and the impact
style” or “necessity” walkers. education scale choose to driving. But while raising the the lifestyle walker has on the
These two types of urban walk over 50% more often cost of automobile use may local economy and the well-
way-finders take to the streets than those in the middle. cause more to walk, increased being of urban communities.
on foot at roughly equivalent “Notably,” the study adds, walking might come at the “This type of walking may
rates, but for different reasons. “this pattern is not replicated price of reduced mobility not directly result in VMT re-
Lifestyle pedestrians walk in among the other ‘alternative for the middle class, as the ductions or increased public
order to see and be seen, expe- modes.’ Transit use gener- middle tends to have farther health, but it may help explain
rience their urban surroundings ally declines with the increase to travel and makes more why neighborhoods like SoHo
in a more robust way, meet in socio-economic status, trips than the lower end of in New York, South Beach in
up with friends, and, though and bike travel is flat.” the socio-economic ladder. Miami, Lincoln Park in Chicago,
less common, for exercise. To reduce vehicle miles A more-promising way to cut or any number of other great
The “necessity” walker puts traveled, or VMT, cities have VMT may be to increase access walking neighborhoods nation-
shoe leather to asphalt to offset invested in streetscape to information technologies, wide persist and thrive.” n
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