Effects of Street Characteristic on Perceived Walkability

Saleheh Bokharaei (Shahid Beheshti University)

Exercise, and in particular walking, can help reduce obesity and improve health. Although there are attitudinal, and behavioral components that may affect walking, characteristics of the street can also make it more or less attractive for adults to walk on or for adults to let their young children walk on. Environmental design professionals need to know how to configure street to make them more walkable. Research has shown broad concepts such as aesthetics (Appleyard, 1981; Bell, Wilson, & Liu, 2008; Summer, 1997) safety from cars (Adkins, Dill, Luhr, & Neal, 2012; Pucher & Dijkstra, 2000), or safety from crime (Brown, Werner, Amburgey, & Szalay, 2007; Foster, Knuiman, Hooper, Christian, & Giles-Corti, 2014) affect walkability, but it has not adequately examined the effects of specific physical characteristics relating to those broad concepts on walkability. So, in an on-line survey, the present study displayed color slides of simulated residential streets (randomized order between participants) in which we varied characteristics of the streets related to aesthetics and safety from crime or cars (sidewalk width, sidewalk buffer size, crossing signs/markers, tree trunk size, tree form, distance to the trees and whether on one or both sides of sidewalk, and parking). The study had two groups of adult participants. One group of 40 (3 men, 37 women) parents with children between 9 and 11 years old at home and the other group of 48 adults (6 men and 42 women) without such children. Results differed between the groups. For parents; parking, sidewalk width, and sidewalk buffer size affected walkability. For adults; sidewalk width, sidewalk buffer size, distance to the trees, and crossing signs had effects. Planners and designers could use the results in planning and evaluating streets for walkability.

Keywords: Outdoor Environment; Preference; Safety; Walk-ability.