Walkability evaluation sourounding university campus

The pedestrian space should encourage walking and offer safety and comfort for all people. One of the most widely used modes of transportation to access a university campus is on foot. To identify the degree of safety and comfort offered by the infrastructure intended for pedestrians around three university campuses in Marilia (SP), to develop their daily activities such as study, research, work and medical care, performance indicators were used, developed by Cerna (2014), and a walkability index, developed by Pires et al. (2017), based on the method proposed by Cerna. The results show that among the evaluated themes, the indicators related to Traffic light, sidewalks, passenger shelters (bus stop), bus stops and sidewalks had the worst scores. These results point to the effectiveness of the method and thus, they can contribute so that managers and owners of buildings around these university campuses can improve the quality of the access infrastructure to the respective universities.

Which Residential Clusters of Walkability Affect Future Population from the Perspective of Real Estate Prices in the Osaka Metropolitan Area?

In Japan, where the population is declining and aging significantly, walkability has attracted attention as a way to improve residents’ lifestyles. Therefore, it is essential to identify the residential clusters where walkability improvement would contribute to the maintenance of the population in order to select urban areas for the implementation of walkable designs. This study aimed to identify the residential clusters in which walkability affects the future population from the perspective of real estate prices. The reason for focusing on real estate prices is that they are expected to be a confounding factor connecting walkability and the future population. The method we used was to analyze the structural equation modeling of the impact of walkability index, real estate prices, and future population change ratio. This analysis was based on the neighborhood association scale. This study clarified that effective residential clusters are the business center cluster and the sprawl cluster. In the business center cluster and the sprawl cluster, the price of apartments for sale is the real estate value, through which the walkability index positively impacts the future population change ratio. This means that it is expected to contribute to the maintenance of the future population through a combination of walkable designs and housing policies that encourage people to change their residence types to apartments for sale when rebuilding old building stock using the location optimization plan policy.

What Determines Vulnerability to Neighborhood Walkability in Older Adults?

Environmental influences are recognized as important predictors of walking behaviors in older adults. However, individuals may differ in vulnerability to low environmental walkability. We determined associations of a walkability index (factor analysis of 16 variables; range -1.65 to 2.23) from audits of online images with self-reported walking behaviors in 406 adults mean age=82 (44% male, 39% Black). Effect modification by 12 variables representing sociodemographics, physical and mental health, and neighborhood characteristics was tested in general linear models. Effect modification was evident for knee pain, marital status, and neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) (all p-interaction<0.05); associations were present only in those with knee pain, those who were unmarried, and those in the highest race-specific tertile of nSES. For example, a 1 point higher walkability score was associated with 1.06 (CI: 0.78, 1.44) higher odds of walking in those without knee pain compared to 1.91 (CI: 1.25, 2.90) in those with knee pain.

Analysis of sidewalks and facades in a stretch of urban beach fringe

Attractiveness to walkability is seen as one of the fundamental factors that contributes to walking on foot in cities. In assessing the quality of the anthropic environment, some methodologies for diagnosing walkability indices take this factor into account. The objective of the research is to analyze the interaction between people, sidewalks and facades in a stretch of urban beachfront, related to factors that attract the daily practice of walking. Taking as a case study the applicability of the walkability index in a beachfront sector in the city of Ilhéus, in the state of Bahia, specifically with regard to its “Attraction” category, and analyze the results obtained compared to other similar studies. In the methodology used in this study, of qualitative and quantitative evaluation, “Attraction” is a category evaluated through four indicators related to facades and uses of urban land. In addition to the walkability analysis, we sought to ascertain the influence that “active facades” and “complete streets” are capable of exercising on the visual interconnection between the activities inside the buildings and the sidewalk segments that confront them, which are fundamental in promoting urban life. Regarding the results obtained, the final calculation showed that the aforementioned category, with regard to pedestrians, proved to be deficient, possibly due to the fact that the interaction between facades and streets is still being planned, prioritizing the circulation of cars, to the detriment of the human scale of pedestrians and active urban mobility.

Cross-sectional evidence of the cardiometabolic health benefits of urban liveability in Australia

Recognition is increasing globally that urban planning interventions to improve neighbourhood liveability enable healthy sustainable lifestyles and assist in the prevention and management of chronic disease. We present the spatial urban liveability index (ULI) as a tool to inform localised interventions that would create healthier, more sustainable cities and examine its associations with cardiometabolic and wellbeing-related health outcomes. The ULI and associated indicators were calculated for Melbourne address points and spatially linked with health outcomes for participants from the 2014 Victorian Population Health Survey. Residing in higher liveability areas was found to be positively associated with a more physically active lifestyle and negatively associated with BMI—more so than for a comparable walkability index. Although walkable neighbourhoods underpin a liveable city, areas with diverse ‘community, culture and leisure’ destinations displayed strongest beneficial associations with cardiometabolic health outcomes, suggesting that access to diverse local destinations may encourage more active sustainable living.

596Two approaches for estimating propensity score weights for examining neighbourhood built environment and walking changes

Background Walking is associated with the built environment, however, this association may be biased by residential self-selection. This study examined how walking duration changed with residential relocation, while accounting for unbalanced covariates that may contribute to residential self-selection, using two different propensity score inverse probability weight (IPW) methods. Methods Urban participants (n = 703) of Alberta’s Tomorrow Project with pre- and post-relocation neighbourhood built environment and walking data were included. A walkability index was created by aggregating estimates for population density, street connectivity, and destination diversity. Participants were categorized into three groups based on change in residential walkability (decreased, minimal change, or increased). The association between changes in walkability and walking duration (min/week) was modelled with linear regression. Two types of IPWs were applied: 1) manually generated from multinomial regression models, and 2) generated from generalized boosted models. Results All three groups increased walking duration from pre- to post-relocation, however the largest increase was among participants who had increased walkability (M = 73.2, SD = 388), followed by those with minimal change (M = 60.0, SD = 382) and decreased (M = 50.2, SD = 374) walkability. Longitudinal associations between walkability change and walking were not statistically significant (p < 0.05) in models with or without IPWs. Conclusions Changes in neighbourhood walkability were not associated with changes in walking, regardless of how the sample was weighted. Further research should examine changes in the neighbourhood environment with different types of walking and physical activity behaviours. Key messages IPW methods can be used to account for unbalanced covariates in analyses that involve possible self-selection bias.

ANALISIS PENGARUH INDEKS WALKABILITY TERHADAP KEINGINAN BERJALAN KAKI DARI DAN MENUJU STASIUN TRANSPORTASI UMUM

Although the construction of public transport infrastructure is underway, the poor quality of the pedestrian paths may result in users being reluctant to use public transport. Therefore, a method to find out the walking path according to the user's desire to travel is needed. This study aims to determine the factors formed and the influence of socials-demographic characteristics on the desire to walk to and from public transportation stations in Indonesia. The statements contained in the questionnaire were made based on the walkability index that has been used previously in several countries and confirmed by factor analysis. The results of the factor analysis showed that from the 13 variables tested, there were 4 variables which were reduced until the remaining 9 variables formed 2 factors. The two factors are the convenience factor and the practicality and safety factor. socials-demographic factors such as age, gender, walking frequency, walking distance, place of residence, walking purpose, and monthly expenses did not have a significant influence on the pleasantness factor as well as the practicability and safety factor.ABSTRAKMeskipun pembangunan infrastruktur transportasi umum sedang dilakukan, kualitas jalur pejalan kaki yang buruk dapat mengakibatkan pengguna enggan untuk menggunakan transportasi umum. Oleh karena itu suatu metode untuk mengetahui jalur perjalan kaki yang sesuai dengan keinginan berjalan pengguna sangatlah diperlukan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor yang terbentuk dan pengaruh karakteristik sosial-demografis terhadap keinginan berjalan kaki dari dan menuju stasiun transportasi umum di Indonesia. Pernyataan-pernyataan yang terdapat dari kuesioner dibuat berdasarkan indeks walkability yang telah digunakan sebelumnya pada beberapa negara dan dikonfirmasi dengan analisis faktor. Hasil analisis faktor menunjukkan dari 13 variabel yang diuji terdapat 4 variabel yang direduksi hingga tersisa 9 variabel yang membentuk 2 faktor. Kedua faktor tersebut adalah faktor kenyamanan dan faktor kepraktisan dan keselamatan. faktor sosial-demografis seperti usia, jenis kelamin, frekuensi berjalan kaki, jarak kemampuan berjalan, tempat tinggal, tujuan berjalan, dan pengeluaran tiap bulan tidak memberikan pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap faktor kenyamanan maupun faktor kenyamanan dan keselamatan.

Investigating Built Environment Indicators to Develop a Local Walkability Index

Many studies have been conducted over the last 20 years to determine and measure factors that affect the walkability of city streets. Walkability is an essential factor in deciding whether a city is green or sustainable. This paper creates a comprehensive walkability index by analysing built environmental indicators that affect walkability. This research was conducted on mixed land use streets in Cairo, Egypt, combining the results from an online survey and a walkability assessment model developed by multi-criteria decision analysis techniques. The results were based on a three-pillar approach starting with the theoretical background to frame the walkability indicator, numerical assessment over the Egyptian cases using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique and a qualitative user perception survey. Our results confirm that determining to what extent Cairo’s streets are walkable is crucial to enhancing pedestrians’ perceptions of the walking environment. Furthermore, the results illustrated the essential factors within the built environment indicators that influence pedestrian walking behaviour.

Associations between Community Built Environments with Early Care and Education Classroom Physical Activity Practices and Barriers

The influence of community-built environments on physical activity (PA) support in Early Childhood Education settings (ECEs) is unknown. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine associations between community PA environments and ECE classroom PA practices. We included licensed Oklahoma ECE directors serving 3-to-5-year-old children. Parks and playground locations were exported from Google Earth. National Walkability Index was derived from 2010 US Census data. ArcMap 10.6 was used to geocode ECE locations, which were within an Activity Desert if no parks/playgrounds were located within a 1-mile radius or if Walkability Index was 10.5 or below. Classroom PA practices were determined by using the Nutrition and PA Self-Assessment tool (NAP SACC). Barriers to implementing practices were reported. Most Head Starts (n = 41; 80.3%), center-based childcare settings (CBC; n = 135; 87.0%), and family childcare homes (FCCHs; n = 153; 96.4%) were in an Activity Desert. Parks/playgrounds within a 10-mile buffer were correlated with classroom PA practices in FCCHs only (p < 0.001). Activity Desert status was not related to classroom PA practices for any ECE context (p > 0.029). While FCCHs may be the most vulnerable to lack of park and playground access, overall findings suggest ECEs provide a healthful micro-environment protective of the typical influence of community-built environments.