Walk this way: Pedestrian accessibility and equity in Barranquilla and Soledad, Colombia

Abstract

As a transport mode available to everyone and most abled-bodied urban residents, walking is, actually, the most equitable mode of transport. Walking brings several benefits to inhabitants among money savings and health improvement. Unfortunately, despite its benefits, walking is not a priority in the urban planning agenda of some cities, especially in the Global South. Walkability conditions in some areas of these cities are not particularly friendly for pedestrians, which discourage walking trips and promotes inequities across inhabitants. Evidence supporting inequalities in the provision of adequate conditions for the use of active transport in the Global South cities remain scarce. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap by first proposing a framework to link pedestrian accessibility with walkability measures. Specifically, we use a macro-scale measure of pedestrian accessibility and a meso-scale measure of walkability to compare walking conditions on different zones in Barranquilla and Soledad, Colombia. After comparing both measures, we found that low-income zones have higher walkability indexes but present lower potential pedestrian accessibility. In contrast, the highest potential pedestrian accessibilities were located in high and medium-income zones, where people rely more on private transport modes. This imbalance regarding supply and demand conditions for walking trips suggest that unfortunately, zones with the highest potential of being walkable are the ones that face more barriers to walk. Then, adequate planning policies when implemented in the right locations could promote higher use of walking and have the potential to reduce current inequalities in pedestrian infrastructure provision.