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Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 22456

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Agneta Larsson

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Guest Editor

Department of Health Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden
Interests: human mobility; population health; integrative physiology; human behaviour; outdoor environments and seasonal climate variations; risk perception and management

Dr. David Chapman

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor

Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden
Interests: town planning; architecture; public realm; urban morphology; transport; human activity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will comprise a selection of papers reporting on the identification and management of attributes of significance for people’s use of walking as a modal choice.

We welcome manuscripts that report on key determinants of walking as a mode of transport. Research should address interactions between environmental conditions and human behaviour, with emphasis on walking as a mode of transportation. Papers that focus on the design, policy, and management of key determinants are strongly encouraged. Research can be from a variety of geographical locations and sociocultural conditions and about residents of all ages, vulnerabilities, and capacities.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to knowledge about the variety of attributes that significantly influence people's choices and abilities to use walking as a mode of transport and how they operate.

An important challenge within urban development is to create environments that encourage active modes of transport such as walking all year round. This goal supports public health objectives of promoting opportunities for community walking as a means for physical and mental wellbeing. Further, it contributes to environmental benefits by reducing energy consumption and pollution.

To enable walking as a mode of transport, it is vital to understand the critical environmental and behavioural elements that encourage people to choose walking over other transport options.

Walking can be enabled or challenged by climatic changes and seasonal variations or by emerging psychological and sociocultural conditions, i.e., pandemics and societal changes.

Dr. Agneta Larsson
Dr. David Chapman
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Walking
Environment
Urbanism
Public policy
Placemaking
Public realm
Health

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 3838 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Weather on Pedestrians’ Slip Risk

by Marjo Hippi and Markku Kangas

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(5), 3007; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19053007 - 04 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1727

Abstract

Pedestrians’ slipping injuries are a very typical problem in the Nordic countries, causing varying degrees of injuries and in the worst case, long sick leaves. There is a clear seasonal variation in the number of slips. Sidewalk slipperiness and the risk of slips is a complex combination of weather, winter maintenance activities, number of walkers, and the grip between shoes and surface, as well as human behavioral and physical factors. In this study, the effect of weather on pedestrians’ slipping injuries is studied. Daily weather observations are compared to the slip statistics that have been collected from commuting accident statistics in cases where the way of commuting has been walking. A total of 16 cities from Finland for 14 winters are included in this study. The results reveal that snow on the ground increases the slip risk more than three times compared to no-snow situations. Near zero temperatures and precipitation are very typical on days when slip injuries occur more than usual. However, there are also days when high amounts of slips cannot be explained with the weather. The study also shows that there are significant differences as to the number and timing of slips between different parts of the country. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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16 pages, 4903 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Two-Step k-means Clustering Based Information Entropy for Detecting Environmental Barriers Using Wearable Sensor

by Bogyeong Lee and Hyunsoo Kim

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(2), 704; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19020704 - 08 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1671

Abstract

Walking is the most basic means of transportation. Therefore, continuous management of the walking environment is very important. In particular, the identification of environmental barriers that can impede walkability is the first step in improving the pedestrian experience. Current practices for identifying environmental barriers (e.g., expert investigation and survey) are time-consuming and require additional human resources. Hence, we have developed a method to identify environmental barriers based on information entropy considering that every individual behaves differently in the presence of external stimuli. The behavioral data of the gait process were recorded for 64 participants using a wearable sensor. Additionally, the data were classified into seven gait types using two-step k-means clustering. It was observed that the classified gaits create a probability distribution for each location to calculate information entropy. The values of calculated information entropy showed a high correlation in the presence or absence of environmental barriers. The results obtained facilitated the continuous monitoring of environmental barriers generated in a walking environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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18 pages, 1166 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Pedestrian Crossing Level of Service (PCLOS) Method for Promoting Safe Pedestrian Crossing in Urban Areas

by Tufail Ahmed, Mehdi Moeinaddini, Meshal Almoshaogeh, Arshad Jamal, Imran Nawaz and Fawaz Alharbi

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(16), 8813; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18168813 - 20 Aug 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5256

Abstract

Crosswalks are critical locations in the urban transport network that need to be designed carefully as pedestrians are directly exposed to vehicular traffic. Although various methods are available to evaluate the level of service (LOS) at pedestrian crossings, pedestrian crossing facilities are frequently ignored in assessing crosswalk conditions. This study attempts to provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating crosswalks based on several essential indicators adopted from different guidelines. A new pedestrian crossing level of service (PCLOS) method is introduced in this research, with an aimto promote safe and sustainable operations at such locations. The new PCLOS employs an analytical point system to compare existing street crossing conditions to the guidelines’ standards, taking into account the scores and coefficients of the indicators. The quantitative scores and coefficients of indicators are assigned based on field observations and respondent opinions. The method was tested to evaluate four pedestrian crosswalks in the city of Putrajaya, Malaysia. A total of 17 indicators were selected for the study after a comprehensive literature review. Survey results show that the provision of a zebra crossing was the most critical indicator at the pedestrian crossings, while drainage near crosswalks was regarded as the least important. Four indicators had a coefficient value above 4, indicating that these are very critical pedestrian crossing facilities and significantly impact the calculation of LOS for pedestrian crossings. Four crosswalks were evaluated using the proposed method in Putrajaya, Malaysia. The crosswalk at the Ministry of Domestic Trade Putrajaya got the “PCLOS A”. In contrast, the midblock crossing in front of the Putrajaya Corporation was graded “PCLOS C”. While the remaining two crosswalks were graded as “PCLOS B” crosswalks. Based on the assigned PCLOS grade, the proposed method could also assist in identifying current design and operation issues in existing pedestrian crossings and providing sound policy recommendations for improvements to ensure pedestrian safety. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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17 pages, 10622 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Perceived Safety and Pedestrian Performance in Pedestrian Priority Streets (PPSs) in Seoul, Korea: A Virtual Reality Experiment and Trace Mapping

by Haeryung Lee and Seung-Nam Kim

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(5), 2501; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18052501 - 03 Mar 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3175

Abstract

Pedestrian Priority Street (PPS) project, launched to encourage safer and more convenient walking by improving the inferior pedestrian environment on narrow streets without sidewalks, is based on Monderman’s shared space concept. Similar to the shared space approach, PPS aims for mutual consideration between pedestrians and drivers and strives to create a pedestrian-friendly environment, but the project relies on a unique road surface design. Considering the two main goals of the PPS project, this study investigated how subjective safety and pedestrians’ movements differed by design types. To analyze safety perception, ordered Logit regression and post-hoc interviews were conducted with visual assessment survey using recorded VR (virtual reality) videos. Next, trace mapping and analysis were performed based on the video recordings to measure the degree of free walking. The results found that pedestrians perceived higher safety level in PPSs than in general back road. Further, the pedestrians moved more freely in the street with an integrated design. In other types, which suggested a pedestrian zone at the roadside, there was not much difference in behavior from the general back roads. Thus, the design principle of PPS, which does not set a boundary between pedestrian and vehicle area, should be observed to lead to behavioral changes in pedestrians. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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13 pages, 3002 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Pedestrian Street-Crossing Decision-Making Based on Vehicle Deceleration-Safety Gap

by Hongjia Zhang, Yingshi Guo, Yunxing Chen, Qinyu Sun and Chang Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(24), 9247; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph17249247 - 10 Dec 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2145

Abstract

Numerous traffic crashes occur every year on zebra crossings in China. Pedestrians are vulnerable road users who are usually injured severely or fatally during human-vehicle collisions. The development of an effective pedestrian street-crossing decision-making model is essential to improving pedestrian street-crossing safety. For this purpose, this paper carried out a naturalistic field experiment to collect a large number of vehicle and pedestrian motion data. Through interviewed with many pedestrians, it is found that they pay more attention to whether the driver can safely brake the vehicle before reaching the zebra crossing. Therefore, this work established a novel decision-making model based on the vehicle deceleration-safety gap (VD-SGM). The deceleration threshold of VD-SGM was determined based on signal detection theory (SDT). To verify the performance of VD-SGM proposed in this work, the model was compared with the Raff model. The results show that the VD-SGM performs better and the false alarm rate is lower. The VD-SGM proposed in this work is of great significance to improve pedestrians’ safety. Meanwhile, the model can also increase the efficiency of autonomous vehicles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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16 pages, 9417 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reliability of T-WSI to Evaluate Neighborhoods Walkability and Its Changes over Time

by Daniela D’Alessandro, Diego Valeri and Letizia Appolloni

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(21), 7709; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph17217709 - 22 Oct 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1745

Abstract

More walkable neighborhoods are linked to increased physical activity. The Walking Suitability Index of the territory (T-WSI) is an easy method to evaluate walkability on the basis of direct observation. T-WSI provides 12 indicators divided into 4 categories (practicability, safety, urbanity, pleasantness); the weighted analysis of these indicators gives an overall score of the actual usability of the neighborhood. The aim of the study is to evaluate the ability of T-WSI’ indicators to measure, in a reliable way, any street’s walkability variations occurred over time. The investigation was performed in 2018 in nine urban neighborhoods of Rieti city. Cronbach’s α is used to evaluate internal consistency of T-WSI; Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) is used to evaluate the reproducibility of measurements (or ratings) made by different investigators. Cronbach’s α is 0.89 (± 0.02); ICC is also good (ICC = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.84–0.92). The results of the 2018 investigation are also compared with those collected in 2016 in the same districts. The results show that T-WSI is a reliable and easy to use tool, useful to measure the effectiveness of the interventions already realized at local level, but it could also contribute to making decisions to develop regeneration projects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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Review

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16 pages, 1081 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Hierarchy of Walking Needs and the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Mohammad Paydar and Asal Kamani Fard

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(14), 7461; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18147461 - 13 Jul 2021

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4766

Abstract

More than 150 cities around the world have expanded emergency cycling and walking infrastructure to increase their resilience in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic. This tendency toward walking has led it to becoming the predominant daily mode of transport that also contributes to significant changes in the relationships between the hierarchy of walking needs and walking behaviour. These changes need to be addressed in order to increase the resilience of walking environments in the face of such a pandemic. This study was designed as a theoretical and empirical literature review seeking to improve the walking behaviour in relation to the hierarchy of walking needs within the current context of COVID-19. Accordingly, the interrelationship between the main aspects relating to walking-in the context of the pandemic- and the different levels in the hierarchy of walking needs were discussed. Results are presented in five sections of “density, crowding and stress during walking”, “sense of comfort/discomfort and stress in regard to crowded spaces during walking experiences”, “crowded spaces as insecure public spaces and the contribution of the type of urban configuration”, “role of motivational/restorative factors during walking trips to reduce the overload of stress and improve mental health”, and “urban design interventions on arrangement of visual sequences during walking”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Walking as a Mode of Transport: Interactions between the Environmental Conditions and Human Behaviour)

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