​The Walkability Index combines five different indicators that are critical to making a place more walkable and aggregates them to give each parcel a single score. The indicators that contribute to walkability are:

Residential Density is the concentration of dwelling units in an area. The greater the residential density, the more likely residents are to walk.

Intersection Density is the concentration of street intersections within an area. Smaller blocks with more intersections increase the ease of travel to destinations.

Land Use Mix is a measure of the coverage evenness of a series of generalized land uses. Values range from 0 to 1 with higher values indicating greater mix among all the land uses.

Commercial Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is the volume of commercial space in an area. It is calculated by finding the ratio between the total floor area of a building to the land area of the property it is built on. Higher FAR values indicate greater intensity of development on a property and a greater number of destinations to walk to.

Sidewalk Completeness is the measure of the continuity of the sidewalk network or the total length of sidewalks over the length of the roads. The more sidewalks, the more likely people are to walk.

The 2011 and 2016 walkability surfaces cover most of the Metro Vancouver region. These surfaces were clipped to the current extent of the Urban Containment Boundary (UCB) for the purposes of evaluating the performance of Metro 2040.