City Know-hows

Comparing walking environment in Madrid and Philadelphia using multiple sampling methods

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Target audience

City council public health and transport officers

The problem

Urban health studies usually focus on the differences between neighbourhoods in the same city; however, that approach lacks any assessment of the overarching forces affecting the city as a whole.

What we did and why

We compared differences in the walking environment between Madrid and Philadelphia. We used an audit tool called M-SPACES that measures, for each street segment;

function (physical attributes of the street, such as the type and quality of the walking surface),
safety (both safety for crime and traffic safety),
aesthetics (visible features that make streets and neighborhoods pleasant to walk), and
destinations (community and commercial facilities in neighborhoods, including local parks, public transportation, services, and shop).

Our study’s contribution

We found that Philadelphia’s streets had higher scores for function (physical attributes that supported walking) and safety, while Madrid streets had greater a greater proportion of streets having at least one walking destinations. These results are key to understand which elements of the built environment could be key to uncover mass influences that operate at the city level.

Impacts for city policy and practice

In order to understand which urban characteristics impact on physical activity and health, we need to understand what characterize our cities as a whole. In our study, Madrid is characterized by a higher proportion of daily walking destinations, while the streets of Philadelphia have better physical infrastructure for walking in the street.

Future studies should include attention to the potential impact of built environment characteristics at the city level.

Further information

Authors: Pedro Gullón (@pgullon), Usama Bilal (@usama_bilal), Patricia Sánchez, Julia Díez (@JuliaDiez91), Gina S. Lovasi, and Manuel Franco (@mfranco_uah)

Full research article:

Walking the cities: A comparative case study for street audits in Madrid and Philadelphia using multiple sampling methods

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