Billie Giles-Corti

Thanks so much.

It's great to be here.

I think people have really come to appreciate their suburbs because if they were living locally, as we had to during the lockdowns, if you had amenity nearby, you were better off.

If you had the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker all near your home and you were able to get to those very easily, you didn't have to get in a car or

if you had cycling facilities nearby, if you had public open space nearby, I think people started to appreciate, oh my God, I've got a fantastic park near my house.

Oh my God, I've got this, you know, I can go down and I can have a coffee with my neighbour, physically distancing.

But, you know, it just really reinforced the importance of good design in the way we build our cities.

So the way it's measured is through three main variables, three main things.

So we measure it by the density of the area.

And the reason why density is so important is because if you've got enough people, you can have more shops and services.

So density is important.

The numbers of destinations that are near your home is important.

And then also the street connectivity.

So if you live in an area where you've got more of a grid pattern, it's better because it gives you more choices.

So if you walk down one way and there's a horrible dog or a horrible person that you don't like to walk past, then you can go walk another direction or there's some sort of service there that you don't want to go past.

And it gives you choices.

Whereas if you live in an area where there's lots of cul-de-sacs,

That's a disconnected street network and you can't walk as far as quickly as you could if you've got a connected street network.

So the idea is to make it as efficient as possible for walking.

Well, there's a very good reason for that.