Brookings publishes study on the economics of walkable places

Christopher Leinberger (keynote at last year’s Upper Midwest APA conference) and Mariela Alfonso have published Walk this Way:The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Using a set of measures to assess the walkability of a sample of Washington, D.C. neighborhoods, the authors conducted an analysis of the economic health of these neighborhoods.  Among their findings: (a) walkable places perform better economically; (b) walkable places near other walkable places perform better economically; (c) residents of  walkable places have lower transportation costs and higher transit access; (d) residents of walkable places generally have higher housing costs; and (e) residents of places with poor walkability are generally less affluent and have lower educational attainment than places with good walkability.  The authors also make several recommendations that they argue will increase the incentives for developers to build walkable neighborhoods in urban areas.