Walking, Transit Use, and Urban Morphology in Walkable Urban Neighborhoods: An Examination of Behaviors and Attitudes in Seattle

Abstract

Creating walkable and transit oriented cities is an important planning objective. Cities are actively promoting walkability and are investing billions of dollars in public transit in an effort to reduce automobile dependence. This dissertation investigates the relationship between transit use and walking in walkable urban neighborhoods – neighborhoods that are dense; have mixed land uses; connected street networks; numerous destinations; and high transit accessibility. This research examines the different purposes that walking and transit serve in different parts of the city. I focus on walkable urban neighborhoods to push walkability research beyond its current emphasis on identifying the characteristics of walkable environments compared to less walkable neighborhoods. I instead examine how walkability varies in highly walkable places that are outwardly more similar than not. I use a nested case study research design with mixed methods. Seattle and its urban core neighborhoods serve as my cases. Neighborhood mapping, pedestrian observations, a travel behavior survey, and interviews provide both quantitative and qualitative data to answer my research questions. The project emphasizes the role that different types of infrastructure play in facilitating walking and transit use: pedestrian-oriented infrastructure, transit infrastructure, and automobile infrastructure. The emphasis on infrastructure helps to bridge the gap between urban planning and urban design research and more accurately reflects the way that urban residents experience and talk about the urban environment. The urban core of Seattle is a predominantly pedestrian environment, and there is significant variation in the levels of walking between the seven neighborhoods studied. Neighborhoods with more pedestrian infrastructure and less automobile infrastructure have higher levels of walking. Similar patterns are evident at the block scale, where pedestrian infrastructure positively influences walking and more automobile infrastructure correlates to less walking. The availability of transit positively correlates with higher walking activity. Higher quality transit, such as light rail (rather than bus), encourages people to walk greater distances to use transit. Additionally, even though there is frequent and abundant transit in the urban core, a majority of people walk to destinations within the urban core because walking is often the most efficient mode of transportation available. Next to walking, driving is the second most common mode of transportation among residents in the urban core. These findings contradict mainstream planning conceptions of transportation and urban form. We would expect transit to be a heavily utilized mode of transportation in the urban core, but walking and driving are the most common. Outside the urban core, driving is most common, despite frequent transit service throughout Seattle. This is because the transit that exists primarily serves commuting to Downtown. The findings of this dissertation suggest that planners need a new approach to transportation planning that prioritizes walking and transit at different geographic scales throughout the city based on where they are the most efficient. The urban core neighborhoods need to prioritize walking. Instead, the city over-emphasizes transit and continues to accommodate the automobile in the urban core. Planners over-emphasize transit in both the urban core and in suburban and rural areas and not in the places where transit is most effective – in the area up to 12.5 miles away from the urban center. Planners can create sustainable and livable cities by rebuilding a vibrant pedestrian realm and by connecting neighborhoods with efficient and reliable transit, which meets the needs of all people.