The relationship between street network morphology and percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle at the city-level

Abstract

There are various factors that affect walking and cycling in urban areas, such as density, diversity and design, but there have been few studies that examine the relationship between urban morphology factors such as street network and green travel modes (e.g., walking and cycling) at the city-level (macro-level). Thus, this paper focuses on this relationship by introducing street network morphology factors, such as blocks per area, nodes per blocks and nodes per area. The street network in this study includes interconnecting lines and points that present streets, roads, motorways, intersections and blocks. The percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle data that represents walking and cycling are collected from the International Association of Public Transport’s (UITP) database. The blocks per area, nodes per area and the nodes per blocks are estimated by modifying and analyzing Open Street Maps (OSM). The data that are used in this study are from 30 cities in different parts of the world. The strength of the relationship in this study was found using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results show that increase in daily trips on foot and by bicycle is correlated with increasing number of blocks per area and number of nodes per area while daily trips on foot and by bicycle has negative relationship with number of nodes per blocks. Because the urban street network is the result of macroscale planning decisions, considering the relationship between street network morphology and travel behavior can lead to better planning decisions.