‘When sidewalks are no longer made for walking’: Identifying key challenges to walking in Amman, Jordan, and the urge for context specific walkability measurement and evaluation tools. Deyala Tarawneh 1 1 University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan d.altarawneh@ju.edu.jo Abstract. Towards achieving urban sustainability, research argues society’s dependence on automobiles must be reduced. In a city like Amman, Jordan where citizens heavily rely on private motorised vehicles in their everyday commute and to tending to their everyday needs, factors including safety, con- venience, comfort in addition to pedestrian accessibility and sidewalk connec- tivity, amongst others, have gained less attention in city planning efforts, and as a result, walkability— which is increasingly becoming recognised as a funda- mental right to people in their cities and an indicator to improved quality of life— has been compromised. Whether interrupted by poor planting choices or equally by misplaced litter bins; ambiguously transformed into extensions to adjacent businesses or private residents, or; simply suddenly interrupted, side- walks in a large segment of the city of Amman are increasingly becoming less walkable. Through looking at a number of assessment and evaluation tools designed for the purpose of examining walkability and sidewalk designs in urban neighbour- hoods including; GIS based models; Pedestrian Level Of Services (PLOS) measures; Google Street View; WalkScore; Pedestrian Index of the Environ- ment (PIE); in addition to other tools from the international context, this paper aims to shed the light on this urban complication in the case of Amman as part of the larger mobility and transportation theme towards achieving urban sus- tainability goals and suggests the development of new tools —or the appropria- tion of existing tools— in ways that take into account Middle Eastern context particularities and adhere to its specific walkability problems and key concerns. As a result, and in an attempt to further the understanding of the urban phenom- enon and in order to develop the suggested tools, this paper preliminary evalu- ates the status quo of sidewalks in Amman and identifies key challenges to good sidewalk design practice that does not look at sidewalks as mere mediums for walking as a physical activity or for arriving to destinations, rather as cata- lysts for achieving better built environments and better health through promot- ing an active lifestyle amongst numerous other benefits. To conclude, this paper aims to contribute to the growing body of discussions on walkability and urban sustainability from a Middle Eastern perspective, it suggests framework interventions and policy recommendations and recognises the need to develop context specific walkability and sidewalk design assess-