![]() It's October, which means Halloween, which means candy. Although it's no longer socially appropriate for me to dress up and go door to door asking strangers to feed me candy, it turns out I can scope out the neighborhoods that have a lot of trick-or-treaters and use that to gauge a neighborhood's design. The attractiveness of a neighborhood to trick-or-treaters actually says some pretty interesting things about how well a neighborhood is designed overall. A multitude of design factors come together to create a killer trick or treating neighborhood, and these same factors affect overall livability. ![]() Urban design can have a big impact on human behavior, with factors such as mixed use neighborhoods, higher population density, and high connectivity leading to greater walking and biking behavior (Saelens, et al., 2003) which can potentially increase overall physical activity and health of a community (Handy et al., 2002). Designing around people can really make a difference! So what does trick or treating say about a well-designed neighborhood? Most of the factors that lead to a neighborhood passing the trick or treat test combine into a feeling that the neighborhood is safe and walkable. It turns out some of these factors can have a measurable impact on a feeling of community and resilience. ![]() The House
![]() The Streets
Does your neighborhood pass the trick-or-treat test?
Bonus: If you want to calculate the candy density of your neighborhood (and who doesn't?) check this out: http://www.paullknight.com/2012/10/30/maximize-your-halloween-with-new-urbanism/ Cheshire, L. (2015). ‘Know your neighbours’: disaster resilience and the normative practices of neighbouring in an urban context. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 47(5), 1081-1099. Giles-Corti, B., Wood, G., Pikora, T., Learnihan, V., Bulsara, M., Van Niel, K., ... & Villanueva, K. (2011). School site and the potential to walk to school: The impact of street connectivity and traffic exposure in school neighborhoods. Health & Place, 17(2), 545-550. Handy, S. L., Boarnet, M. G., Ewing, R., & Killingsworth, R. E. (2002). How the built environment affects physical activity: views from urban planning. American Journal of Preventive <edicine, 23(2), 64-73. Koohsari, M. J., Sugiyama, T., Lamb, K. E., Villanueva, K., & Owen, N. (2014). Street connectivity and walking for transport: role of neighborhood destinations. Preventive Medicine, 66, 118-122. Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., & Frank, L. D. (2003). Environmental correlates of walking and cycling: findings from the transportation, urban design, and planning literatures. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 25(2), 80-91. Saelens, B. E., Sallis, J. F., Black, J. B., & Chen, D. (2003). Neighborhood-based differences in physical activity: an environment scale evaluation. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1552-1558. Wilkerson, A., Carlson, N. E., Yen, I. H., & Michael, Y. L. (2012). Neighborhood physical features and relationships with neighbors: does positive physical environment increase neighborliness?. Environment and Behavior, 44(5), 595-615. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2016/10/the_trick_or_treat_test_is_amazing_zillow_ruined_it.html
2 Comments
|
AuthorsThese posts are written or shared by QIC team members. We find this stuff interesting, exciting, and totally awesome! We hope you do too! Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
|