Walkability Research Research Articles

Tempo-spatial analysis of pedestrian movement in the built environment based on crowdsourced big data

Over the years, the urban planning literature has focused substantial attention on walkability research, aiming to enhance physical activity and sustainable communities through urban planning and design. While motorized traffic research has gained momentum in combining innovative technologies for traffic monitoring, the common tools used to monitor pedestrian movement (PM) to this date are limited in time and scale. This study aims at analyzing tempo-spatial dynamics of walking behavior, while utilizing an emerging technology of Bluetooth sensors. We analyzed over 53 million pedestrian records, monitored in 83 street-segments in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The data was recorded for five months, including the time of COVID-19's first lockdown. We showcase tempo-spatial dynamics of PM through different times of the year, while discussing changes in walking traffic volume, walking patterns (frequency peaks), traffic at commercial vs. residential streets, popular street segments and land-uses, and possible applications to urban planning and design. Finally, we discuss the data limitations and challenges for PM monitoring and research. The study shows that BT sensor technology can provide the municipality and decisionmakers with insights on pedestrians' behavior and preferences in real-time and at street-level, enabling to locate infrastructure investments more efficiently and to support planning decisions. The preliminary results of this study suggest further use of this technology for pedestrian movement monitoring and research in urban networks.

Exploring multidimensional aspects of walkability: An innovative analysis approach in Besiktas, Istanbul

This study develops a holistic approach that underlines the effect of spatial, behavioral, and perceptional dimensions on walkability at the neighborhood scale. The study recognizes quantitatively measured tangible factors and qualitatively assessed intangible values to evaluate the level of walkability in Besiktas, Istanbul (Turkey). The research explores the independent and combined effects of physical characteristics, individual perceptions, and walking behavior on walkability. Geographic Information Systems urban analyses, space syntax analysis, and observation to establish an analytical framework for spatial and behavioral dimensions of walkability in Besiktas central district are used as a methodology. Additionally, perceptional data is gathered through an experimental approach, which involves participants walking along pre-determined routes using cartography techniques and employing “shared walks” as a mobile method. The results of study confirmed previous findings from studies that the physical, social, and typological attributes of the built environment have a significant correlation between walking behavior and the physical and social aspects of the built environment. This study provides a comprehensive walkability assessment framework, encompassing quantitative and qualitative dimensions. By incorporating spatial, behavioral, and perceptual dimensions, this approach provides an efficient and integrated analytical methodology for evaluating walkability, distinguishing itself with its originality in the field of walkability research.

Contributions and Limitations Walk Score® in the Context of Walkability: A Scoping Review

Walkability is a critical component of built environments, yet there is still diverse conceptualization and measurement of the construct. The Walk Score® metric is one measure of walkability, which is widely used in scholarly, industry, and public domains. With increased interest in the use of Walk Score® as a research tool, it is necessary to examine the operationalization and scope of the measure. This scoping review examined how researchers utilized Walk Score® in walkability research, with specific attention to identifying limitations related to health outcomes as well as the use of the metric in non-health research contexts. Findings from the review provide a novel and critically nuanced understanding of how the assumptions and limitations of Walk Score® are addressed relative to socio-ecological aspects of walkability.

Exploring walkability research trends based on systematic literature review (SLR) by applying PRISMA

PurposeThis study intends to analyze the trend of walkability research over two years (2021–2022) in several aspects, including the research problem, gap and aim underlying walkability issues, research setting, the scale of analysis, the type of data, the data collection tool, the analysis method and contribution.Design/methodology/approachPreferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is employed to conduct a systematic literature review from three leading databases including Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Sage.FindingsFrom the review, it can be concluded that the research focuses on two aspects, namely, the built environment and people. The studies in this field are conducted at different scales of the built environment, from macroscale to microscale, including region, city, neighborhood and street-level studies that are conducted around the world including Asia, Europe and America which receive high attention from researchers. Meanwhile, the study of walkability in Australia and Africa gains less attention. It is revealed that there are four factors of walkability including land use and accessibility for macroscale which cover region, city and neighborhood, while street network and pedestrian infrastructure and facility are mainly analyzed for street-level. Most of the studies widely utilize a quantitative approach for analyzing physical walkability factors in a measurement-based approach by using certain tools/software, and a perception-based approach by using questionnaires.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings can assist to keep up with the rapid pace of scientific publications and help accelerate the understanding of particular ideas in the field of walkability for the planning and design practice and policy that can be used by researchers/academia, urban designers, urban planners, architects, engineers and policymakers. Also, this study hopefully could assist further research direction for the future and could add value to a more advanced way of understanding the research on walkability.Originality/valueThis research provides a robust framework for walkability trend analysis and a comprehensive understanding of the main ideas from the existing research on walkability worldwide.

How Do Pedestrians Perceive The Safety, Comfort, And Usefulness Of A Walking Space? An Exploratory Study of Pedestrian Perception

Car-oriented development has brought several negative impacts on human quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to walkability as one of the essential aspects of urban quality of life. In the meantime, most research on walking and walkability still overlooks the role of the pedestrian's perspective in examining walkability. Hence, this research tries to fill the gap in walkability research by exploring the pedestrian perspectives on the safety, comfort, and usefulness of walking space as the three overlapping aspects between walkability and walking needs. This research took context in Suryakencana, Bogor City, Indonesia. This study is a qualitative study case that used interviews, mapping, and field observation to collect information on pedestrian perspectives. By utilizing descriptive analysis, this study found several aspects that contribute to the perception of safety, comfort, and usefulness of walking space. This research is expected to improve the understanding of walking from the pedestrian perspective and to reconsider the salient attributes in developing pedestrian space, hence can accommodate better pedestrians' needs.

Walk Score, Environmental Quality and Walking in a Campus Setting

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.

Walkability to public transport: prioritization of parameters for walkability assessment in the urban areas of Kerala, India

Walkability research is multi-disciplinary and is spread across numerous domains starting from public health to sustainable transportation. Walkability is gaining interest as a non-motorised mode of transportation, and walking to public transport is deemed necessary for sustainable cities. This study intends to select, rank, and prioritise parameters of 'walkability to public transport' for urban areas of Kerala, a southern state in India. Upon a basic framework of walkability parameters obtained after the literature review, the Delphi Method was used to elicit and select the most significant walkability parameters from various domains, including transportation, planning, and urban design. Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to weigh the relative significance of parameters and sub-parameters. The study found that 'Immediate Walking Environment' was top priority, and 'Urban Design Qualities' was ranked least. The methodology will guide future researchers to pursue walkability studies in other cities by adopting this methodology with contextual variations if needed.

Fractal Dimension of Streetscape as a Proxy to the Design Dimension of the Built Environment in Walkability Research

Multidisciplinary nature of walkability research accelerated its growth through the participation of different disciplines. Different methods of measurement and analysis from varying disciplines created disagreements about how to characterize the built environment dimensions by using appropriate attributes, especially attributes which are used to represent the design dimension of the built environment. Fractal dimension value of streetscape provides solutions to these arguments as it makes the use of both micro-scale and macro-scale attributes of the built environment, especially micro-scale attributes of its design dimension as it relates to the quality of walking. Walkability indices were created then validated by a survey conducted at Dutluk station in Keçiören, Ankara. Results show that using fractal dimension value of streetscape as a variable in the walkability index can identify the factors that influence walking behavior.

Building walkable and safe neighborhoods: Assessing the built environment characteristics for pedestrian safety in buffalo, NY

IntroductionIt is important to understand the relationship between the built environment and pedestrian safety to promote walking. Nevertheless, current literature insufficiently studied the impact of the built environment on pedestrian safety. There is few research considering spatial autocorrelation effects. This study aims to expand the investigation of conventional built environment correlates of pedestrian safety using the D variables from the walkability literature to further the discussions of the association of the built environment with both safety and walkability. MethodsData on pedestrian involved injuries were collected from the New York State Department of Transportation from 2012-2016. The results from the global Poisson regression (PR) models and the geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) models were compared to show the spatially varying effects of built environment characteristics on pedestrian involved injuries. Data were analyzed in 2019. ResultsThe results from the GWPR models were more pronounced than the global PR models. The findings confirmed the association of pedestrian safety with the D variables. The number of intersections, Walk Score, and population density showed conflicting impacts on safety and walkability. The statistically significant association of Walk Score with pedestrian safety in the study enriches current research on the relationship between built environment and pedestrian safety. ConclusionsThis study expanded the traditional built environment variables used in pedestrian safety research with the D variables in walkability research to help understand the role of built environment characteristics for building walkable and safe neighborhoods. The findings also shed light on the significance of distance in environmental modification for safe and walkable communities.

Walkability Perception in Asian Cities: A Comparative Study in Bangkok and Nagoya

Asian cities are unique, where people may need more than just walking; however, the walkability research in a local context has received less attention. This paper analyses the walking needs and the influential factors of walking behavior in Asian cities. A comparative analysis in Bangkok and Nagoya is presented, taking into account the characteristics of local street design and development. Street evaluation experiments of various streets are conducted through 360-degree videos. The factor analyses indicate that the walking needs in both cities can be considered in two levels, but the components of the needs are different. Being smooth and having no obstacles are common basic needs. Safety and security are regarded as basic needs in Nagoya, but as higher-level needs in Bangkok. Attractiveness of activity and walk pleasure are the common upper-level needs. Street elements such as width, green, traffic, parking, pollution exposure, and activity are found to be influential on the walking needs. The structural equation models indicate that higher-level needs have more of an influence than the lower-level needs for walking behavior in Bangkok and for shop walking in Nagoya, while the basic need has more influence on walking willingness for transit access. These findings call for practical attention for street design and development where local context and street functions must be carefully considered.

A comprehensive bibliometrics of 'walkability' research landscape: visualization of the scientific progress and future prospects.

This study quantitatively investigated the scientific progress of walkability research landscape and its future prospects using bibliometric indicators to highlight the research hotspots. The results accentuated multifaceted nature of walkability research landscape with a strong association towards public health disciplines. Keyword co-occurrence analysis emphasized that majority of the walkability studies centred on the interactions between walking and other three main factors such as built environment attributes, transportation and obesity. Based on the identified research hotspots, a brief state-of-the-art review of walkability studies was presented. Future prospects based on the unexplored research gaps within the hotspots were also discussed. High correlation (r = 0.99, p <0.05) between annual publications and citation counts demonstrated the significance of walkability studies to the contemporary scientific community. Being one of the comprehensive studies to evaluate the historic trajectory of walkability research landscape, the findings were expected to accelerate a comprehensive understanding of the walkability research domain that will assist future research direction.

Walkability research: concept, methods and a critical review of post-socialist studies

Walkability research: concept, methods and a critical review of post-socialist studies

AwaP-IC—An Open-Source GIS Tool for Measuring Walkable Access

Within the broad field of walkability research, a key area of focus has been the relationship between urban form and capacities for walking. Measures of walkable access can be grouped into two key types: permeability measures that quantify the ease of movement through an urban fabric, and catchment measures, quantifying the potential to reach destinations within walking distance. Of numerous street network measures in use, it has been shown that many are poor proxies of permeability and catchment. Instead, two new measures have been proposed: the area-weighted average perimeter (AwaP) and interface catchment (IC), that, combined, better capture the capacities of urban morphologies to enable and attract pedestrian movement. In this paper, we present the QGIS tool AwaP-IC, developed to overcome the difficulty of computing these measures. Unlike GIS tools based on models that abstract streets to axial lines, by employing new algorithms and spatial computation techniques, AwaP-IC analyses actual urban morphologies, based on cadastral maps delineating public and private land. This can empower a new stream of urban morphological studies with the computational power of GIS. As an open-source tool, it can be further developed for use in urban mapping and to streamline the analysis of large datasets.

Perceptions of walkability and determinants of walking behaviour among urban seniors in Toronto, Canada

Abstract Research has indicated the built environment strongly influences active transportation, though the specific mechanisms through which active transport occurs differ in findings. This study investigated the relationship between objective and subjective measures of walkability for seniors living in Toronto through a multi-phased, mixed-methods approach. Two neighbourhoods within the city were selected as case study areas. Wychwood represented a high walkability neighbourhood and Edenbridge-Humber Valley represented a neighbourhood lower in walkability. The walkability audit, the Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool – Revised (SWEAT-R), served as the objective measure. Subjective measures included the use of focus groups, go-along interviews, and traditional interviews with twenty-eight seniors across both neighbourhoods. The findings of this research highlighted the efficacy of objective measures existing in literature, but these did not adequately capture the holistic relationships between seniors and their surrounding environments. The subjective measures of walkability proved especially important for understanding perceptions of walkability and walking behaviour. Additionally, the findings echo recent study findings that recommend theory-based approaches to walkability research may be more effective in accounting for human behaviour in active transportation. This study concludes with practical and theoretical recommendations for planners, public health specialists, and other experts interested in promoting active transportation for seniors.

Universal Design for the Rural Walks of Life: Operationalizing Walkability in Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada ( breakout presentation )

Background Encouraging routine walking for active transportation and/or leisure are two simple and low-cost ways to incorporate physical activity into daily life. Public health researchers and practitioners recognize a need to improve community built environments to support local walkability. However, many principles and concepts emerging from a growing body of walkability literature focus on urban settings, and do not readily apply to small or rural communities, signaling a knowledge gap. Healthy community advocates have an opportunity to critically explore how strategies of promoting walkability in rural areas must be geographically, demographically, and culturally appropriate. Description of Program Universal Design principles were operationalized in the Bonnyville Community Walking Map to promote walking in Bonnyville, a rural municipality in Alberta, Canada. Local stakeholders prioritized barrier-free access to walking routes for older adults and others with low-mobility as the guiding principle for their rural walkability concept. Universal Design was selected as an appropriate framework for operationalization by examining local data collected through systematic street-level observations and a community photovoice study, and literature review of walkability in rural settings and specifically for older adults. Outcomes Rural walkability literature is limited, and conventional walkability research and practice focusing on urban built environments does not readily apply to the unique geography and walking concepts in rural areas. Moreover, walkability rationales that emphasis an obesity reduction frame potentially neglect the individual and population level benefits of developing more equitable supports for walking. Implications Our research is among the earliest developing Canadian insight into theoretical and empirical operationalization of walkability in rural communities. We argue that incorporating Universal Design principles into walkability research and practice will help enhance equity and promote transferability of constructs across geographies. Walkability interventions in both urban and rural settings should thus promote route access for vulnerable and/or low-mobility pedestrians. Conference attendees will be encouraged to share their own understanding and experiences of rural walkability and Universal Design in a discussion of how walkability might be geographically and demographically stratified.

Check the Score: Field Validation of Street Smart Walk Score in Alberta, Canada ( breakout presentation )

Walk Score® is an internet-based tool providing a common standard for measuring walkability between communities that is low-cost, easily accessible, and highly generalizable. Many studies have used Walk Score® to demonstrate how walkable communities promote physical activity, reduce obesity and overweight, and lower the risk of chronic diseases. However, Walk Score® has only been field validated for accuracy in metropolitan regions of the United States, leaving a knowledge gap for walkability researchers and practitioners in Canada and internationally. Our research aimed to address this knowledge gap in Canadian walkability research and practice by field validating Walk Score® with street-level observations from three communities situated along a rural to urban continuum in Alberta, Canada. Starting from the methodological outline and results of our field validation, we would like to begin a conversation with conference attendees about the benefits and disadvantages of using tools like Walk Score® to capture walkability and what it might mean for people living in different municipalities and regions internationally. We reverse-engineered 2181 Walk Scores® for locations in Bonnyville, Medicine Hat, and North Central Edmonton using ground-truth data obtained through systematic street-level observations. To conduct the field validation, we calculated Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficients (rho, rs), accounting for potential inflation of p-values due to spatial autocorrelation by means of the Clifford-Richardson adjustment, and calculated composite means, 95% confidence intervals, and t-tests (α=0.05), as measures of association between Walk Score® and our reverse-engineered index. Walk Score® was successfully field validated across the rural to urban continuum for three communities in Alberta, Canada. Our field validation produced very high Spearman's rho correlations for Bonnyville (rs=0.950, adjusted p<0.001), and high correlations for Medicine Hat (rs=0.790, adjusted p<0.001) and high correlations for North Central Edmonton (rs=0.763, adjusted p<0.001). Our field validation of Walk Score® addressed a knowledge gap ensuring the reliability of this internet-based metric for Canadian walkability research and practice. However, we caution against interpreting walkability solely using Walk Score®, and encourage conference participants to consider its integration with community-based participatory methods to more inclusively capture resident perspectives on walkability across different municipalities and regions.

University–Real Estate Industry Cooperation in Open Innovation in the Topic of Walkability ( breakout presentation )

Background It is known that high quality of public spaces and walkable environments are a key to sustainable urban development. They can connect people and communities, have environmental impact and boost local businesses. A broad research on what influences walkability and makes good public spaces already exists. However, un-walkable and unattractive new city quarters are still being built all over the world. One of the important stakeholders in the process of designing cities are real estate industries. They do consider sustainability but predominantly only on economic and environmental level, e.g. through implementing energy efficient building technologies. The comprehensive idea of empowering walkability and enhancing strong communities in new developments does not seem yet present among these. The reason for that is quite obvious – high walkability and good quality of urban spaces does not bring an immediate and evident monetary profit. Aim On one side, research institutes have gathered broad knowledge about evidence-based findings on public spaces, on the other side, industries often do not have a motivation to adequately include issues like creating walkable neighborhoods. It is suggested here that walkability could be an interface for those two sectors to collaborate in an open innovation. With this approach, they can together develop tools and methodologies that are based on principles of walkability, at the same creating possibilities for economic profit for companies and decision makers. Method Currently on the basis of innovative and transdisciplinary walkability research such a tool is in the development phase at Drees & Sommer. It will be embedded into the approach Blue City – Integrated Urban Solutions. The background of the tool are criteria for good public spaces of Gehl, but also based on a wide range of research studies dealing with the social, spatial and urban criteria of walkability. The tool is still in its initial stage but already shows potential to join academic knowledge on walkability and real estate industry. This will result in a new application-oriented tool which can be well justified by research and when consequently applied will result in better and more walkable neighborhoods. This will pay off for all participants of this rare collaboration.

The contribution of area-level walkability to geographic variation in physical activity: a spatial analysis of 95,837 participants from the 45 and Up Study living in Sydney, Australia

BackgroundIndividual-level studies support a positive relation between walkable built environments and participation in moderate-intensity walking. However, the utility of this evidence for population-level planning is less clear as it is derived at much finer spatial scales than those used for regional programming. The aims of this study were to: evaluate if individual-level relations between walkability and walking to improve health manifest at population-level spatial scales; assess the specificity of area-level walkability for walking relative to other moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA); describe geographic variation in walking and other MVPA; and quantify the contribution of walkability to this variation.MethodsData on sufficient walking, sufficient MVPA, and high MVPA to improve health were analyzed for 95,837 Sydney respondents to the baseline survey of the 45 and Up Study between January 2006 and April 2010. We used conditional autoregressive models to create smoothed MVPA “disease maps” and assess relations between sufficient MVPA to improve health and area-level walkability adjusted for individual-level demographic, socioeconomic, and health factors, and area-level relative socioeconomic disadvantage.ResultsWithin-cohort prevalence of meeting recommendations for sufficient walking, sufficient MVPA, and high MVPA were 31.7 (95% CI 31.4–32.0), 69.4 (95% CI 69.1–69.7), and 56.1 (95% CI 55.8–56.4) percent. Prevalence of sufficient walking was increased by 1.20 (95% CrI 1.12–1.29) and 1.07 (95% CrI 1.01–1.13) for high and medium-high versus low walkability postal areas, and for sufficient MVPA by 1.05 (95% CrI 1.01–1.08) for high versus low walkability postal areas. Walkability was not related to high MVPA. Postal area walkability explained 65.8 and 47.4 percent of residual geographic variation in sufficient walking and sufficient MVPA not attributable to individual-level factors.ConclusionsWalkability is associated with area-level prevalence and geographic variation in sufficient walking and sufficient MVPA to improve health in Sydney, Australia. Our study supports the use of walkability indexes at multiple spatial scales for informing population-level action to increase physical activity and the utility of spatial analysis for walkability research and planning.

Universal Design for the rural walks of life: operationalizing walkability in Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada

Many Canadians have low levels of physical activity, including walking. One public health response is to improve opportunities for walking, or walkability, by changing community built environments. While urban walkability research is expanding, it does not readily apply to smaller, rural communities, leaving a significant knowledge gap. This participatory research project operationalized rural walkability using Universal Design principles to promote walking in a vibrant rural community. A literature review examining rural walkability supplemented local data from a related study. Simultaneously, local partners were engaged to operationalize walkability and iteratively develop a walking map responsive to community priorities of inclusivity and community engagement. The walkability literature was severely limited in evidence and theory for rural settings; conventional urban walkability constructs did not fit the geography, degree of rural-ness, nor primary purposes of walking by residents. This challenged the cogency of current rationales for walkability as a socio-structural response to the obesity epidemic, which may undervalue the individual benefits and public good inherent to walking and equitable supports for walkability. The Bonnyville Community Walking Map was developed using Universal Design principles, providing a tool for all residents, including seniors and others with limited mobility. Consideration of Universal Design can enhance equity and transferability of walkability research across settings, and prompt reconsideration of walkability as access to pedestrian spaces for embodied and vulnerable pedestrians. This research is among the earliest in Canada to investigate theoretical and empirical bases for operationalizing walkability in rural settings in broader efforts to foster health-promoting community environments.

Designing healthy communities: A walkability analysis of LEED-ND

Prevailing city design in many countries has created sedentary societies that depend on automobile use. Consequently, architects, urban designers, and land planners have developed new urban design theories, which have been incorporated into the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) certification system. The LEED-ND includes design elements that improve human well-being by facilitating walking and biking, a concept known as walkability. Despite these positive developments, relevant research findings from other fields of study have not been fully integrated into the LEED-ND. According to Zuniga-Teran (2015), relevant walkability research findings from multiple disciplines were organized into a walkability framework (WF) that organizes design elements related to physical activity into nine categories, namely, connectivity, land use, density, traffic safety, surveillance, parking, experience, greenspace, and community. In this study, we analyze walkability in the LEED-ND through the lens of the nine WF categories. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses, we identify gaps and strengths in the LEED-ND and propose potential enhancements to this certification system that reflects what is known about enhancing walkability more comprehensively through neighborhood design analysis. This work seeks to facilitate the translation of research into practice, which can ultimately lead to more active and healthier societies.