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Abstract
As society faces concerns over rising obesity rates, traffic congestion and global warming, attention is turning to the importance of creating more walkable environments. The objective of this study was to investigate how community stakeholders, at both neighbourhood and municipal levels, describe the socio‐political process of creating walkable neighbourhoods. Thirty‐one key informants were interviewed about walking issues identified by older people in four different neighbourhoods in Ottawa, Canada. Five dimensions of the process were identified through qualitative analysis that elucidated insights on political context, access channels, resources, actors and opportunities. Creating walkable neighbourhoods is ultimately a political process that involves the convergence of resources facilitated by actors who are able to bridge sectors, organizations and levels of the system. Mobilization of resources at the neighbourhood level affected citizens' abilities to utilize access channels and act on opportunity raising considerations around equity. Future efforts to improve walkability will require that conventional bureaucracies develop approaches that are sensitive to place‐based needs.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the study participants for donating their time and sharing their experiences. They would also like to thank Dr M. Sawada at the University of Ottawa for providing data from the Ottawa neighbourhood study. This research was financially supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through an Institute of Aging Fellowship Award held by Theresa Grant. Nancy Edwards holds a nursing chair funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Government of Ontario.