Comparing Methods for Measuring Walkability

Walkability analyses have gained increased attention for economic, environmental and health reasons, but the methods for assessing walkability have yet to be broadly evaluated. In this paper, five methods for calculating walkability scores are described: in-radius, circle buffers, road network node buffers, road network edge buffers and a fully integrated network approach. Unweighted and various weighted versions are analyzed to capture levels of preference for walking longer distances. The methods are evaluated via an application to train stations in central Tokyo in terms of accuracy, similarity and algorithm performance. The fully integrated network method produces the most accurate results in the shortest amount of processing time, but requires a large upfront investment of time and resources. The circle buffer method runs a bit slower, but does not require any network information and when properly weighted yields walkability scores very similar to the integrated network approach.