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Abstract
This quantitative study investigated the economic impact walkability has on American cities by analyzing businesses and consumer spending habits on a city level. Urban design is important to how a city functions and supports the movement of goods, services, and people. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in making cities in the U.S. more walkable, and research has been conducted analyzing the health, social capital, environmental, and economic impacts of walkability. The relationship between walkability and economic development is under-researched. This partially comes from the difficulty in obtaining data to analyze walkability’s economic effect, but it also comes from the fact that economic impacts are often not immediate, making the analysis of walkability in terms of economic development difficult. This study explored how walkability impacts a city’s economy, with the effect on businesses and consumer spending habits being used to determine if economic benefits were more prevalent in more walkable cities. Two hundred U.S. cities, with populations between 15,000 and 150,000, were randomly selected. Data on businesses, consumer spending habits, and the walkability of each city was collected and analyzed. Ultimately, this study came to the conclusion that while there may be a slight negative economic impact on the number of employer firms brought on by walkability, walkability exhibits more overall economic benefits through an increase in the number of employees, an increase in total consumer spending, an increase in non-essential spending, and a decrease in the essential spending area of health care, which benefits the consumer. Further, more specialized research is needed to better understand walkability’s economic impact, but this study shows that more walkable cities do experience multiple economic benefits when compared to non-walkable cities. Cities and their policymakers interested in pursuing walkability can use this increased understanding of walkability’s economic impact to make informed urban design decisions that benefit both businesses and consumers.