Street Patterns Research Articles

WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL NOT WALKING? THE NEED FOR A MICRO-SCALED MULTI-CRITERIA SPATIO-TEMPORAL DESIGN APPROACH TO IMPROVE WALK-QUALITY

Abstract. Walking is essential for the health and well-being of communities as well as meeting environmental challenges of the 21st Century. There have been significant research contributions in recent decades to understanding factors that can influence the likelihood of citizens choosing active travel modes, with great advances in understanding the built environment, particularly macro-scaled urban factors such as land-use mix, population density, and street patterns. So why are people still not walking? And is there anything we can do to try to change this? To answer these questions, this paper explores walking environment assessment approaches using a trans-disciplinary narrative approach, touching on multiple critical disciplinary knowledge areas. We find that while much of the research into the built environment’s influence on walking has made positive contributions in helping identify areas of cities that discourage active travel, the capacity to improve these areas has been limited. While macro-scaled factors commonly considered in ‘walkability’ analysis are highly influential to mode choice, unless working on green-field development, these factors may require re-zoning private land, substantial demolition and renewal, and may be financially or politically infeasible and thus extremely difficult to change. There is a need to augment macro-scaled analysis with micro-scaled tools, and to establish multi-criterion spatio-temporal design decision support approaches drawing from emerging technologies to make informed, integrated and effective urban design changes. These methods applied at precinct and streetscape levels have the potential to make feasible improvements to the ‘walk-quality’ of the built environment and contribute to facilitating active travel.

Pedestrian Environments and Transit Ridership

This paper explores how the quality of the pedestrian environment around transit stops relates with transit ridership. The primary hypothesis tested is that transit trip-making is higher in urban environments that are more conducive to non-motorized travel, given that bus transit systems are most frequently accessed via walking or biking. A secondary goal is to contribute to an improved understanding of the measurement of the built environment in geographic information systems (GIS). A composite measure of walkability—incorporating land use mix, density and street patterns—was developed for all transit stops in San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit Systems service area and used as a measure of the built environment. Findings indicate a small but significant, positive relationship between the walkability of the built environment and transit ridership.

Pattern of Transportation and Its Environmental Impacts in Ekwulobia, South-East, Nigeria

The research, development and design of intelligent transportation systems worldwide relies on technologies that are able to enhance security and safety, increase efficiency, reduce congestion and promote environmental sustainability. However, mobility and transportation are the engines to economic growth of a country. Unfortunately, this engine also depicts the signs of the times (i.e. congestion, accessibility and road safety problems). This study investigated the environmental impacts of pattern of transportation in Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State. In trying to achieve this, the study identified the pattern of transportation and its environmental impacts on the study area, relationships between the impacts and the major cause of traffic congestion and a viable minimization measures in the area. The mixed methods of data collection for the study include; Field observation, Interview, Questionnaire and Survey method. Data generated through these methods were analyzed using chi-square and presented using Tables, Bar charts, and Descriptive analysis. The result of the study showed that the pattern of transportation in Ekwulobia consist of four major road patterns running from Nanka to Oko axis (NN-NE), from Nnewi to Uga axis (NW-NN), from Oko to Uga axis (NE-SE) amongst others. From the result of the traffic count in five days of the week, motorcycle moves at higher volume of 66,881, public bus 37,251, private cars 34,520, tricycle 8,611 and the least is heavy trucks, which moves at the volume of 6,320. Accordingly, the pattern of transportation in Ekwulobia has led to traffic congestion, nucleated structures, noise pollution from car-engines, air pollution from exhausts. Recommendations of the study include: widening of the roads by the Government to reduce traffic congestion, placing of traffic lights to regulate vehicular movement and Urban and Regional planners should help to stop nucleated structures round the Ekwulobia round-about, among others. Keywords: Transportation Systems, Environmental Impacts, Sustainability, Traffic Congestion. DOI: 10.7176/CER/14-6-04 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

Geleneksel Sokak Karakterini Oluşturan Fiziksel Bileşenlerin Bahtiyar Yokuşu ve Hacı Osman Sokak Üzerinden Değerlendirilmesi

Hızlı nüfus artışı, sanayileşme, sosyal yaşam koşullarındaki değişimler, bilinçsiz müdahale ve restorasyonlar, koruma amaçlı imar planlarının yetersiz olması ve hızlı teknolojik gelişmeler kentlerde bir kimlik kargaşasının oluşmasına yol açmaktadır. Bu kontrolsüz kentleşme ve yenidünya şartlarına uyum sağlama çabası sonucunda kentlerin mekânsal kimliğini yansıtan dokularda tahribatlar yaşanmaktadır. Buna bağlı olarak kentlerimizin geleneksel sokak dokuları da bozulma eğilimine girmektedir. Kahramanmaraş’ın geleneksel sokaklarında da bu bozulma gözlenebilir. Son yıllarda kimlik kavramının gündemde olması ile, yerel yönetimlerin kentlerin tarihini canlandırmak üzere yaptıkları çalışmalarda bir artış söz konusudur. Bu durum, geleneksel kentsel mekân ve konutların koruma ve onarım çalışmalarına görsel ve kültürel açıdan daha anlaşılabilir olmasını sağlayan diğer fiziksel bileşenlerin dâhil edilmesi gerekliliğini arttırmaktadır. Bu bağlamda çalışma, Kahramanmaraş’ın geleneksel sokaklarının en belirgin iki örneği olan Bahtiyar Yokuşu ve Hacı Osman Sokak karakterlerinin oluşumuna katkıda bulunan fiziksel bileşenlerin ve niteliklerinin belirlenmesi üzerine kurgulanmıştır. Çalışmanın yöntemi üç aşamadan oluşmaktadır. Öncelikle çalışma kapsamında, sokakların karakterini belirleyen fiziksel bileşenler hakkında detaylı bir literatür taraması gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu taramalarda, konut-avlu/bahçe-sokak düzeninin geleneksel sokak karakterini oluşturan bileşenler arasında en dışavurumcu unsurlar olduğu ortaya çıkmaktadır. Çalışmanın ikinci aşamasında, araştırma alanının fiziksel bileşenlerinin nitelik ve nicelikleri belirlenmiştir. Son aşamada ise, geleneksel sokak dokusuna katkıda bulunan fiziksel bileşenlerin ilişkileri değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda Kahramanmaraş’ın geleneksel sokak dokusunu tarihi konutlar şekillendirmekte olup bu dokuyu karakterize eden en önemli fiziksel bileşenin ise kapı (%86) olduğu belirlenmiştir.

A Mathematical Queuing Model Analysis Using Secure Data Authentication Framework for Modern Healthcare Applications

Healthcare application is one of the most promising developments to provide on-time demand services to the end users, vehicles, and other Road Side Units (RSUs) in the urban environment. In recent years, several application interfaces have been developed to connect, communicate, and share the required services from one source to another. However, the urban environment holds a complex entity of both homogenous and heterogeneous devices to which the communication/sensing range between the devices leads to connectivity breakage, lack of needed service in time, and other environmental constraints. Also, security plays a vital role in allowing everyone in the urban area to access/request services according to their needs. Again, this leads to a massive breakthrough in providing reliable service to authentic users or a catastrophic failure of service denial involving unauthorized user access. This paper proposes a novel topological architecture, Secure Authentication Relay-based Urban Network (S-ARUN), designed for healthcare and other smart city applications for registered transportation stakeholders. The registered stakeholders hold a built-in data security framework with three subsystems connected to the S-ARUN topology: (1) authentication subsystem: the stakeholder must identify themselves to the source responder as part of the authentication subsystem before transmitting the actual data service request; (2) connectivity subsystem: to periodically check the connection state of stakeholders as they travel along with the road pattern; and (3) service subsystem: each source responder will keep a separate queue for collecting data service requests, processing them quickly, and sending the results to the appropriate stakeholder. The Kerberos authentication method is used in working with S-ARUN’s model to connect the stakeholders securely and legitimately. The performance of the proposed S-ARUN is assessed, and the performance metric toward key generation and other data security-related metrics is tested with existing schemes.

An Evaluation Method of Road Link Functionality Using Individual Trajectory Data and Weighted Network Analysis

Road links within a city are hierarchical according to their structure and function. Upper-level road links, such as highways and arterials, are designed to maintain higher mobility and traffic flow, while lower-level road links should be more accessible. However, depending on the origin-destination demand pattern (O-D), drivers’ route choice, land use, and urban infrastructure, the actual usage pattern of roads could be different from the designed intention. This difference ultimately puts a load on certain road links and causes traffic jams. In order to handle this issue, it is necessary to create an appropriate evaluation method for the functionality of road links in advance. The research suggests an evaluation method to examine the functionalities of the roadways by using real-world mobility data and weighted network analysis. In the study, the roles of links were defined and quantified by three network attributes, in-strength, out-strength, and betweenness centrality. Derived attributes were used to cluster links with similar travel patterns. Furthermore, the concept of link reliability was introduced to measure the reliance of the network on individual links. Those network indices make it possible to evaluate the functioning of roads based on people’s travel patterns and to detect critical links that are irreplaceable and difficult to detour. This information can be used to determine the priorities of upcoming improvements and ultimately improve the efficiency of operation and maintenance of the road link networks.

Predicting housing deprivation from space in the slums of Dhaka

Cities in developing countries have been struggling to deal with the pressures of urbanization on infrastructure, basic services, land, and housing that often manifest as poor living conditions found in slums and informal settlements. One of the key challenges to effectively target policy interventions and meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for improving lives of people living in slums is the lack of data on their housing condition. Furthermore, the slum/non-slum dichotomy is inadequate in identifying specific deprivations that prevents effective policymaking and implementation. To this end, we propose a methodological framework to predict multidimensional housing deprivation with slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh as our case study. Our framework predicts multidimensional housing deprivation using geospatial and remote sensing variables. Several indicators, including distance to the central business district, arterial roads, major road junctions, railroads, average dwelling size, and street type within slums were related to increased risk of overall deprivation whereas proximity to heavy industry and shoreline, building density, informal street pattern, the low-level connectivity and proximity to social amenities were related to lower risk of housing deprivation. The results from the statistical models indicate their potential to predict the extent and type of housing deprivation, which could in turn support planning and policy interventions for achieving SDGs for the most vulnerable populations in slums of developing countries.

Impact of Urban Street Network on BIPV Generation Capacity of Buildings

Climate change necessitates a critical reconsideration of the built environment since buildings are among the top fossil fuel consumers. Solar energy generation through building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems is one of the most common onsite energy generation methods. However, many factors regarding urban morphology can negatively affect BIPV generation. Urban block typologies and spatial patterns are commonly studied descriptive metrics of an urban morphology that affect the solar energy potential. Similarly, the street network pattern is a measure of the spatial quality of an urban environment. Although various urban morphology indicators have been extensively studied in relation to solar energy potential, a comparative analysis of urban fabric focusing on street network patterns is also needed. In this study, four representative urban areas with different morphological characteristics are studied. The selected morphologies are parametrically modelled and compared with different building height configurations. A comparative analysis of BIPV generation capacity per square meter façade or roof area is presented. Urban areas without a dominating street network pattern have resulted in greater PV generation on facades, whereas the impact of urban morphology was found negligible for roof PV potential. The findings of this research have the potential to aid in urban planning and architectural design decisions, as well as the efficient use of BIPV systems in diverse urban morphologies.

The British–Okhotsk Corridor Pattern and Its Linkage to the Silk Road Pattern

Abstract Based on observation and reanalysis datasets, numerical experiments with a simple dynamical model, and climate model outputs, this study investigates the second leading waveguide teleconnection along the summer polar front jet (PFJ) over Eurasia on the interannual time scale, the British–Okhotsk Corridor (BOC) pattern. The BOC pattern explains 20.8% of the total variance over northern Eurasia, which is only slightly lower than the first leading teleconnection, the British–Baikal Corridor pattern. It consists of four zonally oriented action centers over the British Isles, western Russia, northern Siberia, and the Sea of Okhotsk. It is primarily confined to northern Eurasia and leads to wavelike temperature and precipitation anomalies along its routine. Besides, it is occasionally coupled to the dominant waveguide teleconnection along the subtropical jet (STJ), the Silk Road pattern (SRP). A bifurcated wavelike pattern appears over Eurasia when the coupling is strong, with two branches of waves over the PFJ and the STJ, respectively. The fluctuations of the BOC–SRP linkage play a profound role in shaping the dominant climate variability modes over Eurasia. Numerical experiments with a simple dynamical model suggest that the basic flow cannot directly influence the BOC–SRP linkage by affecting the propagation condition of Rossby waves. Nevertheless, the basic flow can indirectly influence the linkage by changing the exciting locations of the BOC pattern through modulating the wave–mean flow interaction at the exit of the Atlantic jet stream. The climate model INMCM4.0 can reproduce the observed BOC–SRP linkage and its time-varying characteristics, supporting the observation and the proposed mechanism. Significance Statement Over Eurasia, extreme summer weather events are often related to long-lasting stagnant atmospheric circulation anomalies in the upper troposphere, which can be well determined by a few recurring modes called atmospheric teleconnections. Atmospheric teleconnections over Eurasia usually propagate along the subtropical jet (STJ) and the polar front jet (PFJ). Although the teleconnections along the STJ have been well understood, the teleconnections along the PFJ are currently not fully understood. This paper investigates the British–Okhotsk Corridor (BOC) pattern, a newly defined major summer teleconnection along the PFJ. The BOC pattern can be occasionally coupled to a dominant teleconnection along the STJ. Fluctuations of this linkage play a profound role in shaping the dominant surface climate variability modes over Eurasia. Observation and reanalysis datasets, numerical experiments with a simple dynamical model, and climate model output are used to understand this linkage in the study.

Vision-Based Branch Road Detection for Intersection Navigation in Unstructured Environment Using Multi-Task Network

Autonomous vehicles need a driving method to be less dependent on localization data to navigate intersections in unstructured environments because these data may not be accurate in such environments. Methods of distinguishing branch roads existing at intersections using vision and applying them to intersection navigation have been studied. Model-based detection methods recognize patterns of the branch roads, but are sensitive to sensor noise and difficult to apply to various complex situations. Therefore, this study proposes a method for detecting the branch roads at the intersection using deep learning. The proposed multi-task deep neural network distinguishes the branch road into a shape of rotated bounding boxes and also recognizes the drivable area to consider obstacles inside the box. Through the output of the network, an occupancy grid map consisting of one branch road at an intersection is obtained, which can be used as an input to the existing motion-planning algorithms that do not consider intersections. Experiments in real environments show that the proposed method detected the branch roads more accurately than the model-based detection method, and the vehicle drove safely at the intersection.

Rhythm of the streets: a street classification framework based on street activity patterns

As the living tissue connecting urban places, streets play significant roles in driving city development, providing essential access, and promoting human interactions. Understanding street activities and how these activities vary across different streets is critical for designing both efficient and livable streets. However, current street classification frameworks primarily focus on either streets’ functions in transportation networks or their adjacent land uses rather than actual activity patterns, resulting in coarse classifications. This research proposes an activity-based street classification framework to categorize street segments based on their temporal street activity patterns, which is derived from high-resolution de-identified and privacy-enhanced mobility data. We then apply the proposed framework to 18,023 street segments in the City of Boston and reveal 10 distinct activity-based street types (ASTs). These ASTs highlight dynamic street activities on streets, which complements existing street classification frameworks, which focus on the static or transportation characteristics of the street segments. Our results show that a street classification framework based on temporal street activity patterns can identify street categories at a finer granularity than current methods, which can offer useful implications for state-of-the-art urban management and planning. In particular, we find that our classification distinguishes better those streets where crime is more prevalent than current functional or contextual classifications of streets.

Children’s walking to urban services: an analysis of pedestrian access to social infrastructures and its relationship with land use

The conceptual framework of child-friendly cities guarantees children’s equal access to public urban services. Despite the widespread application of geographical information systems (GISs) and pedestrian network analysis, studies have yet to analyze children’s comprehensive pedestrian access to urban services in a large-scale city. This study demonstrates GIS-based approaches to measuring children’s pedestrian access to urban services using a pedestrian path layer and the spatial layers of social infrastructure locations in Seoul, South Korea. We show the spatial inequities in children’s access to urban services, which depend on the locational characteristics of social infrastructures and the urban development patterns around children. We analyze how children’s access to social infrastructures is differentiated by land use composition. Our statistical analysis finds that low-rise residential areas, consisting of impermeable street patterns, increase children’s walking distance and restrict children from accessing urban services within their walkable area. In addition, there is potential for key infrastructures such as schools and local community centers to promote pedestrian access to urban services for children. Considering pedestrian access at the street level will help pinpoint vulnerable areas with children who have less access overall and maximize the users served within the service areas of infrastructures.

A STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION AND PHYSICAL TRAITS OF TWO COMPETING STREET PATTERNS: NARROW MEANDERING AND WIDE GRIDIRON

A street is a passageway for people in a built environment and is one of the essential elements of urban planning. Streets convey a city's history, urban form, and socio-cultural values of societies that shape it. Street patterns must be carefully planned to create safe environments for everyone, particularly youngsters and elders. There are two common street patterns in history: meandering and gridiron. The development of these two opposed street patterns is examined in this study using historical discourse. In this study, the deductive approach is employed to distinguish between the physical traits of the street types mentioned above. According to this study, meandering street patterns reflect more concerns to human senses, socio-cultural values and aesthetics than gridiron. This research instigates further investigation in this regard to create inclusive, safe streets for everyone

Summer Precipitation Extremes over the Yellow River Loop Valley and Its link to European Blocking

Characteristics of extreme precipitation over Yellow River Loop Valley (YRLV) and links to European blocking are investigated in this study. Spatial and temporal analysis of extreme precipitation shows that it contributes more than 30% of the total summer precipitation in the YRLV and is characterized by a strong and short period of local rainfall. Most of the extreme rains in the YRLV occur in July and August. Two typical circulation patterns were identified using a k-means clustering method. The extreme precipitation results from the combined actions of intensified high pressure over northeast China (NECH) and the westward extension of the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH). The intensified southerly flow of the amplified NECH strengthens the water vapor transport induced by the westward extension of the WPSH from the northwest Pacific or Bay of Bengal into the YRLV. The NECH is amplified by the wave energy propagating from European blocking via the Silk Road pattern (SRP). This is the subseasonal cause of extreme precipitation over the YRLV. The composited July and August mean 500 hPa geopotential anomaly pattern for extreme precipitation years shows a high-pressure anomaly over the European continent and a negative phase of the SRP. The former provides a background for the occurrence of European blocking, and the latter explains the preexistence of the NECH and provides a linkage between the activity of European blocking and the subseasonal evolution of the NECH. Thus, the interannual variation in the extreme precipitation over the YRLV is mainly reflected by the phase of the SRP and the stationary waves over Europe.

Numerical Analysis and Calculation for Urban Street Landscape Spatial Pattern

In recent years, there are many problems in the construction of street landscape spatial pattern, such as emphasizing the surface, ignoring the substance, focusing on construction, and ignoring protection. The reason is closely related to the lack of visual evaluation of streetscape for guidance. This research mainly discusses the numerical analysis and calculation for the spatial pattern of urban streetscape. This study clarifies the related concepts of visual evaluation of urban streetscape and discusses the formation process, overall characteristics, and constituent elements of streetscape. It emphasizes the importance of two subjective and objective factors of “landscape” and “vision” for evaluation. This paper studies this spatial composition relationship from the perspective of street space and the building itself. In the research process, it selects the pedestrian street in the northwest of the city as the object and uses the questionnaire survey method and the multifactor evaluation method to carry out the visual evaluation of the streetscape. It deeply discusses the application of evaluation methods in practice and counts the relevant evaluation results. In the urban street space proportion curve and the corresponding comparative analysis, it is found that most of the street space proportion is between 0.6 and 3.0. This kind of space composition has mutual inclusive symmetry, which enhances the order and communication of urban architecture. This somewhat improves this alienated spatial morphological pattern. This research is helpful to promote the development of streetscape visual evaluation.

The association between workplace built environment and metabolic health: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Metabolic health is one of the key determinants of healthy living. Specifically, maintaining healthy weight, regulation of blood pressure, lipids and glucose over the life course have been reported to be protective on chronic diseases and premature mortality. With the global workforce spending, on average, one-third of the weekly time budget in the workplace, the role of workplace environment in enhancing metabolic health becomes important. However, there has thus far been no review synthesizing evidence on the links between workplace built environment and metabolic health. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted synthesizing evidence on the associations of built environment attributes measured within the workplace neighbourhood and metabolic health. A total of 16 studies that fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria were identified via systematic search of English language peer-refereed publications up to July 2021, in six databases. A systematic coding system was developed, indicating significant findings in expected/unexpected directions including null findings, and the quality of the pooled study was assessed. The Weighted-Z test method that accounts for the study quality was used to examine the strength of evidence. A quarter of the pooled studies were categorized to be of high quality. Among the workplace built environment attributes of access to/density of recreational facilities, street pattern, access to/density of destinations and services, and land use mix, very strong evidence was found for the association between access to/density of destinations and services and metabolic health (p<0.001); specifically, access to full service establishments such as supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants (p=0.001). A relatively weak association between proximity to workplace and metabolic health (p=0.019) was also reported. Given the lack of high quality studies, overall confidence in the currently available evidence is 'low'. Well-designed longitudinal studies with rigorous measurements for exposures and outcome variables are necessary.

SPACE, ARCHITECTURE, AND POWER. THE TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP PLACEMAKING IN HISTORIC ARABIC-ISLAMIC CITIES

Urban spaces are the end-product of various power deliberations and different urban processes, mainly the top-down and bottom-up. This study investigates the role of the two urban processes in placemaking in historic Arabic-Islamic cities. The investigation demonstrates each urban process's role in creating the major mosque's spatial context in Mecca, Medina, Cairo, Fes, Damascus, and Tripoli of Libya. Aiming to clear some preconceived ideas -strongly affected by the Renaissance’s spectacular values- about Arabic-Islamic urbanism, this article studied major Arab-Islamic cities in qualitative and quantitative approaches. The oldest available cartographic materials are investigated locally concerning political values and changes. Street patterns, space typology, and major mosque spatial context in historic Arabic-Islamic cities are studied, relating each type of urban process to placemaking's symbolic value. Before the end of the 17th century, historic Arabic-Islamic cities adopted a bottom-up process by taking advantage of the community's right to assert the order of their built environment. The top-down process was limited mainly to the architectural level of authoritarian mosques and their context. The ontological freedom and the right to control the place shifted due to exogenous political influences from the public to the authorities. By adopting the Renaissance's urban values, the top-down urban process expanded its domination on architectural and urban levels, shifting the mosque's function from socioeconomic to an artistic value. This adaptation was achieved by promoting the mosque as an artifact and creating a spectacular spatial context.

Procedural Cities as Active Simulators for Planning

Modelling a 3D city poses an interesting challenge. To create a virtual city, a road pattern has to be designed and a large number of buildings need to be generated. Every urban place has a road network, often a superimposed pattern plan that serves a population density and buildings which follow statutory rules. This patterned behaviour of the city is why it is possible to develop rules or “computational instructions,” to generate city models. In this article, we are going to discuss how to use procedural modelling and CityEngine, a rule-based application commonly used in the movie industry and gaming to produce vast realistic cityscapes, for regional and urban planning via an urban analytics approach. Unlike cinema’s imaginary worlds, cities have real-life population dependencies that need to be modelled for the development of planning scenarios. The goal is then to use the generative properties of the procedural modelling approach, along with population prediction models, to create informed 3D city scenarios. Instead of designing solutions, the user can use interactive parameters to affect the 3D model globally, thus enabling virtual cities to become active simulators for planning. Using urban analytics and generative environments, procedural cities may be able to create a “teaser” of different versions of how the city would look like in the future.

Patterns of Street Food Purchase in Cities From Central Asia.

Street food makes a significant contribution to the diet of many dwellers in low- and middle-income countries and its trade is a well-developed activity in the central Asian region. However, data on its purchase and nutritional value is still scarce. This study aimed to describe street food purchasing patterns in central Asia, according to time and place of purchase. A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016/2017 in the main urban areas of four central Asian countries: Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan). Street food markets (n = 34) and vending sites (n = 390) were selected by random and systematic sampling procedures. Data on the purchased foods and beverages were collected by direct observation. Time and geographic location of the purchases was registered, and their nutritional composition was estimated. A total of 714 customers, who bought 852 foods, were observed. Customers' influx, buying rate and purchase of industrial food were higher in city centers compared to the outskirts (median: 4.0 vs. 2.0 customers/10 min, p < 0.001; 5.0 vs. 2.0 food items/10 min, p < 0.001; 36.2 vs. 28.7%, p = 0.004). Tea, coffee, bread and savory pastries were most frequently purchased in the early morning, bread, main dishes and savory pastries during lunchtime, and industrial products in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon periods. Energy and macronutrient density was highest at 11:00–12:00 and lowest at 09:00–10:00. Purchases were smaller but more energy-dense in city centers, and higher in saturated and trans-fat in the peripheries. This work provides an overview of the street food buying habits in these cities, which in turn reflect local food culture. These findings from the main urban areas of four low- and middle-income countries which are currently under nutrition transition can be useful when designing public health interventions customized to the specificities of these food environments and their customers.

Factors affecting the Size of a Mass Transit Station’s Pedestrian Shed in Quezon City, Philippines

Mass transit systems are planned to alleviate traffic congestion in Metro Manila but only a few were implemented. The Metro Manila Light Rail Transit Line-2 (LRT-2) line is among the few operational mass transit lines. However, it had witnessed multiple delays during the construction process because it plies through a highly urbanized area with challenging physical constraints. This study aimed to characterize and quantify the existing street network and land parcels around a mass transit station in terms of the street pattern, extensiveness of the road infrastructure, road network connectivity, urban blocks, land plots and its land use to explore how these factors affect the size of the 400-m, 5-min walk pedestrian shed. The available road centerline vector data was used as an approximate representation of the pedestrian walk pattern and existing shape and attribute data of land parcels. These data were processed using Quantum Geographic Information System and analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation matrix. The results suggested that even if not all the identified factors or parameters were exceptional, a station area can still achieve a large pedestrian shed as demonstrated by Cubao station area. Furthermore, land fragmentation that is dependent on the existing characteristic sizes of land uses emerged as one of the determining factors affecting the pedestrian sheds’ extent. Urban planners and decision-makers may use this present work to determine the considerations and parameters influencing the access around a mass transit station in terms of maximizing the catchment area for pedestrians.