Runnability, much like walkability, can be understood as a quantification of the features of the built environment that facilitate movement of runners.
What is Runnability?
Runnability comprises the features of the natural and built environment that make it attractive to runners. Very little research has been done to date to establish what the key environmental correlates of running are. This project is designed to help our team identify environments that support running and disseminate them to a broader audience.
Why is Runnability Important?
Understanding runnability is important as it will inform urban planning, exercise promotion, and creation of natural environments that support running. Our team is working on many aspects of runnability including creating indices, surveys, and environmental scans.
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July 02, 2024
A recent interview from CBC's On The Coast about some of our runnability research, and focuses on concerns with trail running.
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June 28, 2024
Dr. Nadine Schuurman was recently featured in an SFU news article by Will Henderson, about our research on trail running preferences.
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Our survey was conducted in 2020, gathering over two thousand responses from road and trail runners of varying demographics and experience. The survey has become one of our current data sources for further study and some of our past publications.
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To continue working on the Runnability Index, we performed environmental audits of the most popular Strava routes in Metro Vancouver.