Neighborhood Walkability in a City within a Developing Country

Abstract

Walking has an important role in improving public health. In the last decade, there has been a growing body of literature in public health, transportation, and urban design, which has analyzed the role of the built environment on physical activity, typically walking. Although these issues have received considerable attention in developed countries, few studies exist in developing countries such as Iran. The present study is the first study in the capital city of Iran: Tehran. This paper aims to analyze the objective measuring of the built environment in relation to walking in some neighborhoods of Tehran city. The results are then compared with the level of self-reported walking among elderly people in the study area. The results revealed that elderly people who live in high-walkable neighborhoods walk more frequently than those who live in low-walkable neighborhoods regardless of their socioeconomic status.