Environmental Features Influence Walking Speed: The Effect of Urban Greenery

Marek Franěk,Lukáš Režný

doi:10.3390/land10050459

Abstract

The study investigated the rarely addressed topic of how visual environmental features can influence walking speed. Young adult participants were asked to walk on a route that leads through areas composed of urban parks and areas with a built environment with a large amount of greenery. Their walking speed was measured in selected sections. The participants walked with a small video camera, and their walk was recorded. The temporal information was derived from the video recordings. Subsequently, the participants evaluated the environmental features of the route by specific spatio-cognitive dimensions of environmental preference. The results show that walking speed in specific sections of the walking route systematically differed and reflected the environmental features. The walking speed was lower in sections with high natural characteristics and a high environmental preference. Noise here was perceived as less annoying than in sections with lower natural characteristics. The results are explained in terms of approach avoidance behavior. The findings are in accordance with environmental preference research that documents various benefits of walking in the natural environment.

Highlights

Physical inactivity has been a major public health problem [1]
The results showed that acceleration in walking speed in sections of a route with a relatively low amount of greenery and a high level of traffic and noise was linked with avoidance behavior, while deceleration of walking speed occurred in sections with a high amount of greenery and a low level of traffic and noise
To test the assumption that the environmental characteristics of specific sections and the condition of the walk affect the walking speed, a mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the effects of specific sections (8 sections) and the condition on walking speed in individual sections of the route

Summary

Introduction

Physical inactivity has been a major public health problem [1]. Regular walking is a way of increasing daily physical activities. Everyday moderate-intensity physical activity and has positive consequences for physical health (e.g., [2,3]). Walking is a basic physical activity that is easy to implement and is affordable and inexpensive. A fast pace of life is occurring in large cities, which includes a fast walking speed (e.g., [6,7]). Recent data suggest that the walking speed in large cities may gradually increase [8] as a response to the increasing level of urban stressors, such as noise [9]. The study is aimed to investigate how urban greenery may influence walking speed

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion