Effects of trip purpose on preferred walking environment and route choice of pedestrians in Narmak, Tehran

Abstract

In addition to widely cited macro-scale components of walk ability (e.g. street network pattern, accessibility, density, land use diversity), environmental quality aspects of walking routes (e.g. safety, vitality, comfort, aesthetics) have increasingly emerged as requisites of a high quality walking environment. Yet little evidence exists to clarify how these environmental qualities vary in importance to pedestrians going to different destinations (different trip purposes) and how this then influences pedestrians' route choice decision in their trips to different destinations. The aim of this research is, therefore, to identify various environmental qualities that pedestrians would seek from the walking environment for different types of destinations using Narmak, an urban neighbourhood in Tehran generally recognised for its walk ability, as a case study. A total of 100 respondents were asked about their preferred walking environments on trips to three types of destinations: a park, a subway station and a neighbourhood shopping centre. Data analysis reveals that out of eight environmental qualities that have been derived from the literature, four qualities – 'distance', 'presence of people', 'presence of formal and informal activities' and 'visual attractiveness' – are of varying importance to pedestrians going to different destinations. These qualities, except 'distance', are related to pedestrians' sense of enjoyment. The remaining four qualities – 'pathway amenities', 'sense of security at night', 'sense of security during the day' and 'sense of safety from traffic' – do not vary in importance for different destinations, suggesting that they are always prioritised by pedestrians regardless of where they are going to. Indeed, according to the respondents' ranking of route attributes for walking trips to different destinations, the most determinant factors in pedestrians' route choice are 'sense of security at night', 'sense of security during the day' and 'sense of safety from traffic', which are those qualities that give pedestrians 'sense of protection'; followed by 'pathway amenities', the quality which offers sense of comfort. This explains why most pedestrians in Narmak prefer the same category of route – the district distributor, which offers most of the qualities – for their trips to all three types of destinations. The findings of this study may apply as empirical evidence to further refining pedestrian travel behaviour modelling and simulation approaches as well as planning and design policies for improving walk ability in the city.