Concept Of Walkability Research Articles

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The purpose of this study is to develop pedestrian experience framework and its’ applicability to gather experiences of the mobility handicapped. Thanks to an increasing attention to a pedestrian-friendly walking environment, ‘walkability’ has gained interests of the researchers in various fields. Studies on walkability conducted so far, however, focused mainly on the ease and safety of walking. Considering that people’s usage of the pedestrian environment is not limited to ‘walking’ purposes only, it is difficult to reflect what pedestrians are actually experiencing within the concept of walkability. Pedestrian Experience (PX) is a concept that expands the walkability to include a wider spectrum of what the pedestrians are experiencing in their everyday lives. Special efforts are needed for the mobility handicapped, who are more likely to face discomforts than others do during walking. In order to identify the PX framework, which consists of PX principle, pedestrian environment, and walking characteristics, more than 250 previous studies were collected and analyzed. To refine the resulting framework, we then conducted an in-depth interview with the social service workers who are taking care of the mobility handicapped as well as an experience sampling method to collect the specific episodes experienced by the mobility handicapped. As a case study, we invited six different groups of people with similar mobility problems and conducted focus group interviewhard of hearing, deaf, partially sighted, blind, crutches or stick users, and wheelchair users, respectively. The PX framework suggested in this study can be used as the reference criteria for designing and evaluating the pedestrianfriendliness of our walking environment.

Evaluating Public Parks as Walkable Places towards Achieving Livable Cities.

In ancient times, walking was the first mode of transportation that human used, where humans walked on the earth in search of food, water, and shelter. Nowadays following many decades of development, the nature of mankind has changed due to a change in their needs and lifestyle, which includes the emergence and development of transportation modes, such as cars, buses, and trains. Modes of travel from place to place have changed, whereas reliance on using cars in travel is increasing. The problem of the study is increasing the use of cars and depending on them as a major mean of transportation instead of walking on foot. Hence, the concept of walkability is manifested, and is defined as the extent to which walking is readily available to the pedestrian as a safe, connected, accessible, and pleasant activity. Through this definition, this research examines or evaluates factors of walkability in National Park in Kuala-Lumpur through studying and analyzing dependent travel mode and behavior of its users. The Kuala Lumpur City was chosen as the case study based on being the capital of Malaysia and the only city being included in the Annual World Ranking of the Most Livable Cities in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to diagnose factors that have an impact on walkability, thus supporting travel by foot, using public transportation and bicycle, and reducing the usage of cars. All of these issues are to make Kuala-Lumpur as a more livable city and within top 20 livable cities in the world in 2020. The methodology of research depends on two types of techniques: quantitative as the main technique by applying 240 questionnaire surveys; and the qualitative technique in support of the first technique by applying 20 interviews, as well as direct observation of the location. This study concludes that it is difficult to reduce dependency on cars as mode of moving from place to other, since there is a lack in providing comfort and safety, which affects other factors of walkability. Thus, listing Kuala-Lumpur within the best 20 livable cities in the world as 2020 plan will be more difficult.

PENERAPAN KONSEP WALKABILITY DI KAWASAN ALUN-ALUN KOTA MALANG

City center plaza of Malang (Alun-alun Merdeka) is a commercial area and public open space that attracts and encourages the movement of the community including the pedestrian in Malang city. A high pedestrian movement should be balanced with the availability of adequate facilities and infrastructure, particularly the pedestrian ways that can provide comfort, safety and sociability for pedestrians or called as the walkable pedestrian ways. The main purpose of the research is providing an input for pedestrian ways planning based on the concept of walkability, particularly for a public square in Malang. This research used guidelines from Permen PU number 03/PRT/M/2014 to identify the level of service of pedestrian-ways and the standard of the US Department Health and Human Service to find out the index of walkability, and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) to know the priority improvements of pedestrian-ways. The results showed that Merdeka Selatan street and Merdeka Timur street has the worst level of service is B on the weekday while on the weekend, Merdeka Timur street has the worst level of service is E. Pedestrian-ways on Merdeka street has the index of walkability is quite walkable with the score of 40-69. The planning of restructuring pedestrian ways on the City center plaza of Malang City (Alun-alun Merdeka) has different priority for each corridor, in general the priority of restructuring is adding lighting trash bin, as well as the disability paths.

A Study of Walkable Spaces with Natural Elements for Urban Regeneration: A Focus on Cases in Seoul, South Korea

environmental protection issues and the monitoring of pollution, especially for the largest cities in Asia, are becoming increasingly prominent factors for inclusive urban planning of public open spaces. Recently, a walkability concept was implemented in many cities, and in 2016 it became a campaign direction for development in Seoul. This paper considers conditions of implementation for the walkability concept, using examples of pedestrian walkway-making initiatives, and regeneration of existing walkways along water streams in urban case studies in Seoul, South Korea. The role of nature-based solutions was considered in relation to aesthetics, and social and environmental characteristics (e.g., air pollution, oxygenation through greenery) obtained through literature reviews for the case studies. Considering the complexity of the situation, with factors such as Air Quality Index (AQI) warning conditions, and the general positive impact of walkability on enhancing a healthy life style and social interaction and on reducing congestion, this study contributes to the discussion on walkability, and the importance of nature-based urban regeneration projects for densely populated areas in cities. The results of particular cases in this paper suggest the need for careful monitoring and consideration of various factors for urban regeneration walkable design projects.

Healthy cities — walkability as a component of health-promoting urban planning and design

Health impairments due to inactivity are related to the car-oriented urban development of recent decades, along with sedentary lifestyles. A health-maintaining environment must therefore not only reduce direct health risk factors (pathogenic concept), but also contribute to health chances that may indirectly support health (salutogenic concept). Walking has been identified as the most influenceable behavior; it is also the most environmental friendly mode of transport, social and health. From the planning view, the concept of walkability therefore aims at a built environment facilitating physical activity. It is increasingly recognized that walkability has become an important topic in the field of planning, urban design and health, since the built environment affects certain behaviors. From practice, concrete guidance is demanded as to the type of urban design features to be captured or applied to evaluate the walkability or to create active cities. The measurement of features of the built environment plays a special role in this context, but also the question of how research results can reach policies as well as planning and building practice

Operationalization of path walkability for sustainable transportation

ABSTRACTMost walking travel behavior research thus far has tested area-based neighborhood walkability, which is measured with meso-level urban form attributes. In need of micro-level walkability analyses that focus on individual travelers and their routes, we propose a route-oriented linear walkability concept named “path walkability.” It is defined and measured by 42 path walkability indicators that can collectively represent an individual traveler's micro-level walkability. A graphic measurement instrument for an objective and efficient on-field walkability measurement is developed. This study also sets the protocol for quantitatively integrating the walkability data measured at the segment level into path walkability indicators that are comparable at the route level. To test the applicability of the proposed path walkability, a pilot case study is conducted within a station area. A user survey is administered to collect transit users' access mode choices and walking routes to the station. The survey results help identify two groups of street segments: one used by regular walkers and the other selected by habitual auto users/occasional walkers. The routes chosen by the two groups are quantitatively and graphically compared for walkability. The analyses show a physically measurable and quantitatively comparable difference between the routes' walkability and suggest criteria for walking-conducive transit walkability for station users. Specific design recommendations for improving street-level micro-walkability for future transit-oriented developments (TODs) are added along with a future research agenda.

WALKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT URBAN GRANULARITIES

Abstract. The positive effects of low-intensity physical activity are widely acknowledged and in this context walking is often promoted as an active form of transport. Under the concept of walkability the role of the built environment in encouraging walking is investigated. For that purpose, walkability is quantified area-wise by measuring a varying set of built environment attributes. In purely GIS-based approaches to studying walkability, indices are generally built using existing and easily accessible data. These include street network design, population density, land use mix, and access to destinations. Access to destinations is usually estimated using either a fixed radius, or distances in the street network. In this paper, two approaches to approximate a footpath network are presented. The two footpath networks were built making different assumptions regarding the walkability of different street types with respect to more or less restrictive safety preferences. Information on sidewalk presence, pedestrian crossings, and traffic restrictions were used to build both networks. The first network comprises car traffic free areas only. The second network includes streets with low speed limits that have no sidewalks. Both networks are compared to the more commonly used street network in an access-to-distance analysis. The results suggest that for the generally highly walkable study area, access to destination mostly depends on destination density within the defined walkable distance. However, on single street segments access to destinations is diminished when only car traffic free spaces are assumed to be walkable.

WALKABILITY FOR DIFFERENT URBAN GRANULARITIES

The positive effects of low-intensity physical activity are widely acknowledged and in this context walking is often promoted as an active form of transport. Under the concept of walkability the role of the built environment in encouraging walking is investigated. For that purpose, walkability is quantified area-wise by measuring a varying set of built environment attributes. In purely GIS-based approaches to studying walkability, indices are generally built using existing and easily accessible data. These include street network design, population density, land use mix, and access to destinations. Access to destinations is usually estimated using either a fixed radius, or distances in the street network. In this paper, two approaches to approximate a footpath network are presented. The two footpath networks were built making different assumptions regarding the walkability of different street types with respect to more or less restrictive safety preferences. Information on sidewalk presence, pedestrian crossings, and traffic restrictions were used to build both networks. The first network comprises car traffic free areas only. The second network includes streets with low speed limits that have no sidewalks. Both networks are compared to the more commonly used street network in an access-to-distance analysis. The results suggest that for the generally highly walkable study area, access to destination mostly depends on destination density within the defined walkable distance. However, on single street segments access to destinations is diminished when only car traffic free spaces are assumed to be walkable.

Objective measures of the built environment and physical activity in children: from walkability to moveability.

Features of the built environment that may influence physical activity (PA) levels are commonly captured using a so-called walkability index. Since such indices typically describe opportunities for walking in everyday life of adults, they might not be applicable to assess urban opportunities for PA in children. Particularly, the spatial availability of recreational facilities may have an impact on PA in children and should be additionally considered. We linked individual data of 400 2- to 9-year-old children recruited in the European IDEFICS study to geographic data of one German study region, based on individual network-dependent neighborhoods. Environmental features of the walkability concept and the availability of recreational facilities, i.e. playgrounds, green spaces, and parks, were measured. Relevant features were combined to a moveability index that should capture urban opportunities for PA in children. A gamma log-regression model was used to model linear and non-linear effects of individual variables on accelerometer-based moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) stratified by pre-school children (<6 years) and school children (≥6 years). Single environmental features and the resulting indices were separately included into the model to investigate the effect of each variable on MVPA. In school children, commonly used features such as residential density [Formula: see text], intersection density [Formula: see text], and public transit density [Formula: see text] showed a positive effect on MVPA, while land use mix revealed a negative effect on MVPA [Formula: see text]. In particular, playground density [Formula: see text] and density of public open spaces, i.e., playgrounds and parks combined [Formula: see text], showed positive effects on MVPA. However, availability of green spaces showed no effect on MVPA. Different moveability indices were constructed based on the walkability index accounting for the negative impact of land use mix. Moveability indices showed also strong effects on MVPA in school children for both components, expanded by playground density [Formula: see text] or by public open space density [Formula: see text], but no effects of urban measures and moveability indices were found in pre-school children. The final moveability indices capture relevant opportunities for PA in school children. Particularly, availability of public open spaces seems to be a strong predictor of MVPA. Future studies involving children should consider quantitative assessment of public recreational facilities in larger cities or urban sprawls in order to investigate the influence of the moveability on childhood PA in a broader sample.

UNDERSTANDING WALKABILITY: HOW POLICYMAKERS ASSESS FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ACTIVE TRANSPORT

Background&amp;Aims: In recent years there has been considerable growth in the public health research area investigating the influence of the built environment on physical activity. Simultaneously, environmental, transport and planning professionals have been promoting a modal change to active transport modes to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. A core factor in both areas of research is the concept of ‘walkability’. International literature suggests that walkable areas are favourable to active transport (i.e., walking and cycling) but the factors used to identify what a walkable area or neighbourhood actually is can be varied and contradictory. In addition, many professionals and policy-makers have different ideas or expectations as to what makes an area walkable or not. The purpose of this paper is to examine how various professionals and policy-makers in Dublin understand and operationalize the concept of walkability. A key component of this study is to understand to what extent these decision-makers consider public health concerns as well as others concerns such as safety issues, traffic management, air quality, the nature of the local economy, and aesthetics, among others. Methods: This study is part of a larger study called the The ‘Cleaner, Greener, Leaner Study’, which is funded in part by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency’s STRIVE programme. The study aims to examine to what extent urban form impacts individual level health; transport behaviour; and hence the production of air pollution and greenhouse emissions in the Greater Dublin Area. The first stage of the study is to develop a local definition of ‘walkability’ that is suitable for use in an Irish context. In order to understand the views of various relevant professions on the concept of ‘walkability’, we conducted a comprehensive survey targeting professionals and policymakers who work in the area of planning, urban design, engineering, and construction of the built environment and transport systems. Our final sample size was 218 professionals and policy-makers. In addition we conducted five in-depth focus groups with a sub-sample of these decision-makers. We use information from these focus groups to further interpret our quantitative based survey findings Results: The data collection phase for this stage of the project was recently completed. We are in the process of analyzing our findings. Initial results, clearly indicate that whilst quality footpaths or sidewalks and nearby destinations are important to all professional groups and policy-makers there are some significant differences on how professionals view walkability and its value to the public. Many professionals and policy-makes do not adequately consider health concerns when making decisions about the nature of the built environment. Conclusions: We feel our study is important because we work to “get inside the heads” of professionals and policymakers who make decisions about the way our built environments function and the way we travel. In doing so, we provide key insights into the conceptualization of walkability and the thinking that affects decisions to build or not build places that enable active transport and improve health.