Walkability is the ability to safely walk between homes and businesses, transit stations, and other amenities in a reasonably short amount of time. Promoting walkable neighborhoods and cities reduces the need for personal vehicles and carbon emissions, gives citizens more freedom to access services and businesses, and encourages high-density infill development that makes use of existing resources and infrastructure. Planners can promote walkable design by incentivizing infill, eliminating parking requirements, and investing in robust public transit and mixed-use development that puts businesses closer to where their customers live and work.

Walkability Courses

pedestrians walking in city
Beyond Complete Streets for Walking and Biking
William Riggs
54 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
fingerboard sign
Designing a Wayfinding System
Adam Fine
58 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
crosswalk intersection painted with rainbow colors
Tactical Urbanism: How It's Done
Mike Lydon
96 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
aerial of downtown colorado springs
Incremental Code Reform: Enabling Better Places
Lynn Richards, Susan Henderson
59 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
Cityscape view of buildings, roads, highways, and sea
Decking Highways: Reconnecting Communities
David Dixon
51 Mins
  • CIP
  • AICP CM
downtown salt lake city skyline
Form-Based Codes 101: Downtowns
Mary Madden, Victor Dover
66 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • LA CES
two elderly people crossing the street
The Pedestrian Safety Crisis in the U.S.
Angie Schmitt
53 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
person getting on bus for urban planning course
Transit Planning: The First/Last Mile
Lisa Nisenson
83 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
Findlay market on a colorful street in Ohio.
Landscape Design for Social Sustainability, Part 1
Kristin Faurest
57 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
bicyclists cross bridge in park with houston skyline in background
Greening the Neighborhood: An Introduction to LEED-ND
Eliot Allen
51 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
people sitting in outdoor plaza
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
60 Mins
  • SACPLAN CPD
pedestrian on path next to bikeshare
Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
Jeff Speck
79 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
black and white image aerial of suburban homes
The Story of Sprawl
Tim Halbur
163 Mins
people sitting inside a New York subway car
Women and Cities 4: Gender Equity in the Public Sphere
Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman
55 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
high tech bus in intersection for urban planning course
Introduction to New Mobility
Lisa Nisenson
77 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
A busy street in Vienna, Austria.
Landscape Design for Social Sustainability, Part 2
Kristin Faurest
53 Mins
  • CIP
  • AICP CM
park with city skyline in background
Greening the Neighborhood: Accelerating Sustainability with LEED-ND
Eliot Allen
52 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
busy street with cars and pedestrians in India
The Human Scale
81 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
Construction inside a large two-story mall.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
David Dixon
48 Mins
  • CIP
  • AICP CM
aerial view of suburban homes
The Story of Sprawl - With Commentary Tracks
Tim Halbur
143 Mins
pedestrians and bicyclist in helsinki
Women and Cities 5: The Feminist Future City
Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman
59 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD
cars and buses on busy street with metro train in background
Transportation Planning: The Role of Transportation Systems in Social and Economic Life
Richard Willson
47 Mins
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
  • CNU-A
  • SACPLAN CPD
Train in City
Introduction to Transit Service Policy
Jarrett Walker
105 Mins
  • CIP
  • AIA CES
  • AICP CM
exterior of leed building
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Core Concepts
Eliot Allen
29 Mins
  • AICP CM
  • SACPLAN CPD

Top Walkability Instructors

David Dixon

David is well known for helping create new, mixed-use urban districts (in both cities and suburbs)...

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Richard Willson

Richard Willson is a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at California State...

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Jeff Speck

Jeff Speck is a city planner who advocates internationally for more walkable cities.

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Eliot Allen

Eliot Allen, certified, LEED AP-ND, is an urban planner and Principal with Criterion Planners of Portland...

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Mark David Major

Dr. Mark David Major, AICP, CNU-A is a Professor of Urban Design at the Savannah College...

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Lennart Nout

Lennart is an urban mobility design consultant, specializing in design and planning of bicycle networks and...

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Kristin Faurest

Kristin Faurest is a public garden education and outreach professional, author, and landscape architecture educator, committed...

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Adam Fine

Adam is the Director of experiential graphic design at Nova Scotia-based Fathom Studio and has worked...

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Geoffrey Ferrell

Geoffrey is one of the originators of the modern practice of Form-Based Codes. His work ranges...

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Jarrett Walker

Jarrett Walker is an international consultant in public transit network design and policy, with 25 years...

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John Hersey

John is a planner with two decades of experience critically evaluating and advancing transit-oriented development as...

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Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

Katrina is a lecturer, researcher, and advocate for heart-centered cities. Her work focuses on human behavior...

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Donald Shoup

Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. His research...

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Lisa Nisenson

Lisa Nisenson has 20 years of experience and leadership in smart growth, sustainable development and civic...

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Daniel Parolek

Daniel Parolek is a nationally recognized thought leader in architecture, design, and urban planning, specifically in...

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Victor Dover

Victor Dover is a town planner and urban designer with 29 years of leadership in the...

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Mary Madden

Mary Madden has nearly 20 years of experience in the fields of urban planning and design...

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Tim Halbur

Tim Halbur is communications director for the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), the leading organization...

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Mike Lydon

Mike Lydon is a Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative.

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Thomas Hamed

Thomas Hamed, AICP is a transportation planner who specializes in commuter transportation and mobility for all...

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Jonathan Katz-Ouziel

Jonathan Katz-Ouziel is an autistic planner, an independent accessibility consultant, and the founder of Opossum House...

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Angie Schmitt

Angie Schmitt is a writer and founder of 3MPH Planning and Consulting, a Cleveland-based firm focused...

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Lance Freeman

Lance Freeman is a Professor in the Urban Planning Program at Columbia University in New York...

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Dave Amos

Dave is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cal Poly...

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All Walkability Courses

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools Sign Up

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

Instructor: Emily Talen

Urban planners and urban designers are interested in building places that embody beauty and hope. In this course, Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP, presents free urban design software tools that can help urban planners and urban designers visualize changes in the built environment to support the overarching goal of creating better places.

4.28
59 Mins
AIA CES
AICP CM
CNU-A
SACPLAN CPD
Conceptual Drawing for Planners Sign Up

Conceptual Drawing for Planners

Instructor: JJ Zanetta

In this course, we will learn effective ways of drawing as a means to communicate design ideas and explore digital tools that support traditional drawing.

4.34
73 Mins
AICP CM
SACPLAN CPD
The DIY Form-Based Code: Research and Development Sign Up

The DIY Form-Based Code: Research and Development

Instructor: Norman Wright

Covering concepts critical to developing the foundation for a code, this course takes a a tour through the creation of a code for the hypothetical city of Wrightville.

4.35
66 Mins

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Software

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