Introduction
Recently, the City of Vancouver developed the Healthy City Strategy, a set of 13 overarching goals intended to improve the health and wellbeing of residents (City of Vancouver, 2015. The twelfth goal states that “Vancouverites have the right to a healthy environment and equitable access to liveable environments in which they can thrive” (City of Vancouver, 2015). More specifically, the City intends to meet this goal by ensuring “every Vancouver neighbourhood has a Walk Score of at least 70” (City of Vancouver, 2015). This study was designed in response to Vancouver’s Healthy City Strategy’s goal of improving Walk Score.
Walk Score is a free web based tool that calculates the walkability of a location by measuring the distance to nearby amenities. An inverse distance decay function is used to assign points to amenities - those within 400 meters (or approximately a five minute walk) receive the highest scores, with subsequently less points being awarded as distance increases (amenities 30 minutes or more from the location do not receive any points). After considering the pedestrian friendliness, distance to amenities, population density, block length and intersection density, Walk Score assigns a neighborhood an aggregate percentage score. (See appendix A for walk score description) (Walk Score, 2016). Previous research has demonstrated that increased Walk Scores are associated with increased utilitarian walking, or walking as a means of transportation (Brown, 2013; Chiu, 2015; Hirsch, 2013). This suggests that improving Walk Score may also pose an opportunity to increase physical activity.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between vulnerable populations and Walk Score in the Vancouver neighbourhood of West Point Grey. West Point Grey neighbourhood is bordered by multiple parks (Jericho Beach Park, Locarno Beach Park, Spanish Banks Beach Park, University Golf Club, and Pacific Spirit Regional Park) and is zoned predominantly for one-family and two-family dwelling districts, with commercial districts restricted to the busier streets, especially West Tenth Avenue (City of Vancouver GIS Department, 2014). According to the 2011 National Household Survey, West Point Grey has a median income of $84,448 ($28,335 higher than Vancouver overall) (City of Vancouver, 2011). The 2011 Census data suggests that the neighbourhood has a relatively even age distribution with 16.6% of individuals below the age of 19, 69.8% between 20 and 64, and the remaining 15.4% are over the age of 65. The main language spoken by residents in West Point Grey is English, with 51.7% of the population stating that it is their mother tongue, followed by Chinese at 22.8% (City of Vancouver, 2011). West Point Grey is the eleventh most walkable neighbourhood in Vancouver with a walk Score of 74, yet it falls four points short of the average Walk Score in Vancouver (Walk Score, 2016).