Walkability report takes in-depth look at neighborhoods

Bettering D.C.’s walkability ought to transcend infrastructure fixes to account for ranges of policing, environmental high quality, and different components that have an effect on how a lot folks stroll, in accordance with new analysis.

Why it issues: The pandemic and the rise of distant work have made walkability much more necessary as Washingtonians spend extra time in their very own communities. “Folks need extra out of their neighborhoods,” City Institute researcher Yonah Freemark tells Axios.

State of play: Washington has a walkability disparity — areas with giant numbers of individuals of colour, folks with bodily disabilities, and low-income households are dealing with a number of the greatest challenges on the subject of getting round.

Particulars: The City Institute’s walkability report included policing, which impacts a group’s consolation degree with strolling; proximity to locations to stroll comparable to faculties, parks, bus stops, and jobs, environmental high quality, infrastructure, and security. 

• Areas towards the middle of town comparable to Chinatown and Shaw wrestle most with environmental impacts on walkability, together with air high quality, noise air pollution, shade, and vegetation.
• Communities east of the Anacostia River, together with Congress Heights and Anacostia, are extra closely policed and have poor sidewalks and infrastructure and poor entry to sources.
• The town’s wealthiest areas are unsurprisingly probably the most walkable.