Motivation to Walk or Bike Varies by Income

Written By H. Pike Oliver

Lower income people walk or bike if the density and layout of a neighborhood or district makes that possible. In the case of higher income folks--not so much.  These are the conclusions of a University of Washington (UW) research project based on responses to random surveys of two income groups--one between $40,000 and $60,000 per year and the other above $140,000--in several Seattle area neighborhoods. The higher income people tend to walk or bike only if they find their neighborhood attractive and do so for more discretionary or recreational trips. A summary of the research effort led by Xi Zhu, who graduated with a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the UW in 2015, is available here.

H. Pike Oliver

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, H. Pike Oliver has worked on real estate development strategies and master-planned communities since the early 1970s, including nearly eight years at the Irvine Company. He resided in the City of Irvine for five years in the 1980s and nine years in the 1990s.

As the founder and sole proprietor of URBANEXUS, Oliver works on advancing equitable and sustainable real estate development and natural lands management. He is also an affiliate instructor at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.

Early in his career, Oliver worked for public agencies, including the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. Prior to relocating to Seattle in 2013, Oliver taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

Oliver is a graduate of the urban studies and planning program at San Francisco State University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning at UCLA.

https://urbanexus.com
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