Sydney has some exemplary places for a walk. There's Bondi to Bronte. There's a stroll around The Rocks, along the Manly foreshore, or down Church Street, Parramatta.

But across the city there are very few neighbourhoods that are genuinely conducive to walking about, according to a new study that attempts to match the amenity of an area's streetscape against ambient air pollution.

According to the study, only four per cent of Sydney's neighbourhoods demonstrated both high walkability and low levels of traffic density and therefore air pollution. The most walkable spots identified in the study were Bondi and Cronulla, followed by Potts Point/Kings Cross, with Clovelly, Harbord and Parramatta also ranking highly.

"We were particularly keen to see now only how walkable neighbourhoods are but also whether they are exposed to air pollution, and so whether the good effects of increased walking are offset by the adverse effects of being exposed to more air pollution," said Christine Cowie, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Air Quality and Health Research and Evaluation, based at the Woolcock Institute.