Abstract
We present preliminary results of a pilot empirical study designed to examine factors associated with pedestrians’ perception of walkability, i.e. the perception of the quality, comfort and pleasantness of streets, and their conductivity to walk. Through a contingent field survey we collected 18 observable street attributes (independent variables), and a synthetic subjective perception of walkability (dependent variable), for the entire street network (408 street segments) of the city of Alghero in Italy. Regression analysis yields high goodness of fit (R-squared = 0.60 using all 18 variables), and points at 9 out of 18 as the most significant factors of perceived walkability (“useful sidewalk width”; “architectural, urban and environmental attractions”; “density of shops, bars, services, economic activities”; “vehicles-pedestrians separation”; “cyclability”; “opportunities to sit”; “shelters and shades”; “car roadway width”; “street lighting”; R-squared = 0.59). Among those, the first five factors in particular show as jointly most important as predictors of perceived walkability.
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Blečić, I., Canu, D., Cecchini, A., Congiu, T., Fancello, G. (2016). Factors of Perceived Walkability: A Pilot Empirical Study. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications -- ICCSA 2016. ICCSA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9789. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42089-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42089-9_9
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