What is W4T
Walking that is accessible, safe and enjoyable for all, treated as urban infrastructure rather than an afterthought.
A definition
Walking for Transport (W4T) names something simple: walking that is accessible, safe and enjoyable for everyone, recognised as a legitimate mode of transport in its own right. The Lab treats W4T as a complex urban system, tied directly to how cities plan for climate, care, governance and implementation.
Why it matters now
Global recognition of walking as key practice is growing, but policy has been slower to follow.
Fewer than half
of countries have policies that support walking, according to a World Health Organization review, most concentrated in high income nations.
7%
of countries had a dedicated active mobility policy, per a 2023 study. That gap is exactly the space W4T is built to close.
Five Interconnected themes
W4T is organised around five themes, each championed by a thematic lead and pursued across every Living Lab and Start-up Grant:
Unwalkable Cities: the structural and social conditions that shape whether walking is a safe, enjoyable and accessible form of transport that people can aspire to.
Climate Resilience: walking infrastructure as protection against extreme weather, not only as a lower carbon choice.
Caring Cities: mobility that supports caregiving, safety and wellbeing for everyone who moves through a city on foot.
Governance: the institutional shifts that move walking from a marginal concern to a budgeted, regulated priority.
Implementation: testing which interventions are socially accepted, technically workable and built to last.
How it comes together
Three pillars of action, actionable knowledge, next generation capacity and communities of learning and practice, turn these five themes into research, training and policy change across every site where the Lab works.
Actionable knowledge
Next generation capacity
Communities of learning and practice
