14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study, people who live in walkable communities have a higher quality of life, are more civically involved and have higher levels of trust that those who live in less walkable neighborhoods.
To reach this conclusion, Shannon Rogers and her team from the University of New Hampshire in the United States, focused on two municipalities within the state of New Hampshire, out of which they chose ten neighborhoods and had 700 residents taking part in the survey.
The 700 participants were asked about the number of locations they could walk to in the community, in order to evaluate the degree of walkability, but also about their trust in the local community, their degree of participation in community activities and socializing with friends, in order to measure social capital.
Social capital is a measure of an individual's or group's networks, personal connections and community involvement, which brings benefits like reduced isolation, career connections and neighborhood safety.
Overall, the more walkable communities had higher scores in every measure of social capital than the less walkable neighborhoods.
Also, people living in walkable neighborhoods had higher levels of trust and were more involved in the community – like being part of a club, working on a community project, or just having lots of friends over.
They also seem to be in better health and feel happy more often than those in less walkable areas, so we can say that walking every day to do the most usual tasks (like buying groceries), meeting people, engaging in conversations and building one's social capital, has its benefits.
This rise in the social capital is linked with a higher quality of life, according to the researchers, who were assessing the benefits of walkability in communities.
A walkable neighborhood is one that provides residents with easy access to post offices, town parks and playgrounds, restaurants,coffee shops, barbershops and club meeting venues.
“Walkability has been linked to quality of life in other studies,” say the authors.
“Walkability may also enhance social capital by providing the means and locations for individuals to connect, share information, and interact with those that they might not otherwise meet.
“The links we found between walkability and measures of social capital in this study provide further evidence for the consideration of social capital as a key component of quality of life.”
This research is published online in Springer's journal Applied Research in Quality of Life.