EVALUATING WALKABILITY AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND STREET LEVELS IN RIYADH USING GIS AND ENVIRONMENT AUDIT TOOLS

The paper sets out to evaluate walkability in Riyadh. Many scholars have examined the issue of walkability at the macro-scale level of the neighborhood. To better understand walkability however, it is crucial to scrutinize it at the micro-scale of the street as well. Here again, it is important to bear in mind that the streets in a neighborhood are not all homogeneous but are of different types (main street, local residential, dead-end streets, etc.). Differences in street types will lead to differences in walkability scores. The study used quantitative objective measures together with qualitative subjective measures to evaluate walkability. GIS-derived walkability indicators were used to assess neighborhood walkability. Whereas, environment audit tools were adopted to evaluate street walkability. The results indicate that older traditional inner-city neighborhoods performed better than newer suburban neighborhoods with regard to walkability. Main street types tend to outweigh other street types as they have diverse land use mix, higher densities and relatively better sidewalk design. Main streets of lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods tend to have far better walkability scores than their counterparts in higher socio-economic status (SES) areas.