A multi-criteria evaluation will be used to determine objective walkability scores for the three Vancouver neighborhoods of Hastings-Sunrise, Grandview-Woodlands, and Victoria-Fraserview. The evaluation will be based on five factors derived from spatially referenced data available through the City of Vancouver’s Open Data Catalogue. The factors are: land use mix, dwelling density, and street connectivity (Frank et al 2005; Frank et al 2010; Gebel et al 2011; Leslie et al 2007).
Perceived walkability is often measured using the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale, NEWS, or its abbreviated version NEWS-A (Cerin et al 2007; Gebel et al 2011; McCormack et al, 2007). Due to the time constraints of this project and to avoid the need for ethics approval the NEWS-A questionnaire was converted into environmental scan criteria. These scans can were then carried out by the researchers. Scans provide additional benefits beyond time and ethics; they also provide a measure of control over how the questions are answered. Questionnaires completed by participants require the respondents to first interpret the questions and then decide on a satisfactory answer. The researchers must then in turn interpret the participant’s qualitative responses, increasing the possibility of miscommunication.