How do you design cities where you want to walk? From the number of intersections to birdsong, urban design affects health and well-being.
Imagine a place where you can walk out of your apartment, turn the corner and within a few hundred meters, shop, drink coffee and run errands at the post office. Where everything you need on a daily basis - from the bakery to the pharmacy - is within walking distance. For many city dwellers around the world, is still more of a dream than a reality. But more and more places are starting to get closer to it.
What makes you want to walk?
Cities designed with walking in mind can make a real difference to residents' health - both physical and mental. And it doesn't take big plans at all to do so. In addition to fairly well-known factors such as proximity to services or transportation, several basic elements influence whether a city is conducive to walking. First and foremost is the quality of the infrastructure - sidewalks should be wide, even and well-lit, and pedestrian crossings should be safe and clearly marked for vehicular traffic. The more places where the pedestrian feels like a full-fledged participant in the city - not an intruder between the hoods of cars - the more willing he or she is to set off.
A less obvious factor is the consistency and legibility of the traffic system. Walking in the city becomes natural when different parts of a neighborhood are logically connected - when a walk to a school, park or bakery is not like a trip through a maze. However, it is worth looking at this network more broadly - as part of a larger system. When getting to the bus stop is convenient, and the bus or streetcar trip itself is seamlessly combined with pedestrian traffic, we gain a city that encourages people to abandon their cars.
What's within a few steps is also not insignificant. Mixed-use neighborhoods with stores, services and cafes alongside apartments encourage spontaneous strolls. But that's not all. The comfort and pleasure of walking is also affected by the pace of automobile traffic, which is worth lowering - not only for safety reasons, but also so that the pedestrian does not feel perpetually late participating in urban life.
Buffers - such as green belts, bike lanes or even plant pots - can create friendly boundaries between the sidewalk and the roadway, increasing the sense of calm. And finally: the environment. A pedestrian-friendly space is one that offers shade, a place to relax, good air quality and amenities accessible to people of all ages and needs. When you add spaces that are conducive to meeting, talking and observing urban life, something more than just walkability emerges - a fabric of everyday relationships begins to form that gives the city a pulse and meaning.
And sometimes all it takes is a well-placed intersection and... a few species of singing birds.
step for health
Researchers at Michigan State University looked at what specifically affects our health in the context of how we move around the city. They were interested in more than just the general statement that "movement is health" or that we need to create spaces that are conducive to walking. They were looking for hard data that could appeal to designers and decision-makers - those who have a real impact on the look and function of urban spaces. They described the results in an article , "Walkable communities associated with better health, study shows," published in Great Lakes Echo.
They found that among a number of factors - such as proximity to bus stops, diversity of development functions and population density - the most important is... the number of intersections. The smaller the development quarters, the more intersections and opportunities to change direction, the greater the chance that residents move on foot. And that, in turn, translates into lower obesity rates and better mental health.
What sounds like an urban curiosity, however, has quite specific consequences. If your neighborhood is an endless string of streets with no blocks, low-rise buildings and no stores - you're likely to get in the car even for small purchases.
walk with a maple view
A second study, this time conducted in Canada, adds another layer to this topic - mental well-being. In the study, researchers took birdwatching under the microscope, and more specifically, how bird watching affects our mood, reduces stress and promotes a sense of inner balance. The team of researchers compared the health data of more than 60,000 Canadians with information about the biodiversity of trees and birds in their immediate area. They found that people living in neighborhoods with more bird and tree species were more likely to report good mental health.
The diversity of birds affected well-being even more strongly than the overall number of trees. Interestingly, the effect was not purely aesthetic - the researchers suggest that our brains instinctively interpret an environment full of different species as more stable and "safe." And this acts as a soothing balm.
Birdwatching can lead to a so-called state of flow - a mental immersion in action in which time ceases to matter and thoughts focus solely on what is happening here and now. This state is induced both by observing the behavior of birds, tracking their movements and recognizing their songs. All of this triggers our curiosity and arouses engagement, both of which can lead to awe - an emotion that even has a transformative effect on the psyche. This effect is not reserved for professionals with binoculars. Evenlistening to birdsong through an open window at home can enhance well-being - albeit on a shorter scale.
not just movement, but resonance
Birdwatching, like working with bees (as confirmed by Bee Well research), often leads to a phenomenon known as positive resonance. This is a deep emotional connection with another life form that enhances a sense of harmony and well-being. This is not a poetic metaphor - it's a documented mechanism. Bird watching is not a passive activity. It is an activity that engages, teaches attentiveness, but also calms. It can be one of the simplest and cheapest ways to support mental health that a city can successfully lead.
Urban space can support our health not only through specific amenities, but also through the atmosphere it creates. And that doesn't have to depend at all on the size of the city - what matters is how it's planned and equipped. The scale of a city doesn't necessarily determine whether you can get around it comfortably on foot. What matters is what happens in the immediate surroundings.
Cities that encourage walking
Some cities are already creating conditions where daily walking becomes not only possible, but even natural - because only then can you really hear what's going on around you. From inside a car you can't hear a blackbird singing. And yet it is these everyday stimuli - smells, sounds, small encounters - that build our connection with the city and each other.
As a new study on cities with the most walkable streets shows, as many as nine of the top ten best-rated cities for pedestrians are in Europe. The compilation took into account walking distances, safety levels and the cost of public transportation, among other factors. Topping the ranking were Munich, Milan, Helsinki and... Warsaw. These were considered cities where it is really possible to function without a car.
Warsaw - especially in its central districts - offers a dense network of services, green spaces, schools, pharmacies and cafes within walking distance. In Helsinki, compact planning is combined with plenty of green space and safe infrastructure. Oslo is transforming its downtown into a car-free space with a focus on pedestrians and cyclists.
Across the ocean, an example is Portland, Maine, which combines a historic feel with a compact structure and a pedestrian lifestyle. Madison, Wisconsin, on the other hand, is developing neighborhoods where residents don't have to choose between walking and convenience - they can have both.
But while such metrics allow us to assess the functionality of a space, they don't capture everything. There are things that cannot be easily measured - like the impact of contact with nature on daily well-being. That's why it's so important to fight for even the smallest patches of greenery in the city, to protect existing trees and take care of biodiversity.
The city as an incentive to move
While studies have shown that non-spatial factors - such as income or ethnicity - often have a greater impact on health than the urban structure itself, that doesn't mean the latter doesn't matter. Smaller blocks of development, accessibility to bus stops, variety of functions - all of these can effectively encourage people to move every day.
In recent years, indexes have been created that attempt to put the topic of walking into numbers. The U.S. has the National Walkability Index, developed by the EPA, which measures housing density, access to transportation and diversity of features. Australia, meanwhile, has developed the Walkability Index, which assesses the availability of daily services, street structure and population density. Increasingly, however, it is being emphasized that such analyses should also take into account the aspect of psychological well-being - especially in terms of the presence of greenery, opportunities for contact with nature, and subjective feelings of safety and comfort. Proximity to trees, birdsong or the opportunity to momentarily immerse oneself in urban silence can be as important to quality of life as the distribution of bus stops or the width of sidewalks. Pedestrian accessibility is also important for children, who should actively get to school on their own.
You might want to take a look at your own backyard and neighborhood. Does your city really encourage walking? Do you have somewhere to go without getting in the car? Or is it possible to change something - step by step?
