Are you interested in how the legal framework in Australia influences walking?
Summary of the article titled An analysis of the legal framework influencing walking in Australia from 2022 by Tracy Nau, Adrian Bauman, William Bellew, Billie Giles-Corti, and Ben J Smith, published in the Public Health Research & Practice journal.
Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how one potential urban mobility method, walking is influenced by legal frameworks. This article presents the shortcomings and opportunities for Australian legislation in encouraging walking.
As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

Walking offers a vital policy target for governments seeking to increase populate physical activity because it is a prevalent and easy access behaviour across social groups and can be incorporated into daily life such as recreation or transport.
Although much is known about the built environment design elements that promote walking, and tools have been developed to assess walkability, there is limited understanding about the statutory components of the system that direct and regulate changes to the built environment in Australia.
More studies are needed to help decision-makers and advocacy groups to fully understand and utilise walkability, like longitudinal or cross-section investigations across the different jurisdictions.

You can find the article through this link.
Abstract: Although walking is a priority in many strategic plans in Australian cities, there is limited understanding of the statutory components for delivering this. Confusion still exists despite substantial evidence about the built environment elements that promote walking and the availability of tools to assess walkability outcomes. This paper examines the characteristics and components of the legal framework that influence the walkability of built environments in Australian states and territories. We audited the form and nature of statutory components regulating the design of the built environment and used framework analysis to identify and compare the main statutory instrument/s that address walkability design considerations in each state and territory. Lawmaking for planning may involve the state/territory parliament, executive, ministers, government departments and/or statutory authorities. The state/territory planning Act is the primary legislation that sets out the framework for the prevailing planning systems. Its relevance to walkability arises from its planning objectives, the legal effect it confers to statutory instruments that support the Act’s implementation, and any processes or mechanisms to promote high-quality design outcomes. Most states and territories have developed jurisdiction-wide statutory tools that contain relevant design considerations for walking. These instruments influence walkability through objectives set for planning zones and aspects of development, and through criteria established to achieve the goals. Many jurisdictions use a combination of outcome and rules-based standards to achieve desired design objectives. The variability in jurisdictional approaches poses challenges, and raises uncertainty, about the scope and strength of legal support for creating walkable environments at the national level. Future policy surveillance and epidemiological analysis are needed to refine the specifications of laws that influence walking in Australia.
Connecting episodes you might be interested in:

No.048 - Interview with Hussein Dia about urban transport systems;
No.138 - Interview with Luis Natera about urban walkability;

You can find the transcript through this link.
What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter @WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the shownotes are also available.
I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.
Music by Lesfm from Pixabay