Does walkability undermine neighbourhood safety?

ABSTRACT

While the public health and environmental benefits of walkable neighbourhoods have been widely studied, the safety effect of walkability is still unclear. Using a three-year crime incident dataset in the City of Portland, Oregon, this study tests the link between walkability and neighbourhood safety. It finds that after controlling for many other variables, walkability is significantly and positively associated with burglary rates, but its effect on robbery rates is not statistically significant. Everything else equal, residents in the bottom 25% of Portland neighbourhoods with the lowest levels of street walkability are safer from burglary than those in other neighbourhoods. However, once street walkability reaches a medium-low level, the association between street walkability and burglary incidence turns statistically insignificant. After controlling for walkability and other variables, compact neighbourhoods tend to have lower burglary and robbery rates. Neighbourhoods with more retail space, restaurants and public transit service are associated with higher robbery rates. While previous studies show that public housing, particularly high-rise public housing projects, are associated with high crime rates, this study does not find any significant effects of them on burglary and robbery rates, after controlling for other variables.