It's nice to see a scientific study confirm what I've suspected all along. The new suburbs of Columbia either have no sidewalks, or have sidewalks that don't go anywhere outside the residential neighborhood (i.e. you can walk to your neighbor's house, but not to the grocery store). People drive to the mall-plex to do their shopping, drive the kids to school, drive half an hour into the city to go to work.

If you look at the brochures for these communities, they all proclaim the driving distance to various locations ("Only 5 minutes from Columbiana Centre!"), and say nothing about what's within walking distance. Walking has become planned exercise rather than a normal part of one's day.

When we bought our house, I insisted on an in-town house in a neighborhood with sidewalks. Sadly, we couldn't afford that, so settled for an in-town neighborhood with no sidewalks but plenty of stuff within walking distance if you're willing to brave the 35mph traffic whizzing by inches from your shoulder. Interestingly, during the year I've lived here I've seen more and more people are braving the traffic and walking to the grocery store, mall, bus stop, fried chicken restaurant, etc. Perhaps people are willing to walk if given an incentive and reasonably safe passage.