From knowledge partnership to practical application
Over the last few years there has been a growing focus on walkability within urban planning. Active Travel England (ATE) was set up in September 2023, at around the same time that PLACE LOGIC began a two-year government-supported Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Strathclyde. The Walkability Index is the outcome of that collaboration, turning academic knowledge and research into a real-world application.
For PLACE LOGIC, this partnership was an opportunity to combine academic rigour with design practice by creating an independent service that is offered to local authorities, design review panels, design and development teams and property finance and investment companies. The Walkability Index is intended to help both public and private sectors create new settlements, or extensions to existing towns, that are commercially successful and promote place quality, positive health outcome and low-carbon lifestyles centred around walking between key amenities. The walkability tool harvests open access digital data which makes it more affordable than some other options. It is interactive and so adds value to the strategic planning, design and review processes.
Why walkability matters and how our index is different
Walkability is a cornerstone of good placemaking. A growing body of evidence shows that walkable neighbourhoods are strongly associated with positive health outcomes, including higher levels of physical activity, reduced risk of chronic illness and improved mental wellbeing. Walkable towns and cities are also good for low carbon, encourage social interaction and can drive higher premiums. With their mix of affordable and open market housing, shops and workplaces they are more attractive and desirable places to live. Most valuations for development are calculated building by building, but we believe the place itself can create value. We know that empirically, through correlation studies focusing on urban form and health proxies such as life expectancy (Venerandi, 2017) and well-being (Venerandi et al., 2016), as well as through our recently published research with Bidwells: ‘Meeting the Housing Challenge’ (ADAM Architecture & Bidwells, 2025).
Until now, walkability has been based solely on pedestrian distances to everyday uses. Crucially, this index also includes metrics of urban form which are scored according to preference surveys (Figure 1), identifying what people favour in their surrounding urban environment. This includes, for example, the width and gradient of the roads and the presence of greenery and built-up density. Grounded in public perception data gathered from cities across the UK, the tool reflects not just where people can walk, but where they want to walk, and why.
Figure 1. A moment during the survey in London.
How it works – a walkability tool for real-world use
The Walkability Index integrates two key dimensions:
- Accessibility – how close people are to everyday destinations such as shops, schools and parks.
- Urban form – how the physical character of streets shapes the walking experience, from greenery and slope gradient to street proportions and enclosure.
These are combined in a transparent 10-point scale, producing both an overall Walkability Index and separate sub-scores for accessibility and urban form across Great Britain (Figure 2). The results are displayed on interactive maps at both street and building levels, allowing users to see exactly where improvements could make a difference. To validate the index, we analyse its relationship with median house prices across England and Wales to understand the monetary uplift of walkable places. The result was that, on average, a 10% increase along the 0-10 scale corresponds to a £20,000 increase in property values.
Figure 2. Walkability scores at the building scale across Great Britain, represented by a gradient from red (highest) to blue (lowest).
We have built a fine grain digital walkability map of the whole of Great Britain, so we have the base information to apply to any site, the only map of its kind to combine accessibility and urban form (Figure 3). It’s already being applied in live projects from large masterplans to town centre strategies, helping teams evaluate the walkability of proposed developments or assess existing neighbourhoods.
Figure 3. From left to right: urban form, accessibility, and walkability scores at the building scale in Winchester, represented by a gradient from red (highest) to blue (lowest).
Aligned with the National Model Design Code and Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, the index provides the kind of measurable, evidence-based insight that today’s planning system demands. It enables local authorities, designers and developers to demonstrate compliance with national policy and deliver on commitments to healthier, low-carbon living.
How Place Logic can add value …
- For surveyors: PLACE LOGIC and the Walkability Index can provide data-driven analysis to assess development proposals, support design codes and prioritise investment where it delivers the most benefit.
- For developers and designers: We provide a fast, visual tool to test and improve proposals, demonstrate policy alignment and enhance the attractiveness of new places.
- For local authorities: Walkability analysis is only one of a series of different types of analysis that PLACE LOGIC can undertake to assist local authorities, and that extends to accessibility and connectivity. It can be used to identify where new developments, and extensions to existing locations, could be located and to prescribe what is needed to make them walkable. In addition, due to the open access digital material looking at the character of the built environment, it can also be used to help produce design codes.
- For communities: PLACE LOGIC and the Walkability Index provide insights that help shape healthier, safer and more attractive neighbourhoods.
Shaping better places
PLACE LOGIC’s KTP with the University of Strathclyde has delivered more than a tool – it’s created a pathway for evidence-driven urban design that puts people, and walking, at the heart of great places.
References
ADAM Architecture, & Bidwells. (2025). Meeting the Housing Challenge.
Venerandi, A. (2017). A Quantitative Method to Study the Relationship between Urban Form and City Liveability Indexes [Doctoral thesis (Ph.D)]. University College London (UCL).
Venerandi, A., Quattrone, G., & Capra, L. (2016). City form and well-being: what makes London neighborhoods good places to live? Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, 1–4.
