Pedestrian Routing and Perspectives: WayFinder’s Route down the Lane—Come on with the Rain

Tomasz Opach,Carlo Navarra,Tina-Simone Neset,Jan Ketil Rød

doi:10.3390/ijgi10060365

Abstract

People living in urban areas are often exposed to heat and inundation caused by heavy rains. Therefore, pedestrian routing in areas exposed to weather-related threats can be of value to citizens. In this study, water accumulated on roads, sidewalks and footpaths after rainfall and snowmelt was used as a case of adverse environmental conditions. Pedestrian routing was implemented in the web tool WayFinder and a group of 56 participants tested the tool in Trondheim, Norway. The study aimed to gain insight into their perspectives on the implemented pedestrian routing functionality to examine to what extent pedestrians find such functionality helpful for navigating in regions that are likely to be inundated. Each participant was asked to (1) use the tool in practice; (2) when walking, report on observed inundated areas; and (3) complete three questionnaires to provide feedback on the WayFinder tool. Although most of the participants were successful in using WayFinder, they preferred the selection of routes that passed through areas likely to be inundated and obtaining information about the risks than selecting a single route suggestion that already avoided exposed areas.

Highlights

Route planning functionality is common in modern web mapping tools and in navigation systems in smart devices
Some route planners exist as proof-of-concept implementations limited to certain areas and specific conditions
It is beneficial for navigation developers to know which routing approach pedestrians prefer—the approach that suggests routes that avoid exposed areas or the approach that displays routes that pass through such areas and provides information to the users about the risk. While the former approach suggests routes likely to be longer than those suggested by the latter one, its essential advantage is that it provides “readyto-use” route suggestions that do not require any analytical capacity on the part of the user

Summary

Introduction

Route planning functionality is common in modern web mapping tools and in navigation systems in smart devices. Many programming solutions exist [1], there are still challenges in the development of route planners to support navigation for certain means of transport (e.g., cycling, walking) and target groups (e.g., the elderly, tourists) in specific environmental conditions (e.g., heavy rain, snowy roads). Route planners that support other means of transport have attracted less attention in the literature [5]. Some route planners exist as proof-of-concept implementations limited to certain areas and specific conditions. Supporting pedestrians in route planning in urban environments is timely, as urban populations are growing and urban citizens are exposed to extreme weather-related events such as high temperatures and pluvial floods. Route planners can be of value to individual citizens, especially pedestrians and those vulnerable with limited mobility and health problems [6]

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