Walkability is a measure of how supportive an area is to walking. Among many social benefits, walkability supports community physical and mental health, safety, livability, and reduced dependency on cars. The walkability index score is derived from physical characteristics of the urban environment that support walking. This includes residential density, sidewalk presence and completeness, land use mix, retail floor space ratio, and intersection density.
Metro 2050 encourages the development of complete communities that are walkable and mixed-use with a range of sustainable transportation choices.
Contextual performance measure
Metro 2050 establishes the performance measure as a walkability index composed of land use mix, commercial floor area ratio, intersection density, residential density, and sidewalk completeness.
Progress
This contextual measure assesses whether walkability across the region is improving over time. Generally, the Walkability Index shows a correlation between higher walkability scores and the region's Urban Centres (UCs), Frequent Transit Development Areas (FTDAs), and Major Transit Growth Corridors (MTGCs).
The Walkability Index combines five different component indicators into an index score. This requires a standardization process, meaning that the Walkability Index map cannot be compared year over year as a performance measure because the performance of every postal area is relative to every other postal area. However, the component indicators are shown here as absolute measures, meaning that they can be compared year over year, making them appropriate performance measures for progress towards the implementation of the strategies and actions of Metro 2050.