Datasets
U.S. Census Bureau. Gazetteer Files: Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), 2025. United States Census Bureau, 2025, https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Smart Location Database.” EPA.gov, 22 June 2021, https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/smart-location-database8. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
Literature
Adkins, Arlie, et al. “Contextualizing Walkability: Do Relationships Between Built Environments and Walking Vary by Socioeconomic Context?” Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 83, no. 3, 2017, pp. 296–314, https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2017.1322527.
The resource argues that defining walkability objectively requires accounting for non-built environment factors such as fear of crime and/or lack of social support. For evidence, the resource analyzes 17 different articles that find how the built environment has weaker effects on walkability for disadvantaged groups than advantaged groups. This resource is important because it challenges the objectivity of walkability tools that only account for the built environment. It helps my thesis because it explains how disadvantaged groups are not as accurately represented in data than advantaged groups in the context of walkability.
Arbel, Yuval, et al. “Minorities Diminished Return and Walkability: The Impact of Race on the Prevalence of Obesity in Different Urban Environments.” Cogent Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 1, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2025.2579522.
Arbel et al.’s paper discusses the topic of health disparities amongst minority communities due to the unequal distribution of structures that enable walkability in urban environments. By using data on obesity prevalence from 2011 to 2020 and using the number of skyscrapers as an identifier for an urban environment, Arbel et al. argue that their model indicates that there is a discernible increase in obesity prevalence amongst non-Hispanic black individuals as the number of skyscrapers increases (more urban), suggesting that the urban environments where these individuals reside in do not enable walkability. This relates to our research because we want to explore whether walkability scores vary among different ethnic neighborhoods. However, the conclusion that the researchers make is tenuous because obesity is used as a marker of the lack of walkability in certain neighborhoods, which can be misleading since there can be many other causes as well.
Conderino, Sarah E, et al. “Social and Economic Differences in Neighborhood Walkability Across 500 U.S. Cities.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 61, no. 3, 2021, pp. 394–401, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.03.014.
Conderino et al.’s paper investigates the social and economic determinants of what makes certain cities and neighborhoods more walkable than others. By comparing the many socioeconomic factors across 500 cities, Conderino et al. argue that walkability decreases as the median income increases across most ethnic neighborhoods except for black-majority neighborhoods, where the lower-income areas had lower walkability. This is related to our research because it uncovers the complex relationship between income, ethnicity, and walkability, which are all interconnected. The results of the study may be different from our analysis because it relies upon the 2019 Walk Score for determining walkability, which may rely upon different metrics than the EPA walkability index for our dataset.
Creatore, Maria I, et al. “Association of Neighborhood Walkability With Change in Overweight, Obesity, and Diabetes.” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 315, no. 20, 2016, pp. 2211–20, https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.5898.
Creatore et. al’s “Association of Neighborhood Walkability With Change in Overweight, Obesity, and Diabetes” explores the incidence of being overweight, obese, and diabetes, and argues that there is decreased prevalence of the aforementioned health conditions in more walkable urban neighborhoods. Using 877 neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada, each neighborhood was given a walkability index based on four equally weighted factors: population density, residential density, walkable destinations or availability of services within a 10 minute walk, and street connectivity or number of intersections with at least 3 pathways. Then, health conditions incidence was compared to each of the aforementioned indexes. This directly relates to our project because obesity is an indicator of one’s health, and provides evidence for a relationship between walkability and increased quality of life. Although Creatore et. al does not make any causal claims, this still shows that walkability is related to health, emphasizing the importance of our research.
D’Orso, Gabriele, et al. “Combining Walkability Assessments at Different Scales in Measuring Spatial Inequalities in Access to Railway Stations.” Journal of Transport & Health, vol. 44, no. 102081, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2025.102081.
D’Orso, Yasir, and Migliore argue that combining meso-scale connectivity metrics with micro-scale pedestrian-quality measures uncovers the actual spatial inequities in the accessibility of railway stations, wherein the suburban areas, as a matter of fact, are always found to be at a disadvantage in comparison with the urban cores. In order to establish their argument, they employ a GIS-based case study of 14 Palermo railway stations, measuring road density, intersection density, and Ped-shed/PCA ratios alongside street-level walkability scores (practicability, safety, pleasantness) that are derived from census/employee counts. This project highlights the element of equity in the concept of walkability by illustrating that access goes beyond the mere consideration of distance and also includes factors such as whether walking is safe, usable, and practically achievable. It provides a solid, research-based conceptual framework to support the argument that patterns of walkability can result in exclusion and indicate the places where the quality of the infrastructure and investments are at the top of the list, which is typically the case when the areas on the outskirts find themselves with weaker pedestrian networks and lower transit access.
Gibson, Camille. “Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921.” Research Starters, EBSCO, www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/federal-aid-highway-act-1921. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
Gilderbloom, John I, et al. “Does Walkability Matter? An Examination of Walkability’s Impact on Housing Values, Foreclosures and Crime.” Cities, vol. 42, 2015, pp. 13–24, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.08.001.
The resource argues that there exists a relationship between walkability and sustainability in a medium-sized city. The study highlighted by the resource quantifies walkability with tools such as Walkscore™ and then using said quantities to compare with measures of urban sustainability. The resource is important because it analyzes how walkability results in higher neighborhood housing values and reduces neighborhood abandonment and crime. It helps our thesis because it shows how differences in walkability in medium-sized cities correlate with socioeconomic status.
Kelly, Cheryl M, et al. “The Association of Sidewalk Walkability and Physical Disorder with Area-Level Race and Poverty.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 61, no. 11, 2007, pp. 978–83, https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2006.054775.
Kelly et al. argue that there is a differential investment in community infrastructures and resources in neighborhoods that are mostly African–American or primarily low income. The study surveyed various census block groups in St. Louis, with either a predominantly White or Black population, and this is good for us because they worked with the same unit as our dataset. The authors noted that a block group’s poverty rate and racial distribution affected its physical disorder (e.g. trash on the streets and abandoned buildings) independently, and that Black neighborhoods were maintained significantly worse than White neighborhoods. More specifically, block groups that were predominantly African–American were 38 times more likely to have a lot of unevenness, 15 times more likely to have many obstructions, and 12 times more likely to have physical disorder. This study’s findings, once again, agree with my previous knowledge of a correlation between race and socioeconomic status in the United States.
Kinsey, Eliza W, et al. “Neighborhood Walkability and Poverty Predict Excessive Gestational Weight Gain: A Cross-sectional Study in New York City.” Obesity, vol. 30, no. 2, 2022, pp. 503–14, https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23339.
Eliza Kinsey’s “Neighborhood Walkability and Poverty Predict Excessive Gestational Weight Gain: A Cross-sectional Study in New York City” article dives into how different factors of a city such as the neighborhood poverty, walkability, and food environment influence whether pregnant women gain too much, too little, or the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy. Their research found that women living in the highest-poverty neighborhoods had increased odds of excessive gestational weight gain and women living in the most walkable neighborhoods had reduced odds of excessive gestational weight gain. The data they used was from individual birth and health records from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (2015 births). These findings could be related to our research because it can give us some insight into the quality of life of people who live in more walkable cities.
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. “Decriminalize Jaywalking – AB 2147.” LCCRSF, 15 Mar. 2022, lccrsf.org/campaigns/decriminalize-jaywalking-ab-2147/.
Manaugh, Kevin, and Ahmed El-Geneidy. “Validating Walkability Indices: How Do Different Households Respond to the Walkability of Their Neighborhood?” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, vol. 16, no. 4, 2011, pp. 309–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2011.01.009.
The resource argues that walkability indices are highly correlated with walking trips for non-work purposes. The resource uses home-based trips obtained from the 2003 Montréal Origin–Destination survey for evidence. This resource is important because it shows how walkability correlation varies by individual, household and trip characteristics. This is important for my thesis because it emphasizes how a walkability index will not have the same correlation with travel behavior for all individuals or households.
Marshall, Julian D, et al. “Healthy Neighborhoods: Walkability and Air Pollution.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 117, no. 11, 2009, pp. 1752–59, https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.0900595.
Marshall et. al’s “Healthy Neighborhoods: Walkability and Air Pollution” explores the presence of a relationship between air pollution and walkability in neighborhoods of Vancouver, British Columbia. Using a land-use regression model and ambient monitoring data, they found that lower income neighborhoods had higher NO concentrations and walkability, with lower O3 concentrations, and that lower NO and higher walkability and O3 concentrations were exclusively found in higher income neighborhoods. This directly relates to our project because air pollution affects quality of life, and this explores how socioeconomic status impacts both air pollution and walkability. This underscores the importance of our research, and shows how multiple factors can impact one’s quality of life.
“National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956).” Milestone Documents, National Archives, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/national-interstate-and-defense-highways-act. Accessed 11 Mar. 2026.
Pfeiffer, Deirdre, et al. “Do Neighborhood Walkability, Transit, and Parks Relate to Residents’ Life Satisfaction?: Insights From Phoenix.” Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 86, no. 2, 2020, pp. 171–87, https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2020.1715824.
Deirdre Pfeiffer et al.’s “Do Neighborhood Walkability, Transit, and Parks Relate to Resident’s Life Satisfaction?: Insights from Phoenix” article explores how life satisfaction is correlated with three features of the neighborhood built environment, namely walkability, transit access, and parks/open space. The data used in the article surveyed 496 residents in the Phoenix, Arizona region. The findings from the article showed that participants who were more satisfied with the quality of neighborhood parks and lived in objectively more walkable neighborhoods expressed higher life satisfaction. Unfortunately, the article was unable to find a link between life satisfaction and walkability. The results and conclusions from this article could be related to our research because it analyzes people’s quality/satisfaction of life with the quality of their neighborhood parks and how walkable their neighborhood is.
Riggs, William. “Inclusively Walkable: Exploring the Equity of Walkable Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.” Local Environment, vol. 21, no. 5, 2016, pp. 527–54, https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2014.982080.
William Riggs’ “Inclusively Walkable: Exploring the Equity of Walkable Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area” article explores the question of whether walkable housing is distributed equitably across differing racial and socioeconomic groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. The article covers a quantitative analysis where statistical regression models were created using demographic differences (race, income, education) as features to predict residence in walkable and less walkable areas, as well as interviews with residents about what factors influenced where they were living. The findings found that Black residents were more likely to live in less walkable neighborhoods, suggesting that walkability is unevenly distributed by race in the Bay Area. The findings from this article are useful for our research because it explores the demographic inequalities related to walkable housing and who has access to it.
Spoer, Ben R, et al. “Association between Racial Residential Segregation and Walkability in 745 U.S. Cities.” Health & Place, vol. 84, no. 103114, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103114.
Spoer et al. argue that higher racial residential segregation at the city level is associated with higher measured walkability, particularly in dense urban areas, revealing a complex and counterintuitive relationship between segregation, built environments, and health outcomes. The authors analyze data from 745 U.S. cities using WalkScore as a walkability metric and the Index of Dissimilarity for Black–White and Latino–White segregation, employing city-level regression models stratified by population density and demographic composition. This study is important because it complicates the assumption that higher walkability automatically signals equity or better outcomes, showing that walkable environments can coexist with structural inequalities rooted in segregation and uneven urban development. This source strengthens my thesis by demonstrating how the distribution of walkability is influenced by historical segregation, reinforcing the idea that the group of people who are the beneficiaries of the walkable infrastructure cannot be identified without demography, politics, and structural inequality embedded in the data.
Su, Shiliang, et al. “Auditing Street Walkability and Associated Social Inequalities for Planning Implications.” Journal of Transport Geography, vol. 74, 2019, pp. 62–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.11.003.
Su et al. argue that street-level walkability is unevenly distributed across cities and that socioeconomically disadvantaged communities consistently experience lower walkability, revealing embedded social inequalities in urban design. The authors employ a composite Integrated Walkability Index obtained from 13 indicators (e.g., connectivity, accessibility, safety, suitability) and validated by means of spatial regression, clustering analysis, and camera-based pedestrian counts in Hangzhou, China. This source is important because it demonstrates that walkability is not just a physical condition but a socially patterned outcome tied to income and neighborhood status, showing how inequities can persist even when cities pursue sustainability goals. This article contributes directly to my thesis by providing empirical evidence supporting the correlation of walkability scores with the beneficiaries of urban investment, emphasizing that a low walkability score may reveal deeper issues of exclusion from not only mobility but also services and opportunities.
Suarez-Balcazar, Yolanda, et al. “Walkability Safety and Walkability Participation: A Health Concern.” Health Education & Behavior, vol. 47, no. 3, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120903256.
Suarez-Balcazar et al. argue that as perceived walkability of a neighborhood increases, the more likely it is for its residents to take advantage of said walkability. This study was taken in a Chicago neighborhood where 70% of the population is Hispanic and 20% of the families earned below the poverty line. In that neighborhood, 81% of cars in 2016 did not obey street signs, so its residents believed that walking wasn’t safe. The authors also noted that, in addition to unruly drivers, residents expressed concerns about walking in an area with gang activity and dirty streets, and stated that people are less likely to walk on poorly maintained sidewalks. The findings of this study line up with my own experience of walking in various neighborhoods in LA, with me feeling significantly more comfortable walking in, say, Culver City, as opposed to Figueroa Street around USC.
Terrell, Ellen. “Ford Implements the Moving Assembly Line.” This Month in Business History, Library of Congress, Aug. 2025, guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/October/Ford.
Teel, Caroline Morse. “Aerial View of Pedestrians in a Crosswalk.” The 15 Most Walkable Cities in the US, Ranked, SmarterTravel, 25 Jul. 2025, www.smartertravel.com/most-walkable-cities-in-america/.
Towne, Samuel D, et al. “Examining the Role of Income Inequality and Neighborhood Walkability on Obesity and Physical Activity among Low-Income Hispanic Adults.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, vol. 20, no. 4, 2018, pp. 854–64, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0625-1.
Towne et al. primarily argue that there is a direct correlation between income inequality and obesity among Hispanic people in Texas whose children are on a free and reduced lunch program. In other words, the more income inequality there is in an area, the more likely it is for residents of that area to be overweight or obese, and the more walkable an area is, the more likely it is that residents take advantage of that walkability. They also note that among those who did not walk at least 30 min per day in a given week, approximately 2 times as many participants were located in car-dependent areas versus areas that were walkable. The authors found similar findings in Europe, showing that this study is not only applicable to Hispanic Americans.
Wo, James C, and Young-An Kim. “Unintended Consequences? The Effects of Neighbourhood Walkability on Crime in Nine US Cities.” British Journal of Criminology, vol. 63, no. 2, 2023, pp. 304–29, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac011.
Wo and Kim’s “Unintended Consequences? The Effects of Neighbourhood Walkability on Crime in Nine US Cities” explores the presence of a relationship between increased walkability and increased rates of crime, and argues that there is a relationship. Using neighborhoods across 9 U.S. cities with varying levels of walkability and the U.S. EPA Walkability index, they implemented a negative binomial regression analysis and found that walkability has a positive effect on all types of crimes. This directly relates to our project because it shows a negative consequence of walkability, and it is based off of our dataset. This emphasizes the importance of considering negative effects of walkability and potential implications for policymakers and society overall.
Zhu, Xuemei, et al. “Walkability Versus Livability: Changes in Neighborhood Satisfaction After Relocation to a Walkable, Mixed-Income Community in Austin, Texas.” HERD, vol. 18, no. 2, 2025, pp. 139–57, https://doi.org/10.1177/19375867251317238.
Zhu et al.’s paper focuses on determining if walkability improves the livability of a neighborhood. Zhu et al. use a more qualitative approach through surveys to capture perceived livability in a mixed-income neighborhood in Austin Texas, and the argument from their results is that denser streets are associated with higher satisfaction rates as a good place to live. This is related to our research because we do not want to assume that better walkability is always viewed positively by residents of a certain neighborhood. While the data used in the Zhu et al. study is informative, it is limited because it only analyzed Austin Texas, and it would be interesting if the results change if applied to other cities across the US.
Artificial Intelligence
We used Generative AI tools to help with proofreading, coding, and creating data visualizations for this project. All ideas and analyses presented in our narrative are our own, or attributed to the cited scholarly works listed in the bibliography.
ChatGPT, version 5.2, OpenAI, 16 Mar. 2026, chat.openai.com.
Claude, Sonnet 4.6 version, Anthropic, 16 Mar. 2026, claude.ai.