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The overall purpose of the proposed Walkability Strategy for Edmonton is to develop an integrated set of potential actions to address a range of identified barriers to improving walkability in the city of Edmonton. Edmonton has become a fast-paced urban centre with ‘big city’ advantages, opportunities, and challenges. Like other large centres, the limits of funding, outdated regulatory frameworks, and increasing land mass, as well as the need for sustainable growth and improvements to quality of life, are challenging municipal decision makers to respond with integrated, innovative, and efficient solutions. Initiated by the Walkable Edmonton Committee and funded by Smart Choices and Alberta Health Services, the Walkability Strategy addresses a number of key urban form, infrastructure, and policy and program barriers that are impeding Edmonton from being a more-walkable city.

Abstract Over the past two decades, Germany has improved the quality of its public transport services and attracted more passengers while increasing productivity, reducing costs, and cutting subsidies. Public transport systems reduced their costs through organizational restructuring and outsourcing to newly founded subsidiaries; cutting employee benefits and freezing salaries; increasing work hours, using part-time employees, expanding job tasks, and encouraging retirement of older employees; cooperation with other agencies to share employees, vehicles, and facilities; cutting underutilized routes and services; and buying new vehicles with lower maintenance costs and greater passenger capacity per driver. Revenues were increased through fare hikes for single tickets while maintaining deep discounts for monthly, semester, and annual tickets; and raising passenger volumes by improved quality of service, and full regional coordination of timetables, fares, and services. Those efforts by…

This dissertation examines Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo as three transit-oriented global center models, wherein entrepreneurial city-states have largely integrated rail transit investments with urban regeneration projects to guide postindustrial agglomeration and spur economic development in target locations. For each of the three Asian cases, I classify types of joint development packages on the basis of built environment attributes and estimate the impacts of rail transit investments and joint development packages on market location shifts and land price changes over the last decade. The empirical findings suggest that mixed-use redevelopment projects and urban amenity improvements around terminal stations largely shift the competitive advantages of knowledge-based businesses and the lifestyle preferences of highly skilled professionals towards central locations. The hedonic price models, however, reveal that the synergetic effects of rail transit investments and urban…

This paper presents an assessment of impacts of Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT1) in terms of accessibility and distance as they relate to variables such as land values, land uses, and population densities in Manila, Philippines. Using correlations and regressions, these variables are analyzed against an accessibility index and network distances obtained from a model built within a Geographic Information System (GIS). Land values, land uses, and population densities are influenced in a limited, though consistent, way by the accessibility provided by LRT1 and the distance to it. The analysis of impacts after the construction of LRT1 found that accessibility and distance were only consistent influences for residential land values, with marginal results for the rest of the variables. These results, when contrasted with the urban configuration of Manila and the studies reviewed, show that the limited impacts may be a consequence of good accessibility before LRT1 and the lack of…

This dissertation examines Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo as three transit-oriented global center models, wherein entrepreneurial city-states have largely integrated rail transit investments with urban regeneration projects to guide postindustrial agglomeration and spur economic development in target locations. For each of the three Asian cases, I classify types of joint development packages on the basis of built environment attributes and estimate the impacts of rail transit investments and joint development packages on market location shifts and land price changes over the last decade. The empirical findings suggest that mixed-use redevelopment projects and urban amenity improvements around terminal stations largely shift the competitive advantages of knowledge-based businesses and the lifestyle preferences of highly skilled professionals towards central locations. The hedonic price models, however, reveal that the synergetic effects of rail transit investments and urban…

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This article concerns the role of children in our communities. A review of research shows that children play a limited role in the decision making processes that shapes their environment. What is more, as they have become increasingly dependent on parental cars for activities and travel, children are loosing touch with their immediate neighbourhoods, a trend reflected in the declining number of children who walk or bike to school. However, Canada adheres to several international commitments enshrining the obligation to take the needs and perspectives of children into account in urban planning. The article draws on a number of research studies, including participatory projects and studies of children’s mobility, to highlight the importance of neighbourhood schools in terms of community life, child development and family well-being.

Executive Summary Walking is nature’s mode of transport. For many people in the developing world, it is the only form of transport. The globe’s rapid urbanization, particularly in low-to-middle income countries, stimulates a high demand for low cost, sustainable urban transport. A well-designed and maintained walking network can satisfy this demand, while contributing to poverty reduction, health benefits, and saved lives. However, the complexities associated with the pedestrian environment often prevent interventions that benefit walkers. In order to identify needed walkability improvements, an urban area must be evaluated by some standard of measurement. Since walking trips are highly variable and pedestrian activity is not conducive to measurement, this mode is often neglected. By identifying macro-level indicators that appraise the urban provision for pedestrians, municipalities can begin to implement positive changes. The following five dimensions of the walking environment…