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Designing the Walkable City
Abstract
With federal policy beginning to shift from auto-centric planning, provision for pedestrian and bicycle access is now mandated in federally supported projects. However, the field of transportation planning has little in the way of theory and methods to guide design and planning for walkable cities. Walkability is increasingly valued for a variety of reasons. Not only does pedestrian transportation reduce congestion and have low environmental impact, it has social and recreational value. Recent research suggests that walking also promotes mental and physical health. The quality of the pedestrian environment is key to encouraging people to choose walking over driving. Six criteria are presented for design of a successful pedestrian network: (1) connectivity; (2) linkage with other modes; (3) fine grained land use patterns; (4) safety; (5) quality of path; and (6) path context. To achieve walkable cities in the United States it will be necessary to assess current walkability conditions, revise standards and regulations, research walking behavior in varied settings, promote public education and participation in pedestrian planning, and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary education between transportation engineers and the design professions. Journal of Urban Planning and Derveloping
... Walkability can be widely understood as promoting walking activities by the environment and the degree of walking friendliness. As a spatial attribute, walkability has different meanings [8][9][10][11]. It measures the traversability, compactness and safety of the walking environment, helps create a dynamic space and built environment, provides a variety of sustainable transportation options, and promotes the development of various physical activities. Concurrently, walkability can also be used as a holistic solution to urban problems by quantifying diversified spaces [8]. ...
... Concurrently, walkability can also be used as a holistic solution to urban problems by quantifying diversified spaces [8]. Many scholars have defined walkability differently regarding the socioeconomic attributes of pedestrians, built and natural environmental features and social factors [9][10][11]. Leslie et al. defined the walkability of neighborhood communities as the ability of the living environment to induce walking activities [9]. ...
... Townshend described walkability as having a pleasant walking environment that is easy to pass and satisfying daily living needs through comfortable walking distances [10]. Southworth believes that walkability measures the built environment by creating a comfortable and safe walking environment to support and encourage walking activities while providing various facilities and pleasant scenery within a reasonable distance [11]. ...
A small amount of campus walkability research has considered facility layout and environmental quality. The aim of this paper is to use a Walk Score and Urban Design Quality to assess campus walkability and investigate the impact of a campus Walk Score, environmental quality and other streetscape features on walking activity. This paper optimizes the Walk Score method based on the frequency, variety, and distance of students’ walking to and from public facilities. A total of 157 campus street segments from the Weijin Road Campus of Tianjin University in China were selected to assess campus Walk Scores and environmental quality through the use of GIS and field audits. The effect of campus walkability and environmental features on pedestrian volume was examined by negative binomial regression. We found that Walk Score, transparency, street furniture, the number of buildings and noise level have a positive effect on walking activity, while enclosure and building basic color show a negative relationship with pedestrian volume. The results will be used to propose strategies to improve campus walkability and promote walking activity.
... With growing concerns about urban congestion, pollution, and sedentary lifestyles, designing streetscapes that promote higher walkability has become an imperative for fostering healthier and more livable urban environments. Southworth (2005) defines walkability as "the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing for pedestrian comfort and safety, connecting people with varied destinations within a reasonable amount of time and effort, and offering visual interest in journeys throughout the network". "Walkability is a quantitative and qualitative measurement of how inviting or un-inviting an area is to pedestrians. ...
... To address these issues, they suggest a methodology for measuring six urban design qualities related to walkability: Imageability, Enclosure, Human Scale, Transparency and Complexity. Michael Southworth (2005), examines pedestrian demands in urban and suburban settings, with an emphasis on the performance factors and criteria for walkable city. This explores the difficulty of developing walkable cities in the United States, where more than half of the typical American metropolitan was designed to automobile dominated stands. ...
The current state of Itahari chowk reflects the challenges of urban development and the prioritization of vehicular traffic. The study examines the connection between the built environment and walkability, utilizing Itahari chowk as a study area. This paper aims to quantify the degree of walkability in relation to built environment while comprehending how the built environment affects people’s walking habits and how aspects of walkability related to urban architecture are related to physical attributes. The study employs a thorough analysis of walkability coverage across four distinct spots within Itahari chowk using Gordon Cullen serial vision method. This method rooted in urban design principles evaluates four crucial qualities: Imageability, Enclosure, Transparency and Human Scale. To further refine the assessment, interview was conducted to gauge the perception of users. Respondents were asked to rank the urban design qualities based on their perceived importance and ranking data were used to determine weightage for each quality. By integrating the weighted evaluation criteria in the walkability coverage obtained through the serial vision method, a more accurate representation of actual walkability experience emerged. The findings obtained from theoretical method (serial vision method) and people’s perception (ranking method) were compared and discuss. The results of this analysis showed that people's perceptions of walkability were different from the theoretical method. The study will be beneficial to pedestrian design professionals and academic interested in this topic. Ultimately the general public will be benefit from more walkable and user-friendly street.
... As atividades cotidianas que antigamente eram realizadas, sobretudo, a pé (Southworth, 2005), são, atualmente, fortemente direcionadas para utilização do automóvel particular nas cidades. Os espaços de permanência nos centros urbanos têm se apresentado cada vez mais degradados e ociosos, entretanto, no Brasil, de 2001 até os dias atuais há uma crescente manifestação de entidades, ONGs, grupos da sociedade civil, entusiastas e profissionais engajados em contribuir com cidades mais humanas, sustentáveis e seguras para as pessoas. ...
... Vivenciar o espaço urbano está intrinsecamente conectado aos encontros e às atividades sociais das pessoas. Desta forma, a caminhabilidade e a vitalidade urbana são conceitos elementares para o bem-estar das pessoas (usuários do espaço urbano), seja incentivado o caminhar com conforto e segurança (SOUTHWORTH, 2005), seja pela diversidade de usos e pela "vida nas ruas" -movimentação constante de pessoas nas ruas -em horários e locais diversos (JACOBS, 2011). ...
Despite being an intrinsic factor in people's daily lives, active mobility still presents itself as a challenge in the model of Brazilian cities due to the lack of adequate and inviting structure for walking. This case study was carried out in a city located in the countryside of the State of São Paulo, with the purpose of enabling a higher quality in walking, reinforcing walkability and the importance of more sustainable modes of transportation, fostering urban vitality and reactivating neglected areas by promoting a network articulation to develop sustainable initiatives. In this way, it seeks to highlight the importance of popular participation in the construction and requalification of urban public spaces, not only in terms of displacement, but also in the occupation of idle spaces through the use of methods and tools, such as tactical urbanism, which proposes interventions in the city in the context of the micro scale, from short-term solutions, low cost and multipliable. The study presents the challenges and the results of the project, arising from the collection and systematization of data, and from the collective construction and continuous appropriation of space by the population.
... Along the same lines, the city in 15 min becomes a strategy or urban model in which the optimization of space and time is the virtue to be squeezed out of cities. This is due to the constant search to increase the supply of services (both private and public) in public spaces, which ends up being expressed in healthier spaces, in terms of their walkability and the sustainable use of public and private transport [38]. ...
... We argue that urban mobility is fundamental to be able to carry out daily activities, but also to facilitate social aspects, promoting relationships between people, especially the elderly [27]. Social connections, in turn, are one of the major determinants of individual health and well-being [38]. Following this line and thinking about a city in 15 min, this article elaborates an empirical analysis of the socio-spatial variables that allow us to diagnose the feasibility of moving towards a 15-min city in Santiago de Chile, with an emphasis on priority urban functions for older people. ...
Considering the global scenario of population aging, which countries such as Chile are going through, the social problems that it means in terms of viability and quality of life for the elderly are increasing and are a cause for concern. For this reason, this study summarizes the results of investigating the accessibility of services and recreational spaces under the parameters of a "15-minute city" for the elderly people in the city of Santiago de Chile. The investigation employed a multivariate geostatistical analysis with a quantitative approach and was developed on a census block scale to test some of the principles of the 15-min city along with the principles on active aging of the elderly. The results are surprising, show a good territorial coverage for the study area and open the possibility of Santiago becoming a 15-min city for older adults. However, there are still several challenges in terms of public policies, from mental and physical health to the design of public spaces, which are fundamental to think about for cities of the future.
... According to statistics from research published in [48], about a 10% hike in road accidents has been recorded in the year 2021. According to a recent survey, the safety of a car is the most important factor [44]. The investment of every individual in their vehicle is mostly based on safety features, security features, and comfort mechanisms [51]. ...
... YOLO is trained on a loss function that directly corresponds to detection performance, as opposed to classifier-based techniques, and the whole model is learned concurrently. YOLO is also ideal for applications that need rapid, reliable object recognition since it has a better generalizing representation than most other models [44]. It is deserving of being aggressively advised and marketed because of these amazing and important benefits, so the framework has been employed with YOLO as a superior approach for the study objective, keeping all of these factors in mind. ...
This paper presents the framework for early detection of cattle lying dead, blocking the road, or in a condition to cause an accident on highways based on video scrutiny. The suggested framework works with feature extraction, feature expression, and assessment criteria. It also includes a method that can identify the status of cattle on road i.e., cattle lying dead after an accident, a method for assessing stray cattle’s blocking the road, and rules for assessing other dangerous states. The framework is trained over 6000 images covering almost all the highway collision possibilities and tested on real images depicting different scenarios on highways. The proposed framework can achieve the mAP of up to 95.10% with precision and recall values of 0.98 and 0.94 respectively, which outperforms all other approaches taken into consideration. The outcomes of the study will assist the concerned authorities to take preventive steps to avoid road accidents or traffic-related issues.
... Cervero et al. (2013) introduce a model with five Ds, namely, design, density, diversity, distance to transit, and destination accessibility. Moreover, Southworth (2005) mentions the six attributes of walkable networks, namely, connectivity, linkage with other modes, fine-grained and varied land use patterns, safety, path quality, and path context. Ewing and Handy (2009) argued that the qualities of urban design differ dependent on individual reaction according to sense of comfort, sense of safety, and level of interest. ...
... Decision to walk studies review.(Cervero and Kockelman 1997;Alfonzo, 2005;Southworth, 2005;Ewing et al., 2006;Mehta, 2008;Ewing & Handy, 2009;Javad et al., 2012;Koh & Wong, 2013;Mateo-Babiano, 2016, Mendiate et al., 2022Cervero et al., 2013, Speck, 2012, Mendiate et al., 2022Rahmana et al., 2015, Sim & Gehl, 2019, Anciaes et al., 2017Singh, 2016, Anciaes et al., 2017Rafiemanzelat et al., 2017, Mendiate et al., 2022. ...
... It comprises the urban design elements that assure the accessibility, comfort, safety, and enjoyable walking experience for its pedestrians [23]. According to Southworth, walkability is "the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing for pedestrian comfort and safety, connecting people with varied destinations within a reasonable amount of time and effort, and offering visual interest in journeys throughout the network" [24]. ...
Walking is the most sustainable, safe, and active mode of transportation among the elderly. There is growing evidence that the built environment influences walkability. However, little research has been conducted to assess the perceived built environment correlates for senior citizens walking in low- and middle-income countries. This paper explores the relationship between built environment characteristics and the walkability of senior citizens in Triplicane, Chennai, India. Seniors aged 60 years and above, both men and women, living in Triplicane, Chennai, were interviewed (n = 221). Personal characteristics and perceived built environment factors were assessed using the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale for India (NEWS India). Data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 21 software. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to examine the association between the built environment characteristics and the walkability of senior citizens. The results show that built environment attributes, namely pedestrian safety infrastructure, physical barriers of the neighborhood, and aesthetics, have a high impact on walkability among senior citizens.
... While numerous studies have focused on reducing car dependency in Western countries (Southworth, 2005;Barton and Grant, 2013), the E-mail address: francisco_benita@sutd.edu.sg. situation in developing SEA countries, particularly Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, is characterized by a dominant motorcycle culture. ...
This study investigates non-mandatory trips in three regions of Jakarta city, namely Central, North, and West. Specifically, the focus is on examining mode choice, distance traveled, and trip frequency. The dataset used for analysis consists of 1,187 complete survey responses obtained from an on-site survey of residents conducted between December 2019 and March 2020. The results reveal distinct travel patterns across the surveyed areas. For instance, Central Jakarta exhibits a high reliance on ride-hailing services, while shorter-distance trips are more common in West Jakarta. These variations can potentially be attributed to socio-demographic factors. To gain deeper insights into travel behavior, a multinomial transport mode choice model is employed to explore the relationship between travel modes, trip characteristics, and personal/household variables. Interestingly, despite the growth of motorcycles in Jakarta, our findings suggest that older individuals are more inclined to choose walking over motorcycle travel. Additionally, trip frequency plays a role in mode choice, as frequent trips are associated with motorcycle-based travel. As anticipated, motorcycle modal share is influenced by vehicle ownership; however, our results indicate a negative impact of ownership on the likelihood of switching from motorcycle mode to alternative modes. To facilitate a shift from motorcycle use to active and public transportation, our findings emphasize the need for an effective transportation strategy that includes reducing motor vehicle ownership, creating walkable environments, and developing age-friendly public transport options.
... By providing visual diversity for journeys and reducing congestion, reliance on walking has been shown to have a low environmental impact, social value, recreational value, and an enhancement of mental and physical health. A range of considerations must be addressed to achieve a walkable environment, as detailed in Table 2 [22,23]. Elements such as pedestrian signals are provided, along with concrete paving strips specifically designed for the visually impaired and blind. ...
Enhancing public health through sustainable urban design: An examination of transportation and green space integration," Abstract: In the pursuit of urban sustainability, the incorporation of design elements conducive to public health, safety, comfort, and well-being is investigated within this study. Focusing on Kufa City, Iraq, significant indicators of urban design are identified that may contribute to the enhancement of human health. Among these, multiple modes of transport, walkability, cycling infrastructure, and the promotion of green spaces are emphasized. An examination was conducted within three distinct urban spaces in Kufa City, each representing a different spatial level to provide a comprehensive reflection of the city's design. It was found that the current design does not generally support public health, characterized by an overwhelming dependence on private automobiles and a lack of provisions for walking and cycling. Variations were observed across different spatial levels, with the sectoral and neighborhood levels containing parks that offer comfortable and safe pedestrian paths and green spaces that potentially ameliorate the overall atmosphere. Such provisions were found lacking at the regional level. The findings illuminate key areas for intervention and serve as a valuable reference for urban planners seeking to promote public health through the strategic design of urban spaces. In maintaining consistency with professional terminology used elsewhere in this article, the selected terms are carefully employed to articulate the complex interplay between urban design and public health. The expanded content provides a richer understanding of the subject while preserving originality and adherence to academic rigor.
... By providing visual diversity for journeys and reducing congestion, reliance on walking has been shown to have a low environmental impact, social value, recreational value, and an enhancement of mental and physical health. A range of considerations must be addressed to achieve a walkable environment, as detailed in Table 2 [22,23]. Elements such as pedestrian signals are provided, along with concrete paving strips specifically designed for the visually impaired and blind. ...
... Literatürde, yaya mekânlarının sosyo-ekolojik bağlamı farklı yöntemler ile hâlen geliştirilmektedir. Bu konuda yapılan çalışmalar kısıtlı olmakla birlikte yaya ulaşımının sosyal ve rekreasyonel değerlere sahip olduğu (Southworth, 2005), yaya ihtiyaçlarının sosyo-ekolojik ihtiyaç hiyerarşisi olduğu (Alfonzo, 2005) ve yaya mekânlarında fiziksel özelliklerinden çok, sosyal olanakların önemli olduğu (Mehta, 2008) belirtilmiştir. ...
... This can reduce the city's carbon footprint while promoting healthy lifestyles. 18 3. Incorporate nature and green space: Prioritize the incorporation of green spaces and nature throughout the city, such as parks, gardens, and green roofs. This can provide numerous environmental and health benefits, including improved air quality, biodiversity, and mental health 19 20 . ...
INTRODUCTION When we talk about cities, the first thing that pops up in our minds is functional concrete blocks with vehicle-demarcating urban zoning. As humans yearn to be in nature, we could have other choices where citizens and trees demarcate city zoning instead of vehicles, a city that could be beautiful, natural, and sustainable, an alternative to the current polluted, noisy, exclusive, and alienating cities. Many urban dwellers have attempted to make a living in dominant global multicultural, fractured, cosmopolitan, and highly varied environments over the past century, where difference, not homogeneity, is the rule. Yet, mainstream urban planning problematizes the city's increasing heterogeneity and the tensions and conflicts that come with it in an effort to control the urban wilderness through policies and plans. According to this perspective, today's metropolis is "divided," "unsafe," and made up of "the underclass" and "the poor". 1 However, many writers, urbanist, and philosophers, talked about the importance of changing the nature of how we approach cities by integrating nature into our urban fabric, and how this could be of a benefit to our ecology, biodiversity, and our personal well-being. Some theorists approached these ideas from a sociological perspective like Lefebvre and the notion of space production. Others approached the concept in a form of a science fiction, like the Canadian novelist Margret Atwood in her 2009 novel "The Year of the Flood", where it is set in a post-apocalyptic world where most of humanity has been wiped out by a pandemic. The remaining survivors live in a self-sustaining, ecological community called God's Gardeners, who prioritize living in harmony with the natural world. The novel explores themes of environmentalism, genetic engineering, and the relationship between humans and other species. 2 This paper looks into alternatives of how we could approach our cities from a speculative design perspective before hindering into policies. In specific, this paper looks at Bolzano-Bozen in Italy and what are the other alternatives that we could have in some specific neighbourhoods. Our research focuses on developing a visual narrative of city streets where citizens gain back their cities by endorsing healthy public spaces and by showing how streets could be safer for all. For this research, we used collages, AI aided technologies, and renderings to imagine a different outcome for our city streets. Moreover, we collect and highlight the main ideas into approach a sustainable eco social utopia collected form wide range of academics and writers.
... Walking in cities is linked with a plethora of positive effects including health, environmental, and economic benefits (Forsyth 2015;Kelly et al. 2018;Southworth 2005). In turn, urban designers have put forth a range of design strategies to promote walking in cities (Duany, Plater-Zyberck, and Krieger 1991;Forsyth 2015;Mueller et al. 2020;Pozoukidou and Chatziyiannaki 2021;Scudellari, Staricco, and Vitale Brovarone 2020). ...
... Trees, urban parks, and forests significantly influence the urban environment, which also holds 45 major symbolic value for city dwellers. Urban trees, for instance, enhance the aesthetic appeal 46 of cities (Southworth, 2005) offer significant environmental advantages (Livesley et al., 2016), 47 and are positively related to a higher quality of life . Urban trees also Tho & Kirton, 1998). ...
Taman Saujana Hijau (TSH), Putrajaya is a 41-ha urban park planted with various coniferous species from around the world. Insect pests and disease incidences of this park are unknown and there is a need for an evaluation of the health status of this urban park. This study assessed the level of pest and disease incidents of coniferous species in 12 plots of 7 species (Araucaria bidwilii, Araucaria haterophylla, Araucaria cunninghamii, Pinus caribaea, Pinus merkusii, Podocarpus polystachyus, and Podocarpus costalis). Termites, canker disease, and foliar disease are three major problems. The highest pest and disease incidence (PnDI) was foliar disease with a 0.49 coefficient correlation between the total number of trees and the PnDI, followed by canker disease with 0.40, and termites with 0.36. Of the seven conifers, A. haterophylla was the most infected followed by A. bidwilii and A.cunninghamii. It was concluded that the incidence of pests and diseases in TSH was moderate. To our knowledge, this may be the first baseline inventory of pests and diseases of coniferous species in Malaysia.
... Oxford English dictionaries describe walkability as "suitable or fit for walking on (of a road, country, etc.)/ Capability of walking (of a person)", while previous research on walkability has provided broad definitions of the terms used. Southworth (2005) defines walkability as "the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing pedestrian comfort and safety, connecting people with diverse destinations in a reasonable amount of time and effort, and providing visual interest in journeys throughout the network". This implies that the term encompasses not just spatial data but also visuals of locations. ...
Using space syntax, this paper represents a possible move away from traditional characteristics of urban planning and toward a simulation-based, smart character for a given city, featuring effectiveness and better decision making. This helps in solving current problems and avoiding future issues related to walkability, for example. For this purpose, a comparative analysis between the 2020 and 2030 Master Plans of the study area of Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is made through simulation of the street networks as well as spatial integration of different parts of the island in regard to it being an urban and dynamic system. Established on mathematical algorithms and geospatial computer technology using a program called ‘DepthmapX’, space syntax allows for interpretation of a variety of spatial configurations at different scales and is commonly used in the fields of architecture, urban design, planning, transportation, as well as interior design. The findings show a lack of walkable areas in the busiest areas of Yas Island and call for a revision of the currently vacant lands and rethinking of areas of high connectivity toward them being more public and social spaces. In addition, the street networks are spatially located deeply within the island which makes them difficult to reach by foot from other parts of the island. It was observed that the street network splits the island into two parts separated by the main highway, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road, which is proposed for reconsideration in future development and planning.
... gr. caminar, el uso de bicicletas) resultan peligrosos con los modelos tradicionales de entornos urbanos (Robertson, 1993;Southworth, 2005). ...
Mobility, understood as the capacity to organize and execute the transportation of individuals or material goods with ease, plays a central role in the day to day of any organization. Due to its high impact on competitiveness, mobility is the objectivity of improvement and optimization. Nevertheless, the evolution of mobility has a high interconnection with social tendencies as well as the development of technological innovation. Departing from tendencies marked by the evolution of society and striving for continuous improvement in the quest of meeting the needs of both persons as well as organizations, technological developments have allowed advancements in mobility through innovative solutions. The inclusion of these solutions in electrification, service, automation or connectivity, according with Multi-level Perspective focus in combination with the Social Exchange Theory, just only will be consolidate when their comparative benefits will improve with the actual media. At this moment, they will happen to be used in population niches to prevail as majority trends, so is necessary to reformulate how they try to get in the trade and determinate the role that companies and public administration want to play. These modifications generate opportunities that contribute to maximizing the information received from the vehicle as well as from the user, with its potential consequent implications in the transformation of the mobility ecosystem. Nevertheless, the impact of these tendencies and the advancement of technology in both connectivity and autonomous driving are not homogeneous in all sectors or regions, which translate into different levels of evolution in mobility systems as well as in different business responses and opportunities. Through the appliance of Grounded Theory based on the Contingency Theory is raised the effect, in the mobility as a service, service station, garages, insurance companies, logistic, parking or infrastructure´s managers, and that the challenges they have ahead can only be faced by changing the business’ logic from B2C to B2B and through alliances with digital platforms. Furthermore, due to this technological and social evolution, companies, both digital and climate change technical, are starting to relate to and interact with the principal players and actors of the traditional mobility chain in a stable rather than on a punctual basis. This has meant a reconfiguration of the Global Value Chain of the Automotive sector and of the existing ties amongst the companies of this industry. In this context, the present doctoral thesis, titled " The transformation of the mobility ecosystem: tendencies, future business models and their impact on the global value chain", has as its principal objective to study current and future changes in mobility as a consequence of innovation, lifestyle changes and the impact of technology. In this doctoral thesis, by means of qualitative investigative techniques, the following questions will be analyzed and responded to:
• What are the tendencies related to the new mobility and what impact will they have?
• How will the mobility transformation foment new solutions and complementary business models?
• How does the Global Value Chain related to the new autonomous and connected mobility evolve?
... Walkability refers to how pedestrian-friendly is an area to walking. According to Southworth (2005), a place is termed to be walkable when "the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing for pedestrian comfort and connecting people with varied destinations within a reasonable amount of time." Lo (2009) stated that walkability can be linked to the quality of the built environment, connectivity, safety, and desirability to walk. ...
Increasing urbanization has led to uncontrolled growth along the periphery of urban areas, particularly in developing countries. This has led to the formation of suburban areas around the metropolis, which are characterized by low-density neighborhood with the places of activities like education, and work, usually far off from one another. Walking is the predominant mode of transport across the world, but the facilities for pedestrians, while planning and implementation, are usually overlooked. Hitherto, ample amount of literature has been found to be centric to the pedestrian analysis in core city under different purviews, but only some studies highlight pedestrian inequity in suburban diorama. To highlight these pedestrian issues, a study was conducted in Kajlikheda, a suburb area of Bhopal, which is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India. The paper highlights the pedestrian equity concern through Walkability Space Syntax (WSS). WSS of street integration and pedestrian choice analysis is used for understanding the walking pattern in a neighborhood. A reconnaissance survey was conducted to find out the available pedestrian infrastructure and facilities, post which absence of these facilities was observed. To establish the share of pedestrians in traffic and reinforce the findings, a Traffic Volume Count was conducted, and pedestrian share was found to be substantial. In cognizance to the laid standards, volume to capacity ratio was calculated for automobiles and pedestrians for quantifying the Level of Service (LoS) for both the modes. Through statistical analysis, the paper attempts to express the need to take adequate consideration to provide better pedestrian facilities, which can be generalized in various suburban scenarios across the globe. The research also brings a new dimension to the pedestrian equity studies by integrating concepts of space syntax to answer the modality.
... As is the case of walking-friendly cities, cycling infrastructure has to be attractive in its form and quality (Southworth, 2005). It can attract more cyclists, particularly when it has been designed with focus on connectivity, continuity, wide space, segregation from traffic and provision of safe parking areas (Hunt & Abraham, 2007;Hull & O'Holleran, 2014). ...
Development of cycling infrastructure is becoming a global trend in urban policies. High congestion, mitigating smog and CO2 reduction have led to the re-birth of cycling as a significant mode of urban mobility. The article aims to present the response of medium-sized Polish cities (ranging from 100.000 to 200.000 residents) to these challenges, which are among the most important problems to solve within the next decades. The study analyses the cycling policy of Polish cities, showing the dynamic increase in kilometres of cycle paths constructed (often built alongside street renovation projects), as well as the boom in bike-sharing programmes. Shortcomings such as the lack of consistency in realisation and varied implementation in different cities and culturally ingrained preference for cars, related to historical experiences of post-communist cities, are also outlined. The Polish approach is the cautious policy of carrots without sticks, in which solutions facilitating bicycle travel are not followed up by deterrents against using cars. As a result, there are no political conflicts and opposition regarding this issue, but the numbers of cyclists (although increasing) is still lower than in the world’s leading bicycle cities.
... Individuals may abandon it if they think it is unsafe during their walk (Alfonzo 2005). Perceived safety is the most commonly cited factor affecting walking, including feelings of personal safety and tra c safety (Pikora et al. 2006;Southworth 2005). Comfort is also important and can be in uenced by climate and arti cial measures, such as shade and cleanliness. ...
A heritage city is an urban agglomeration with one or more World Heritage Sites (Roders 2010; Roders and Van Oers 2011). Most heritage sites are car-free destinations in China because the roads in heritage cities are generally narrow. This study examines the ratings of environmental factors and perception of the environment of Gulangyu, China, by both residents and visitors and analyses how different groups perceive the environment while walking. The purpose of this research is to create a more functional walking environment and to achieve a balance between the needs of both groups. Two analytical methods - correlation and logistic regression - were used to analyse the environmental factors and walking perceptions using SPSS software. The logistic regression analysis suggests creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment for residents. Attention should be paid to five factors: comfort level, lighting, building maintenance, commercial attractiveness, and historic buildings. The four factors significantly impacting visitors' walking experience are road cleanliness, the indicating system, building facades along the street, and walking pleasure. The differences in the walking perceptions of residents and visitors suggest that the different purposes of walking for different types of people can lead to different concerns and experiences of the environment.
... Walkability was defined as the extent to which the street environment and form support and encourage walking (Southworth 2005), the better service facility, higher landscape environment quality and convenient travel paths improved the street walkability (Ably and Hill 2005). Previous research has explored the relationship between walkability and the variables of built environment characteristics at a macro level (Moura et al 2017), including the 5Ds framework of density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and travel distance , Kang 2018). ...
Urban street walkability can effectively promote public health and the construction of livable cities. In addition, the coastal streets play a positive role in showing urban vitality and image. Due to the growing leisure needs of residents, measuring the visual walkability perception (VIWP) in urban streets and exploring the influence mechanisms of urban coastal street environments on VIWP have theoretical and practical significance. However, the methods of the previous walkability studies have limitations in terms of cost, time and measurement scale. Based on Google Street View Panoramic (GSVP) image data, this study used the semantic difference (SD) method with virtual reality (VR) technology to evaluate the VIWP of Fukuoka coastal streets. Meanwhile, the proportion of streetscape elements was extracted from GSVP images by semantic segmentation. The correlation and regression analyses were performed between the VIWP evaluation values and streetscape elements. Then, the regression model of the VIWP and the streetscape elements was established. The results showed that the natural features had a positive influence on VIWP in coastal streets. Correspondingly, trees were the strongest contribution rate for the VIWP, followed by shrubs, grasses and water, however, buildings and cars had a negative influence on VIWP. The method extends previous studies for measuring walkability, and optimization strategies were proposed to improve the visual quality of the coastal streets. It can be applied in the construction and management of walkable coastal street environments.
... Ak [8] emphasized that transportation systems indicate the street network of a city and its design, and the main value of transportation system is accessibility. Potentially, the study area analysis provides a macro level analysis of street networks while the walkability is a complex concept that is reliant on other factors such as zoning, use, attraction, open frontages, quality of sidewalks etc. High connectivity of the network provides high levels of accessibility and walkability [63]. ...
Nowadays, city forms are changing due to rapid urbanization and increasing population. In urban morphology studies, walkable street network is examined through the city form to create sustainable cities. This study aims to examine accessibility of street network that shapes the city form by using central street line retrieved from OSM. Accessibility of the street network, one of the criteria of walkability, was evaluated in Çankırı, a micro city in Turkey. The space syntax and GIS methods were used to examine the physical accessibility of the street network. As differences in the topography are not taken into consideration in the space syntax, it was integrated with the GIS in this study. With this method, spatial accessibility, the correlation between integration and choice values of street network, was examined at first. Secondly, land slope was classified according to the standards of pedestrian accessibility and the study area was analyzed using the GIS. Finally, streets with low slope percentage and high integration value were overlaid. The results revealed that the longest, continuous, and main axes located in the area with low slope and high integration values are accessible. The accessible streets obtained by a collaborative integration of the space syntax and GIS methods are lower than the area obtained just from the space syntax method. The use of a combination of these methods is beneficial in terms of understanding the land in three dimensions, but focusing on land surface slopes is only one of the possible synergies between the two tools. The walkable street network obtained by using this method gives an idea about urban mobility. While this method works with hilly lands, other GIS data may be needed for different land types. However, it should also be extended to multi-source information and quantitative analysis methods in bigger cities, as urban walkability is at the core of the 15-minute city model, which is of high actuality of the agenda of urban planning and sustainable urban development.
... Whereas road network layout also influences the use of the bicycle. The dense road network is highly suitable for NMT due to the shorter distances between locations (Guo et al., 2007;Parkin et al., 2008;Southworth, 2005;Zahran et al., 2008). In addition to this, the dense road networks encourage lower levels of car ownership and its use (Litman, 2014). ...
... Moura, et al (2017) The intelligibility of pedestrian walkways is a significant measure indicative of wayfinding and environmental cognition within the urban setting (Haq & Sara, 2003). Continuity of pedestrian networks and directness to the destination may achieve intelligible space (Southworth, 2005). Intelligibility Space highlights the ease and the comfort with which pedestrians can access the layout and the road design to explore new places and cities at their convenience (Pandit &Knöll, 2019). ...
The Klang Local Draft Plan 2035 has identified accessibility issues in some tourist locations and inconsistent pedestrian walkways that hinder pedestrian movement. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the spatial characteristics of pedestrian networks and the walkability in Klang to enhance visitors' walking experience. A quantitative design using a structured questionnaire based on walkability criteria and measurement framework was employed to achieve this. The research findings provide four key recommendations for improving the pedestrian environment, pathway network, pedestrian infrastructure, and maintenance. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to planners' and architects' efforts to create better pedestrian network access in urban areas. Additionally, it aligns with the 11th Sustainable Development Goal of creating sustainable cities and communities by enhancing road safety and providing access to affordable, safe, sustainable transport systems. Furthermore, this research can guide future urban research, walking and accessibility initiatives, and evaluations of proposals to revitalize historic towns and prevent unused urban spaces.
... Walkability can be defined as the aptitude of the built environment to support and encourage walking by providing comfort and safety for pedestrians, connecting people to various destinations in reasonable time and effort, and providing visual interest in journeys along with the network [1]. In recent years, the concept of walkability has become relevant, both in popular and academic fields, as well as an aspect to consider in urban development [2,3]. ...
Walkability is a modern concept that has become important in recent years due to the doubtless effects it has on aspects such as health and wellbeing, sustainable development, climate change, and tourism. It is necessary, therefore, that urban development strategies aim to achieve walkable cities. The main objective of this study is to define a methodology to calculate the walkability index in tourist cities and to predict the effects of climate change on this index, which is applied to three World Heritage cities in central Spain: Salamanca, Ávila, and Segovia. The methodology is developed in three phases. Phase I focus on the calculation of walkability, considering the following factors: facilities and services, accessibility, sidewalk width, population density, green areas, and urban trees. In Phase II, walkability in 2020, climate-related variables were added to the previous result: temperatures, solar radiation, and shadows. Finally, the third phase, walkability under climate change pressure in 2030, 2050, and 2100, establish predictions for different climate scenarios. The results show excellent walkability indices (higher) in city centers and newly built neighborhoods and low values in the rest of the peripheral areas, industrial estates, and neighborhoods. Climate predictions showed a generalized decrease in walkability over time, even higher in the scenario with high greenhouse gas emissions. Likewise, the models can be an excellent tool for the tourist management of cities since they show the most walkable areas and, therefore, the most suitable for tourist routes.
... Those attributes include: network and intersection density, distance between intersections, percentages of arterials/ collectors in the network, average block size, percentages of 4way intersections, and average distance to the park. The complementary role these attributes play in defining urban spatial systems is highlighted in Southworth's (2005) description of a walkable city, where he explains that actual walking requires fine grained patterns and interconnected continuous routes to minimize distances, thus a topology of "a high density of intersections and small block size" results in a "high degree of connectivity" (Southworth, 2005, p.250). Additionally, studies like Marshall et al. (2014) and Winters et al. (2010) have emphasized the combined effect of considering the network structure, in terms of percentages of collector, arterials and local streets, alongside other attributes when evaluating active mobility. ...
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed neighborhood parks as a key asset in mitigating the negative implications of extended lockdowns, when parks turned into a sanctuary for residents. With increased scholarly work focusing on developing pots-pandemic neighborhoods, providing access to community parks via efficient routes, is central to such debate. Network connectivity provides a comprehensive assessment of the efficiency of network systems.
Methods: A total of 16 samples, from the city of Abu-Dhabi, have been selected to study their network connectivity, with regard to accessing parks. Three distance-based connectivity measures are used: the pedestrian route directness (PRD), the count of redundant routes Redundancy Count (RC), and the route redundancy index (RI). The samples reflect different street’s typologies and their urban form attributes are quantified.
Results and Discussion: Connectivity analyses results are interrupted with regard to the quantified physical attributes. Findings indicate that gridded, and semi-gridded layouts provide more direct routes to parks, but less route’s redundancy. Conversely, interlocked, and fragmented networks, when having sufficient intersection densities, have less direct routes but more redundancy. The inclusion of alleyways proved to alter typologies into gridded ones and improve both route directness and redundancy. The majority of the selected samples reported sufficient levels of route directness. The current design and planning guidelines, implemented by the Department of Transport and Municipalities are overly descriptive with regard to how neighborhood parks are accessed; therefore, the study’s methodology provides a possible more evidence-based approach to policy development.
... 1. Priorizar la caminabilidad en las ciudades (Lund 2002;Southworth, 2005;Frank et al. 2010; Fontán 2012; Jun y Hur 2015; Moura, Cambra y Gonçalves 2017), por un lado, proporcionando a los peatones las condiciones de confort, seguridad, atractivo visual y verde urbano en el medio construido (Shuvo, Mazumdar y Labib 2021) y, por el otro, considerando tiempos razonables de desplazamiento. 2. Disponer de redes de transporte público extendido a través de la totalidad del suelo urbano (Lin et al. 2021), fomentando el policentrismo o lo que también se ha denominado "intensificación estratégica" (IRP 2018; PNUMA 2021), adaptando las vías pedestres y ciclistas con capacidad suficiente de servicio accesible y asequible para los residentes. ...
In the context of growing global daily mobility, fragmented visions of knowledge predominate when assisting policies for advancing the sustainability of this phenomenon. Such visions have mostly focused on material aspects. In this paper, from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective, a hybridization of theoretical perspectives around the notions of daily mobility and sustainability is proposed. For that, we review the existing literature to provide theoretical approaches and key concepts for the construction of a Sustainable Daily Mobility Index - IMCS. That index comprises a set of indicators around four dimensions: ecology, well-being, governance and culture; the latter seen from prevailing social representations and as a way forward to establish nexuses with the material dimension of daily mobility. Based on preliminary findings for the case of Barrio Antiguo in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, we conclude with a reflection on the IMCS usefulness in a Latin American context where socioeconomic, cultural and spatial characteristics turn social representations into a key explanatory factor of many mobility dynamics, challenges, and potential solutions.
To strike a trade-off between walking behavior and street resource constraint, extensive research tends to focus on how the urban environment affects walking behavior. However, most of the existing impact measurements focus on the cities in low-latitude temperate environments, which may not truly reflect the situation when assessing high-latitude cities. To address this drawback, in this paper, a general multi-factor framework is introduced to quantify the influence of street-level environmental factors on walking behavior. Specifically, a framework is constructed by comprehensively considering the subjective data and the objective data of Harbin, China, which is mainly composed of multivariate measurement indicators, a multi-source data analysis library, and four-dimensional evaluation paradigm. The results indicate that two main measures can promote the current situation of human-oriented living street environment planning, namely, increasing the distribution of green facilities and life service facilities in the old urban districts living street, and paying attention to the diversity of street greening and street landscape. The proposed framework is conducive to improve the planning status of human-centered street environments and guide the construction of pedestrian-friendly life and healthy streets.
Cette synthèse des connaissances s’inscrit dans le projet Villes vivantes dont l’objectif est d’aider les municipalités à se doter d’actions concrètes pour mettre en œuvre des trames vertes de proximité au bénéfice de certains groupes de population pouvant davantage subir les effets délétères des changements climatiques comme les personnes aînées et les personnes en situation de défavorisation. Les épisodes plus fréquents de chaleur accablante et de froid extrême prévus en lien avec le phénomène des changements climatiques auront des conséquences sur les modes de déplacements ou de transport actifs de ces personnes. En se basant sur une cinquantaine d’études, cette synthèse présente plusieurs facteurs individuels ou personnels, de l’environnement physique ou bâti, de l’environnement social, climatique ou météorologique qui influencent les déplacements actifs ainsi que l’utilisation des trames vertes chez les personnes aînées ou celles en situation de défavorisation.
- Les facteurs de l’environnement physique ou bâti sont les plus étudiés dans la littérature répertoriée.
- Une association positive existe entre le potentiel piétonnier (densité, mixité d’utilisation du sol, connectivité des rues, nombre de destinations) et les déplacements actifs des deux groupes de population ciblés.
- L’absence ou le mauvais entretien des infrastructures piétonnières ou cyclables peut entraver les déplacements actifs selon certaines études.
- La présence du mobilier urbain (bancs, fontaines à boire, poubelles), des surfaces pavées et des trottoirs planes sont des caractéristiques d’infrastructures favorisant les modes de déplacements actifs pour plusieurs participants des études.
- Les conditions hivernales semblent influencer négativement les modes de déplacements actifs des personnes aînées et celles en situation de défavorisation. Ce n’est pas toujours le froid ou la pluie qui limite les pratiques de la marche ou du vélo, mais plutôt les obstacles physiques comme la neige, le verglas sur les trottoirs ou les pistes cyclables.
- Plusieurs stratégies et initiatives, comme un déneigement adéquat, une bonne signalisation, les décorations et l’illumination des sentiers pédestres et cyclistes ainsi que leur séparation de la circulation automobile, peuvent renforcer le sentiment de sécurité des usagers et favoriser l’utilisation des trames vertes même en périodes hivernales.
- Plusieurs études montrent qu’un meilleur sentiment de sécurité individuelle et un environnement social favorable grâce aux interactions interpersonnelles favoriseraient les modes de déplacements actifs.
- Enfin, cette synthèse des connaissances souligne un ensemble d’effets bénéfiques des trames vertes comme infrastructures capables de favoriser les modes de déplacements actifs chez les groupes pouvant davantage subir les effets des changements climatiques.
Se entiende como caminabilidad el grado en que el entorno construido es amigable para caminar y puede ser evaluada a través de medidas objetivas y percibidas. Sin embargo, las primeras no pueden representar completamente el entorno al que están expuestos los peatones, mientras que las segundas pueden sobreestimar los valores. Tras la amplia revisión bibliográfica realizada, se observa que la mayoría de los estudios aplica un solo tipo de medidas, principalmente las objetivas, y que las percibidas son evaluadas a partir de las opiniones de los residentes del sector estudiado. También se halló que este tema ha sido poco tratado en Latinoamérica y no existen estudios en Caracas que estudien la caminabilidad integralmente. La presente investigación consiste en evaluar la caminabilidad de un sector de Caracas, a través de medidas objetivas y perceptivas, que permitan completar y enriquecer los análisis y generar insumos para futuras políticas orientadas a la promoción de la movilidad sostenible. Para ello, a partir de la revisión bibliográfica, se definen las variables del medio construido y los atributos de la caminabilidad más relevantes, así como la población empleada como objetivo para la encuesta. Seguidamente, se selecciona como herramienta de evaluación objetiva un SIG y una encuesta para evaluar la percepción. Posteriormente, se aplican ambos instrumentos de medición, se procesan los datos y se realizan análisis descriptivos y estadísticos. Se halla que las zonas con mejor caminabilidad son aquellas que ofrecen mayor accesibilidad y confort a los peatones y las variables de mayor coincidencia entre ambas mediciones son: mezcla de usos del suelo, conectividad de la red, pendiente del terreno y seguridad ante el crimen. Se evidencia que el uso simultáneo de ambas medidas permite una mejor evaluación de la caminabilidad, y ratifica la necesidad de realizar estudios integrales. Área temática: Ciudad y sociedad Palabras clave: caminabilidad, medidas objetivas, medidas perceptivas, municipio Chacao, Caracas.
Urban corridors, which were organized as pedestrian-oriented in the period before the invention of the automobile have entered the process of being organized as automobile-oriented in the modernization period when cities began to be reshaped. The widespread of automobile usage has been changing people's travel preferences which resulted in the decrease of walkable environments. Scientists from different disciplines conducted studies on walking and walkability. It is necessary to understand the sociocultural structure and environmental features that persuade people to walk. “Walking Preference Survey”, which can be used as a preliminary study in the planning of walkable corridors, was prepared for this research. The survey was conducted with 597 participants in Trabzon/Ortahisar. The survey was subjected to validity and reliability tests for standardization. 8 walkability criterions were reached in the factor analysis applied to the survey within the scope of the constructive validity analysis. In the study, differences in walking preference were observed according to demographic characteristics and travel habits.
Walkability is an interdisciplinary concept that is increasingly attracting researchers worldwide. With the advances in transportation technology and the resultant development of automobile-oriented cities, many urban areas have degraded significantly. In many developing countries like Iran, pedestrians often fail to meet international standards in terms of the level of service and spatial attributes. Tehran, the capital of Iran, is among the most polluted cities in the world, primarily because of its heavy vehicular traffic. Nonetheless, limited measures were taken to enhance the quality of pedestrian areas that would stimulate individuals to walk, that is, a green mode of transport. This novel approach is significant for increasing public awareness of the concept of walkability and addressing some issues to the city officials. This study assesses the quality of corridors of two squares in the Saadatabad district. The research methodology involves the combination of an agency policy survey, field observations using the objective method, and subjective analysis, including the direct interviews and the questionnaires filled in the sites. Data is collected using the Global Walkability Index (GWI), which provides a step-by-step guideline for data collection. The walkability score resulting from the objective analysis turned out to be 54, indicating a moderate walkability level, which was consistent with the convenience level, 2 out of 5, derived from the pilot study. Ultimately, the article offers some solutions regarding the identified shortcomings of the selected sites, which also apply to other areas.
Due to the population growth and the increased use of personal vehicles, the cities are facing serious challenges. Promoting the use of active transportation (such as cycling and walking) can help to address these challenges. One of the most common methods of active transport is walking. It is important to assess the walkability of a city in order to improve the conditions in the future and provide appropriate infrastructure for walking. This assessment is also useful for people who are interested in walkable neighborhoods when choosing their residential location. To achieve these goals, in this research, we evaluated the walkability of the thirteen districts of Mashhad using eight indicators - from the set of three groups of design-functional indicators, aesthetic and attractive factors, and safety indicators. With the help of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and according to the opinion of experts, we determined the importance and priority of these eight indicators. Finally, the values of the indicators were determined for each district, and after de-scaling these values using the fuzzy method, the walkability score of the districts - a number between 0 and 1 - was determined. The results of the study showed that in general, districts with a higher level of prosperity or that are less old have better conditions for walking. Overall, district 9 of Mashhad was determined to be the most suitable district in terms of walkability.
مقدمه و هدف پژوهش: فهم کالبد بصري سراهاي بازار تاريخي به عنوان يکي از مهمترين عناصر معماري در طراحي
مي تواند زمينه تامل در جهت نقش آنها را فراهم سازد و بر پتانسيل هاي بالقوه فضاهاي اجتماع پذير، ميزان
حضورپذيري افراد و رونق آنها تاثيرگذار باشد. توجه اين پژوهش شناخت و تحليل اصول اجتماع پذيري بر ميزان حضور
مردم و ارزيابي کيفيت بصري در سراهاي بازار اصفهان معطوف مي شود.
روش پژوهش: در ابتدا با استفاده از تحقيق همبستگي و رگرسيوني با حضور 12 دانشجو به تعداد سراهاي مورد
بررسي و ثبت تعداد افراد و مکان حضورمردم در راستاي سنجش معيارها و پاسخگويي به سوالات و فرضيات تحقيق
گام برداشته شده است و مفاهيم کيفيت فضايي و اجتماع پذيري در بعد کالبدي مستخرخ شده از مباني پژوهش و
تطبيق آن با شاخصه هاي بصري تعريف شده با استفاده از نرم افزار نحو فضا، به ارزيابي و شناخت محدوده پژوهش
استفاده شده است. Depthmap پرداخته شده است. براي تجزيه و تحليل داده هاي نحو فضا از نرم افزار
يافته ها: در يافته هاي پژوهش مي توان اذعان داشت که تعداد و نحوه دسترسي به سرا )منظور به صورت مستقيم يا با
زاويه و چرخش(، ابعاد و اندازه کل سرا و حياط مرکزي، تعداد فضاهاي اصلي، دسترسي بلاواسطه به فضاهاي اصلي در
ميزان اجتماع پذيري و حضور افراد در سراهاي بازار تاثيرگذار است و سراهايي که ورودي بيشتر، حياط مرکزي وسيع
تر و زاويه چرخش کمتري براي دسترسي به ميانسرا دارند دعوت کنندگي، حضورپذيري و در نتيجه اجتماع پذيري
بيشتري را دارا مي باشند.
نتيجه گيري: نتايج حاصل از اين پژوهش نشان مي دهد گرچند در بيشتر موارد مولفه هاي کيفيت بصري بر روي
مولفه هاي کالبدي تاثير گذار است و سبب اجتماع پذيري محيط مي گردد اما در سراهاي بازار اصفهان اين رابطه
هميشه برقرار نيست. سراهايي با کيفيت بصري بالا اجتماع پذيري کمي دارند چرا که از لحاظ کالبدي؛ محيط خوانا و
دعوت کننده براي جذب مخاطب ندارد. ديد و منظر، پيچيدگي فضايي، تنوع کاربري، دسترسي و ميزان حرکت، راحتي
و آسايش و ميزان تسهيلات برکيفيت فضايي و درنهايت اجتماع پذيري آن تاثير گذار است.
The effects of urban rail systems on the real estate market were studied by analysing housing prices around Ankara Koru and Batıkent Metro Stations using the Hedonic Price Model. Quantitative data on residential sales were used. The findings reveal that sale values of residences are more elastic in term of metro effect in Batıkent, where middle-lower income groups live, compared to Koru Metro Station, where middle-upper income groups live. As the distance to the metro station decreases in Batıkent, prices increase. These results suggest that subways can help reduce polarization between income groups in cities while increasing accessibility. Providing access to neighbourhoods with both low and high-income individuals by metro increases housing prices more in favour of low-income groups and reduces income polarization between income groups.
Previous research on the self-containment of new towns has focused on access to employment and commute travel; little research has been documented regarding access to non-work facilities and its relation to non-work active travel, overlooking an important aspect to assessing the self-containment of new towns. Drawing on multiple sources of data in Hong Kong, we measure walking accessibility to three main types of non-work facilities (markets, restaurants and parks) as major destinations for non-work travel. Through a series of statistical analysis, we investigate in detail the effects of accessibility on the probability and duration of home-based walking trips. Our findings indicate that: (1) new towns were more disadvantaged and less equitable in terms of the accessibility to non-work facilities than urban areas; and (2) accessibility increased both the likelihood and duration of new town residents' walking trips particularly for grocery-shopping and dining-out purposes. The findings indicate that enhancing accessibility to non-work facilities in new towns can be beneficial in terms of both achieving self-containment and promoting more sustainable travel behaviour. Recommendations are proposed accordingly to help create more pedestrian-friendly environment, and balanced provision of non-work facilities in and around new towns and other suburban developments.
Many scientific papers that deal with the topic of the pedestrian environment use a predefined form for assessing or evaluating its quality as a basic methodological instrument. The aim of this research is to emphasize the dimension of the available audit tools or methodologies in order to develop a full-scale database of indices that can be used for the measurement and evaluation of the pedestrian environment. By analyzing 115 research papers selected according to predefined selection criteria, the basic methodological apparatus or the evaluation instrument was observed. Based on the analysis carried out in this way, a number of 40 valid instruments were identified by which it was possible to evaluate the pedestrian environment. The observed instruments have a high level of reliability according to the high values of the ICC coefficient, IRR test, or Kappa value. There are 193 items for the evaluation of the pedestrian environment that were derived from the observed instruments. The items were arranged over seven groups regarding the quality of the pedestrian environment, namely, Functionality, Safety, Comfort, Mobility, Environment, Connectivity, and Aesthetics. On average, the items distributed over those seven groups are in use throughout the entire pool of instruments at the level of 47.41% across all groups. There are 30 instruments or methodologies that are objectively based, 4 subjectively oriented, and 6 with elements of both approaches. Of the instruments, 14 measure and assess the pedestrian environment through a quantitative data set, while 20 are designed for qualitative assessment. Only six of the instruments contain both qualitative and quantitative measuring items. A large percentage of analyzed papers that use a predefined methodology or instrument indicate the need to deepen the field of research and to include additional aspects that would give more authoritative results.
پیادهپذیری یکی از کیفیتهای طراحیِ شهری است که در اکثر کلانشهرهای دنیا مثل استانبول، پاریس، کپنهاگ، رُم، لندن مورد توجه است. تهران به عنوان بزرگترین کلانشهر ایران نهتنها دوستدار پیاده نیست بلکه تنها در مناطق محدودی توسعۀ حملونقل خصوصی اولویت دارد. با وجود این، باید پذیرفت که تبدیل یک شبۀ تهران به شهر دوستدار پیاده ممکن نیست و این هدف باید به صورت تدریجی طی شود. پرسش این است که چگونه سنجش پیادهپذیری با اصول پایدار در فضاهای شهری به خصوص در گرهای پر استفاده در شهر تهران قابل تعریف و اندازهگیری کمّی است؟ این مقاله با تمرکز بر گذرهای شهری منتهی به میدان ونک به عنوان یکی از پرترددترین میدانهای شهر تهران، آنها را از لحاظ قابلیت پیادهپذیری به صورت کمّی سنجیده است و به این ترتیب با هدف کلان سنجش کمّی ـ تطبیقی پیادهپذیری شهری در پی دستیابی به معیارهای سنجش پیادهپذیری است. تاکنون پژوهشهای زیادی با تمرکز بر این موضوع انجام شده است اما اکثر آنها به صورت کیفی و بر طراحی یک محور تأکید داشته و با توجه به ویژگی پژوهشهای کیفی فاقد قابلیت تعمیمپذیری هستند. با چنین سنجشی، میتوان به تصمیمگیری، هدایت و طراحی فضاهای شهری اصولیتری نایل شد. همچنین مقایسه مفاهیم، خلق مفاهیم نوین را تسهیل میبخشد. نخست مؤلفههای پایداری با در نظر گرفتن مفهوم پیادهپذیری مرور و معیارهایی انتخاب شده است. سپس با رویکردی کمّی و با استفاده از فن تحلیل سلسلهمراتبی به وزندهی معیارها و همچنین وزندهی هر گذر از آن معیار پرداخته و امتیاز هرکدام از این گذرها را استخراج شده است. در طی این سنجش خیابان ونک بیشترین امتیاز و خیابان برزیل پایینترین امتیاز را اخذ کردهاند. خیابان ولیِ عصر در شمال وضعیت بهتری از پهنه جنوبی آن دارد. همچنین مشخص شد که بازارپذیری مفهومی است که هم در پایداری و هم پیادهپذیری محیط تأثیر به سزایی دارد.
The general understanding of mobility phenomena has increasingly taken on multiple and broad meanings in the various disciplines that question spatial practices and the relationship with the territory by individuals and social groups. The Italian legal system in the sector of urban mobility has recently evolved, introducing new urban planning tools and expanding the sphere of influence and the tasks of the figure of the Mobility Manager. In the promotion and implementation of mobility policies, the University acts as a privileged actor, bringing together very different generations and heterogeneous populations from a socio-economic and cultural point of view as well as in terms of origin and residential contexts; all these are elements which often imply different needs, skills and practices. Within this framework, the paper intends to explore the theme of inclusiveness and disability with special reference to university institutions as preferential places for the collective re-composition of individual beliefs that promote sustainability policies. After the analysis and comparison between international experiences and Italian case studies, the paper concludes with some considerations regarding the still evident critical issues (regulatory, managerial, financial,…) that hinder the implementation of truly effective policies.
Due to the population growth and the increased use of personal vehicles, the cities are facing serious challenges. Promoting the use of active transportation (such as cycling and walking) can help to address these challenges. One of the most common methods of active transport is walking. It is important to assess the walkability of a city in order to improve the conditions in the future and provide appropriate infrastructure for walking. This assessment is also useful for people who are interested in walkable neighborhoods when choosing their residential location. To achieve these goals, in this research, we evaluated the walkability of the thirteen districts of Mashhad using eight indicators - from the set of three groups of design-functional indicators, aesthetic and attractive factors, and safety indicators. With the help of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and according to the opinion of experts, we determined the importance and priority of these eight indicators. Finally, the values of the indicators were determined for each district, and after de-scaling these values using the fuzzy method, the walkability score of the districts - a number between 0 and 1 - was determined. The results of the study showed that in general, districts with a higher level of prosperity or that are less old have better conditions for walking. Overall, district 9 of Mashhad was determined to be the most suitable district in terms of walkability.
This essay analyses a key motif in geographical scholarship: the most basic form of mobility achieved by an abled-bodied person engaging in acts of walking. By embedding “walking” firmly within a phenomenological tradition, the essay places “being mobile” qua walking within a field of enquiry that conceptualises an embodied form of mobility as both enabling and limiting. Building furthermore from a growing body of literature that has differentiated between “walking” as an active form of engagement and a host of different geographically relevant modes of being, the paper adds a specifically epistemological set of considerations in an attempt critically to contribute to existing literatures and to interrogate the embodied practice of walking. Key in this endeavour is the contribution mobile modes of existence make to the construction of knowledge about the social world. The paper concludes with a prolegomena that recasts walking in the form of a geographically informed pedagogical practice.
We examined the public health consequences of unsafe and inconvenient walking and bicycling conditions in American cities to suggest improvements based on successful policies in The Netherlands and Germany.
Secondary data from national travel and crash surveys were used to compute fatality trends from 1975 to 2001 and fatality and injury rates for pedestrians and cyclists in The Netherlands, Germany, and the United States in 2000.
American pedestrians and cyclists were much more likely to be killed or injured than were Dutch and German pedestrians and cyclists, both on a per-trip and on a per-kilometer basis.
A wide range of measures are available to improve the safety of walking and cycling in American cities, both to reduce fatalities and injuries and to encourage walking and cycling.
Walking is viewed from many different perspectives, but it lacks informed advocacy groups and a unified policy treatment. Walking is treated here as a full transportation mode that both genders use. Significant gender differences are disguised by combining cycling and walking into a single nonmotorized transportation mode. New data derived from Australian travel surveys are presented, and the relative importance of walking to other transport modes is illustrated in terms of the fractions of trips and of travel time.
The neglect of pedestrian and bicycling safety in the United States has made these modes dangerous ways of getting around. Pedestrian fatalities are 36 times higher than car occupant fatalities per kilometer (km) traveled, and bicycling fatalities are 11 times higher than car occupant fatalities per km. Walking and bicycling can be made quite safe, however, as clearly shown by the much lower fatality rates in The Netherlands and Germany. Pedestrian fatalities per billion km walked are less than a tenth as high as in the United States, and bicyclist fatalities per billion km cycled are only a fourth as high. The Netherlands and Germany have long recognized the importance of pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Over the past two decades, these countries have undertaken a wide range of measures to improve safety: better facilities for walking and bicycling; urban design sensitive to the needs of nonmotorists; traffic calming of residential neighborhoods; restrictions on motor vehicle use in cities; rigorous traffic education of both motorists and nonmotorists; and strict enforcement of traffic regulations protecting pedestrians and bicyclists. The United States could adopt many of the same measures to improve pedestrian and bicycling safety here. The necessary technology and methods are already available, with decades of successful experience in Europe.
Over the past year, the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) conducted an intensive pedestrian-safety engineering study, the PedSafe Study. PedSafe was funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)*, which also funded companion studies in Las Vegas and Miami. The study was designed to analyze pedestrian injuries by zones (i.e., neighborhoods or districts) and to identify those most amenable to prevention efforts. The DPT expects to utilize the methodology and information from the PedSafe study to help shape a citywide pedestrian master plan. This paper describes the technical procedures and the pedestrian countermeasure plan that resulted. The paper analyzes pedestrian injury problems both citywide and in study zones, using crash data and field observations. It also compares two software packages that can be used to analyze crash patterns: PBCAT1 (Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool), which is available for no charge, and the CrossroadsTM2 package, available commercially. The countermeasure plan is described for multiple funding levels, and a plan is outlined for evaluation and public outreach. The countermeasure plan proposes basic traffic engineering countermeasures including advance limit lines, curb bulbs, impactable YIELD TO PEDESTRIAN signs, median refuge island improvements, modified signal timing, pavement stencils, pedestrian head start, pedestrian scramble, and vehicle left-turn phases. In addition, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) countermeasures are recommended that include animated eyes signals, automated detection of pedestrians to adjust signal timing, modern flashing beacons, pedestrian countdown signals, radar speed display signs, roadway lighting improvements and smart lighting, and signal visibility improvements.
Health and Community Design is a comprehensive examination of how the built environment encourages or discourages physical activity, drawing together insights from a range of research on the relationships between urban form and public health. It provides important information about the factors that influence decisions about physical activity and modes of travel, and about how land use patterns can be changed to help overcome barriers to physical activity. Chapters examine:ââ¬Â¢ the historical relationship between health and urban form in the United States ââ¬Â¢ why urban and suburban development should be designed to promote moderate types of physical activity ââ¬Â¢ the divergent needs and requirements of different groups of people and the role of those needs in setting policy ââ¬Â¢ how different settings make it easier or more difficult to incorporate walking and bicycling into everyday activitiesA concluding chapter reviews the arguments presented and sketches a research agenda for the future.
This study sought to examine individual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among healthy workers and homemakers residing in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia.
Most respondents walked for transport or recreation, but only 17.2% did a sufficient amount of walking to accrue health benefits. After adjustment, the relative influences of individual, social environmental, and physical environmental factors were found to be almost equally important.
Although walking is popular, few people do enough walking to benefit their health. Those who walk as well as engage in other physical activities appear more likely to achieve recommended levels of activity. Promoting walking may require a comprehensive strategy.
This study evaluated a neighborhood environment survey and compared the physical activity and weight status of the residents in 2 neighborhoods.
On 2 occasions, 107 adults from neighborhoods with differing "walkability" were selected to complete a survey on their neighborhood environment. Physical activity was assessed by self-report and by accelerometer; height and weight were assessed by self-report.
Neighborhood environment characteristics had moderate to high test-retest reliabilities. Residents of high-walkability neighborhoods reported higher residential density, land use mix, street connectivity, aesthetics, and safety. They had more than 70 more minutes of physical activity and had lower obesity prevalence (adjusted for individual demographics) than did residents of low-walkability neighborhoods.
The reliability and validity of self-reported neighborhood environment subscales were supported. Neighborhood environment was associated with physical activity and overweight prevalence.
I sought to examine whether pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods encourage enhanced levels of social and community engagement (i.e., social capital).
The study investigated the relationship between neighborhood design and individual levels of social capital. Data were obtained from a household survey that measured the social capital of citizens living in neighborhoods that ranged from traditional, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented designs to modern, car-dependent suburban subdivisions in Galway, Ireland.
The analyses indicate that persons living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social capital compared with those living in car-oriented suburbs. Respondents living in walkable neighborhoods were more likely to know their neighbors, participate politically, trust others, and be socially engaged.
Walkable, mixed-use neighborhood designs can encourage the development of social capital.
Some claim that cardependent cities contribute to obesity by discouraging walking and bicycling. In this article, we use household activity data from the San Francisco region to study the links between urban environments and nonmotorized travel.
We used factor analysis to represent the urban design and land-use diversity dimensions of built environments. Combining factor scores with control variables, like steep terrain, that gauge impediments to walking and bicycling, we estimated discrete-choice models. Builtenvironment factors exerted far weaker, although not inconsequential, influences on walking and bicycling than control variables.
Stronger evidence on the importance of urban landscapes in shaping foot and bicycle travel is needed if the urban planning and public health professions are to forge an effective alliance against cardependent sprawl.
To determine the relationship between urban sprawl, health, and health-related behaviors.
Cross-sectional analysis using hierarchical modeling to relate characteristics of individuals and places to levels of physical activity, obesity, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease.
U.S. counties (448) and metropolitan areas (83).
Adults (n = 206,992) from pooled 1998, 1999, and 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).
Sprawl indices, derived with principal components analysis from census and other data, served as independent variables. Self-reported behavior and health status from BRFSS served as dependent variables.
After controlling for demographic and behavioral covariates, the county sprawl index had small but significant associations with minutes walked (p = .004), obesity (p < .001), BMI (p = .005), and hypertension (p = .018). Residents of sprawling counties were likely to walk less during leisure time, weigh more, and have greater prevalence of hypertension than residents of compact counties. At the metropolitan level, sprawl was similarly associated with minutes walked (p = .04) but not with the other variables.
This ecologic study reveals that urban form could be significantly associated with some forms of physical activity and some health outcomes. More research is needed to refine measures of urban form, improve measures of physical activity, and control for other individual and environmental influences on physical activity, obesity, and related health outcomes.
Small physical activity increases may prevent weight gain in most populations. Geneva residents completed validated quantitative physical activity frequency questionnaires from 1997 to 2001. Fifteen minutes per day of moderate or brisk walking, or 30 minutes per day of slow walking, could increase physical activity at the population level; however, if the specific goal is to approach expending 420 kJ/d (100 kcal/d) through walking, the duration should be closer to 60 minutes for slow walking and 30 minutes for moderate or brisk walking.
Evidence suggests that physical activity may be related to the clinical expression of dementia. Whether the association includes low-intensity activity such as walking is not known.
To examine the association between walking and future risk of dementia in older men.
Prospective cohort study.
Distance walked per day was assessed from 1991 to 1993 in 2257 physically capable men aged 71 to 93 years in the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Follow-up for incident dementia was based on neurological assessment at 2 repeat examinations (1994-1996 and 1997-1999).
Overall dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia.
During the course of follow-up, 158 cases of dementia were identified (15.6/1000 person-years). After adjusting for age, men who walked the least (<0.25 mile/d) experienced a 1.8-fold excess risk of dementia compared with those who walked more than 2 mile/d (17.8 vs 10.3/1000 person-years; relative hazard [RH], 1.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-3.01). Compared with men who walked the most (>2 mile/d), an excess risk of dementia was also observed in those who walked 0.25 to 1 mile/d (17.6 vs 10.3/1000 person-years; RH, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.02-2.86). These associations persisted after accounting for other factors, including the possibility that limited amounts of walking could be the result of a decline in physical function due to preclinical dementia.
Findings suggest that walking is associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Promoting active lifestyles in physically capable men could help late-life cognitive function.
In this Utah-based study, we sought to identify the types of municipal employees responsible for physical activity policies, identify municipal ordinances that may influence physical activity, and determine local governments’ intentions to implement policies.
In 2001, we mailed a survey to all of the state’s municipalities with the goal of measuring 6 physical activity domains: sidewalks, bicycle lanes, shared-use paths, work sites, greenways, and recreational facilities. Data from 74 municipalities revealed that planners made up a small proportion of municipal staff. Relative to cities experiencing slow or medium growth, high growth cities reported more ordinances encouraging physical activity.
Physical activity policies can be monitored across municipalities. Moreover, evidence-based public health practice provides direction for limited staff and funding resources.
Supporters of the New Urbanism suggest that the right design will encourage walking, thereby encouraging interaction and a greater sense of community and discouraging automobile dependence. Existing research provides insufficient evidence to support this belief, however, largely because of limitations in the data and methodologies that researchers have used. The research described moves beyond a simple test of correlations to an exploration of how urban form fits into a more comprehensive model of choices about pedestrian trips. First, a model for individual choices about pedestrian trips is proposed. Second, the results of a study of six neighborhoods in Austin, Texas, are presented. Data from a survey of residents in these neighborhoods support the proposed model and suggest that certain aspects of urban form can play an important role in encouraging walks to a destination but that the savings in travel from the substitution of walking for driving is likely to be small.
With the instigation of new technologies, of many of the sensory qualities in the urban environment that directly affect quality of life have become measurable. It is argued that a more sophisticated approach to measuring these 'liveable' qualities of the environment will in turn lead to more balanced and nuanced decision-making, but that first a considerable investment and political will is required.
New urbanist sociospatial reforms, like previ ous urban planning and design syntheses such as the superblock, rely on the assumption that the physical design of communities results in social sense of community. New urbanism's sense of community relies on developing pe destrian-friendly neighborhoods and assumes that suburbanites are so deprived of physical sense of community that they would gladly trade-off the lot size found in ordinary subur bia for pedestrian proximity to shared neigh borhood amenities. Using a consumer-attitude survey of Floridians, this work investigates the likelihood that individuals would exchange a large yard for pedestrian proximity to five community amenities The analysis finds contradicting evidence for new urbanist as sumptions about suburban preferences, but also finds some groups favorably responding to the trade-offs. The paper ends with a dis cussion of implications of findings and needs for future research.
This article evaluates the livability of residential boulevards, a type of street that has center lanes for through traffic and local access lanes separated from the center lanes by landscaped "malls." Three boulevards were studied. All three carried high traffic volumes bur were rated as more livable than neighboring, conventionally designed streets with medium traffic volumes. The study concludes that boulevards with a side median design successfully mitigate the adverse impacts of heavy traffic. The re; search methods used for this study were based on the well-known 1969 "Livable Streets" project by Donald Appleyard and Mark Lintell. Like the original study, it compared the responses of residents on streets with high, medium, and low traffic volumes and measured the effects of traffic on social interaction, Perceptions of home territory, and the comfort of people's daily lives. The new study shows trends similar to those found in the original one and adds information about boulevards, which were not previously examined.
A major goal in contemporary urban design is to encourage pedestrian activity. Questions regarding the effectiveness of some pedestrian-oriented design proposals illustrate a need for more research in the pedestrian experience of urban places. In order to continue a constructive discussion of this topic, historically persistent, picturesque concepts of urban form were combined with recent ideas of environmental aesthetics from several disciplines in the form of a 'theory'. Once developed, the theory was explored through field studies incorporating the reactions and reflections of several individuals in a selective variety of urban settings in Dresden, Germany. The reactions and reflections were recorded through a combination of cognitive mapping and on-site interviews. The results, though limited, are supportive of some aspects of urban design aesthetics, but raise questions regarding the relationship of aesthetics and pedestrian behaviour.
Three types of devices that have been used in conjunction with marked crosswalks in an attempt to improve pedestrian safety were evaluated: an overhead crosswalk sign in Seattle, Washington; pedestrian safety cones (which read, "State Law: Yield to Pedestrians in Crosswalk in Your Half of Road") in New York State and in Portland, Oregon; and pedestrian-activated overhead signs (which read, "Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk") in Tucson, Arizona. The signs were used under varying traffic and roadway conditions. The effects of these three treatments on pedestrian and motorist behavior were evaluated. The variables of interest were whether pedestrians had the benefit of motorists yielding to them; whether pedestrians had to run, hesitate, or abort their cross- ing; and whether pedestrians crossed in the crosswalk. The New York cones and Seattle signs were effective in increasing the numbers of pedestrians who had the benefit of motorists yielding to them. At one location in Tucson, the overhead sign increased motorist yielding to pedestrians. The signs in Seattle and Tucson were effective in reducing the number of persons who had to run, hesitate, or abort their crossing. None of the treatments had a clear effect on whether people crossed in the crosswalk. By themselves, these devices cannot ensure that motorists will slow down and yield to pedestrians. It is essential to use these and other devices along with education and enforcement, but creation of friendlier pedestrian environments (e.g., by means of implementing geo- metric improvements) for the purpose of reducing vehicle speeds may be more important.
In a pair of field experiments a relationship between the physical space of streets and individual perceptions of the passing of time was discovered. Within the context of a larger study of the pedestrian experience of urban places, 42 individuals were asked to estimate the duration of time required to walk path segments through different spatial configurations. The results showed statistically significant differences between the estimates for the different paths, consistent across the two experiments and apparently related to spatial attributes of the streets through which the paths passed. From these experiments one can conclude that there is a connection between the designed, physical place and subjective sense of time. The multi-variate nature of the field work makes it impossible to demonstrate specific causal relationships. However, the consistency between the two experiments - following upon previous research - does point to plausible speculations. The implications of these findings for the experience of urban places and urban design interventions are also speculative, requiring further research.
By slowing down vehicle traffic, shortening crossing distances, and enhancing motorist and pedestrian visibility, traffic calming treatments may benefit pedestrians who are crossing the street. The effects of selected traffic calming treatments on pedestrian and motorist behavior were evaluated at both intersection and midblock locations. Before and after data were collected in Cambridge, Massachusetts (bulbouts and raised intersection), Corvallis, Oregon (pedestrian refuge island), Seattle, Washington (bulbouts), and Sacramento, California (refuge islands). The key findings include that none of the treatments had a significant effect on the percentage of pedestrians for whom motorists yielded, the treatments usually did not have a significant effect on average pedestrian waiting time, and refuge islands often served to channelize pedestrians into marked crosswalks. The raised intersection in Cambridge also increased the percentage of pedestrians who crossed in the crosswalk. While traffic calming devices have the potential for improving the pedestrian environment, these devices by themselves do not guarantee that motorists will slow down or yield to pedestrians.
Supporters of the New Urbanism suggest that the right design will encourage walking, thereby encouraging interaction and a greater sense of community and discouraging automobile dependence. Existing research provides insufficient evidence to support this belief, however, largely because of limitations in the data and methodologies that researchers have used. The research described moves beyond a simple test of correlations to an exploration of how urban form fits into a more comprehensive model of choices about pedestrian trips. First, a model for individual choices about pedestrian trips is proposed. Second, the results of a study of six neighborhoods in Austin, Texas, are presented. Data from a survey of residents in these neighborhoods support the proposed model and suggest that certain aspects of urban form can play an important role in encouraging walks to a destination but that the savings in travel from the substitution of walking for driving is likely to be small.
One of the few alternatives to the suburban sprawl approach to development in recent years has been the ''neotraditional'' community, characterized by somewhat higher densities, a greater mix of uses, prevision of public transit, accommodation of the pedestrian and the bicyclist, and an interconnected pattern of streets. How well has the neotraditional model performed? Two recent prototype neotraditional communities-Kentlands and Laguna West-are analyzed and compared with a traditional turn-of-the-century streetcar suburb-Elmwood-and with conventional late-twentieth century suburbs, in terms of patterns of built form, land use, public open space, street design and circulation, and pedestrian access. Also considered are issues of transit access; relation to existing metropolitan development; livability for children, teens, and elderly; and market success.
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The pedestrian experience is dependent upon numerous qualitative factors that are not addressed in customary level-of-service analyses. This paper outlines a process by which such factors can be used to analyze pedestrian systems. Nine specific evaluation measures are described, followed by an account of their application in Winter Park, Florida.
Conventional planning measures are critiqued as inadequate for distinguishing key aspects of neighborhood scale urban form. Looking specifically at the question of physical qualities that might influence pedestrian life, two Seattle area neighborhoods are compared with an eye to developing a more contextually based approach to understanding the urban environment. Using detailed mapping and field photography, a range of urban form variables that seem potentially significant for pedestrian life are identified. The variables, which go beyond the typical concerns of density and use, are organized within a series of basic categories that include zone form, structural scale, use boundaries, connectivity, and a range of micro-scale elements. The intent is to work towards developing a series of environmental measures that could help urban planners recognize and incorporate important neighborhood design considerations into the planning process.
Compact, mixed-use, and walk-friendly urban development, many contend, can significantly influence the modes people choose to travel. Despite a voluminous empirical literature, most past studies have failed to adequately specify relationships for purposes of drawing inferences about the importance of built-environment factors in shaping mode choice. This paper frames the study of mode choice in Montgomery County, Maryland around a normative model that weighs the influences of not only three core dimensions of built environments – density, diversity, and design – but factors related to generalized cost and socio-economic attributes of travelers as well. The marginal contributions of built-environment factors to a traditionally specified utility-based model of mode choice are measured. The analysis reveals intensities and mixtures of land use significantly influence decisions to drive-alone, share a ride, or patronize transit, while the influences of urban design tend to be more modest. Elasticities that summarize relationships are also presented, and recommendations are offered on how outputs from conventional mode-choice models might be “post-processed” to better account for the impacts of built environments when testing land-use scenarios.
The topic of streets and street design is of compelling interest today as public officials, developers, and community activists seek to reshape urban patterns to achieve more sustainable forms of growth and development. Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities traces ideas about street design and layout back to the early industrial era in London suburbs and then on through their institutionalization in housing and transportation planning in the United States. It critiques the situation we are in and suggests some ways out that are less rigidly controlled, more flexible, and responsive to local conditions.Originally published in 1997, this edition includes a new introduction that addresses topics of current interest including revised standards from the Institute of Transportation Engineers; changes in city plans and development standards following New Urbanist, Smart Growth, and sustainability principles; traffic calming; and ecologically oriented street design. "
A Multi Attribute Utility Model was used to reveal more information on pedestrian and pedal cyclist route choice behaviour. The main objective for this experiment was to ascertain the relative importance of and the interrelation between several attributes that were mentioned as important route choice criteria. Another objective was to reveal the difference between three countries, Great Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands. Other objectives were to reveal the differences between men and women and between younger and older vulnerable road users.
Subjects were asked to select four routes from a map, for a frequently made trip. Subjects were familiar with the routes and were able to assign preferences to the routes. Preferences were assigned to the routes (global preference) and to each route for just a single attribute. The weight elicitation technique used was a modified indifference method.
The differences in importance of the attributes between the countries were small. Attributes that get high weights are thought to be important attributes in the route choice behaviour of a subject. Important attributes were rated high in all the countries and unimportant attributes were always rated low. Differences for gender and age were found to be marginal.
Distance and pleasantness were found to be important attributes for pedestrians. These attributes are also the minimal set that produce high correlation coefficients between the aggregated values for the routes and the global preferences. For pedal cyclists the attributes that formed the minimal set and the attributes that are rated important are distance, pleasantness and traffic safety. This minimal set correlated with the global preference at .70 for pedestrians and .71 for pedal cyclists. Distance as a single attribute could not produce these correlation coefficients.
The attribute weights are related to ranges in the objective world. This means that other attributes can be rescaled to distance. This revealed that for pedestrians on average a distance of more than 160 meters can be played off against one point on a pleasantness scale ( a 7-point scale ). For pedal cyclists on average a distance of 200 meters can be played off against one point on the pleasantness scale or a distance of 250 meters can be played off against one point on a scale for traffic safety.
An important conclusion from the experiment is the fact that pleasantness can be played off against distance. Subjects are prepared to walk or cycle further to have a more pleasant route. This means that the use of safer routes can be encouraged, even if they are longer, by making the safer routes more pleasant.
This research develops a typology of walkways along suburban streets and a system for evaluating their adequacy to service pedestrian traffic generators defined as specific land uses. The original research for this approach was implemented in Portland, Oregon, where the evaluative system was applied. Problems with walkways inadequate to the land uses they were to serve were found with (a) heavily trafficked bus routes with frequent stops, (b) approaches to schools, (c) areas of high-density, residential land use with or without commercial land use, (d) non-school, multiple-institutional/residential areas, and (e) public streets used extensively by recreationists.
Regular physical activity fosters good physical and mental health.1 Described as “today’s best buy in public health,”2 one needs to accumulate only 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week, of moderately intense physical activity, such as brisk walking.3 For almost everyone, walking is a familiar activity performed in the conduct of normal daily activities. Nevertheless, only 25% to 30% of Americans report doing activities that meet current recommendations for physical activity, and 30% to 40% report no participation in physical activities away from their work.4,5 These data have not changed over at least the past decade.5
The availability6–8 and awareness9 of places conducive to physical activity are associated with higher levels of physical activity. To guide our efforts to promote regular physical activity, we used the Georgia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to determine (1) whether adult Georgians were aware of safe and convenient places for walking, (2) what places they most commonly envisioned, and (3) whether the proximity of those places was associated with self-reported physical activity behaviors.
Walking and biking to school can be an important part of a healthy lifestyle, yet most US children do not start their day with these activities.
The Safe Routes to School Program in Marin County, California, is working to promote walking and biking to school. Using a multipronged approach, the program identifies and creates safe routes to schools and invites communitywide involvement. By its second year, the program was serving 4665 students in 15 schools.
Participating public schools reported an increase in school trips made by walking (64%), biking (114%), and carpooling (91%) and a decrease in trips by private vehicles carrying only one student (39%).
Public health professionals hypothesize that when community environments provide suitable walking and bicycling conditions, community members will be more active. Measurement indicators and assessment instruments are needed to evaluate suitability. This study determined the reliability and validity of two instruments to assess the suitability of sidewalks for walking and roads for bicycling.
Two data collectors used walking and bicycling suitability assessment instruments to collect data on 31 road segments. In addition, three transportation experts used a 7-point Likert response system to subjectively evaluate walking and bicycling conditions for the same segments. Intraclass correlations determined the reliability of each assessment instrument and the reliability of the Likert response system. Pearson correlations (research staff assessments with expert assessments) were calculated to determine the criterion-related validity of the suitability measures.
Intercoder reliability (intraclass) correlations for the walking and bicycling assessment instruments were r = .79 and .90, respectively. Intercoder reliability of the experts' Likert response system was r = .73 for the walking form and r = .77 for the bicycling form. Criterion-related validity (Pearson) correlations for the walking and bicycling assessment instruments were r = .58 and .62, respectively.
Although some variables have lower reliability and validity than is ideal, the walking and bicycling suitability assessment instruments appear promising as instruments for community members and professionals to systematically assess key aspects of the physical environment.
Physical activity may help maintain cognitive function in older adults.
To examine the relation of long-term regular physical activity, including walking, to cognitive function.
Women reported participation in leisure-time physical activities on biennial mailed questionnaires beginning in 1986. We assessed long-term activity by averaging energy expenditures from questionnaires in 1986 through participants' baseline cognitive assessments (1995 to 2001). We used linear regression to estimate adjusted mean differences in baseline cognitive performance and cognitive decline over 2 years, across levels of physical activity and walking.
Nurses' Health Study, including 18 766 US women aged 70 to 81 years.
Validated telephone assessments of cognition administered twice approximately 2 years apart (1995 to 2001 and 1997 to 2003), including tests of general cognition, verbal memory, category fluency, and attention.
Higher levels of activity were associated with better cognitive performance. On a global score combining results of all 6 tests, women in the second through fifth quintiles of energy expenditure scored an average of 0.06, 0.06, 0.09, and 0.10 standard units higher than women in the lowest quintile (P for trend <.001). Compared with women in the lowest physical activity quintile, we found a 20% lower risk of cognitive impairment for women in the highest quintile of activity. Among women performing the equivalent of walking at an easy pace for at least 1.5 h/wk, mean global scores were 0.06 to 0.07 units higher compared with walking less than 40 min/wk (P< or =.003). We also observed less cognitive decline among women who were more active, especially those in the 2 highest quintiles of energy expenditure. Women in the fourth and fifth quintiles had mean changes in global scores that were 0.04 (95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.10) and 0.06 (95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.11) standard units better than those in the lowest quintile.
Long-term regular physical activity, including walking, is associated with significantly better cognitive function and less cognitive decline in older women.
Life between buildings: Using public space, Van Nos-trand Reinhold Relative influences of indi-vidual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking
- J Gehl
- B ͑1987͒ Giles-Corti
- R Donovan
- ͑2003͒
Gehl, J. ͑1987͒. Life between buildings: Using public space, Van Nos-trand Reinhold, New York. Giles-Corti, B., and Donovan, R. ͑2003͒. " Relative influences of indi-vidual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking. " Am. J. Public Health, 93͑9͒, 1583–1589.
Treatment of walking as a mode of transportation Wisconsin Department of Transportation ͑2002͒. Wisconsin pedestrian policy plan 2020, Wisconsin Department of Transportation A guide for reducing collisions involving pe-destrians
- M ͑1994͒ Wigan
Wigan, M. ͑1994͒. " Treatment of walking as a mode of transportation. " Transport Reseach Record, 1487, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 713. Wisconsin Department of Transportation ͑2002͒. Wisconsin pedestrian policy plan 2020, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Madison, Wis. Zegeer, C., et al. ͑2004͒. " A guide for reducing collisions involving pe-destrians. " NCHRP Rep. No. 500(10), Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. JOURNAL OF URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT © ASCE / DECEMBER 2005 / 257 J. Urban Plann. Dev. 2005.131:246-257.
Street reclaiming: Creating livable streets and vi-brant communities
- D Engwicht
- ͑1999͒
Engwicht, D. ͑1999͒. Street reclaiming: Creating livable streets and vi-brant communities, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia.
Pedestrian malls and skywalks: Traffic separation strategies in American downtowns
- K Robertson
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Robertson, K. ͑1994͒. Pedestrian malls and skywalks: Traffic separation strategies in American downtowns, Athenaeum Press, Newcastle, En-gland.
A systematic approach to the planning of urban networks for walking The greening of urban transport: Planning for walking and cycling in western cities
- A Ramsey
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Ramsey, A. ͑1990͒. " A systematic approach to the planning of urban networks for walking. " The greening of urban transport: Planning for walking and cycling in western cities, R. Tolley, ed., Belhaven Press, London.
Why you can't walk there from here: Strategies for improving the pedestrian environment in the United States The greening of urban transport: Planning for walking and cycling in western cities Bicycle and pedestrian data: Sources, needs, & gaps
- R Untermann
- ͑1990͒
Untermann, R. ͑1990͒. " Why you can't walk there from here: Strategies for improving the pedestrian environment in the United States. " The greening of urban transport: Planning for walking and cycling in western cities, R. Tolley, ed., Belhaven Press, London. U. S. Department of Transportation ͑2000͒. " Bicycle and pedestrian data: Sources, needs, & gaps. " Bureau of Transportation Statistics BTS00-02, Washington, D.C.
Livable streets, Univ. of California Press, Berke-ley, Calif. Audirac, I. ͑1999͒ Stated preference for pedestrian proximity: An assessment of New Urbanist sense of community
- D Appleyard
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Appleyard, D. ͑1981͒. Livable streets, Univ. of California Press, Berke-ley, Calif. Audirac, I. ͑1999͒. " Stated preference for pedestrian proximity: An assessment of New Urbanist sense of community. " J. Planning Edu-cation Research, 19͑1͒, 53–66.
Carfree cities, International Books
- J Crawford
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Crawford, J. ͑2000͒. Carfree cities, International Books, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Parkers as pedestrians
- M Smith
- T Butcher
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Smith, M., and Butcher, T. ͑1994͒. " Parkers as pedestrians. " Urban Land, 53͑6͒, 9–10.