Calgary's overall Walk Score less than Edmonton, Brampton and Saskatoon

It's easier to get around on foot in sprawling, snowy Canadian cities like Hamilton, Edmonton, Brampton and Saskatoon than Calgary.

That's according to Walk Score, an online index that ranks the pedestrian friendliness of neighbourhoods based on metrics such as walking routes, nearby amenities, intersection density and block length.

Calgary's walk score is 47.9 out of 100 placing it 18 out of 20 Canadian cities with a population of more than 200,000.

"Which is not that great. We know there's room for improvement," said Andrew King, project manager for the City of Calgary's pedestrian strategy.

• Pedestrian strategy: city plans to make Calgary more walkable

The final report,called Step Forward, will be presented to the city's transportation committee on Wednesday.

It lists 50 short, medium- and long-term actions to get more Calgarianswalkingyear-round, in every community.

"We've focused a lot on the design in our cities for moving cars, moving vehicles and moving machines and the whole scale of design has almost forgotten the human the person. The person trying to walk across the street," said King.

Lower speed limiton residential roads

The plan recommends increasing city funding to speed up sidewalksnow removal,improving pedestrian safety at LRT, CP and CN rail crossings and collaborating with school boards to include walking in the curriculum.

But one of the more immediate recommendations is to lower the speed limitto 40 km/hour on residential streets.

"About 75 per cent of children who have been involved in collisions, they're involved in collisions on what we call these collector roads and local roads," said King.

• Map details 16 years of Calgary pedestrian-vehicle collisions

"So if speeds are reduced Within communities that will be a big change and reduce the amount of collisions and fatalities."

It would cost $2.5million in annual operating costs to implement the short-term recommendationsof theStep Forward strategyand $11million in capital funding for theremainder of the 2016-2018 business cycle.