Addressing issues in the use of Google tools for assessing pedestrian built environments

Abstract

Numerous techniques for collecting data are available to assess pedestrian built environment features. Recently, several studies favoured Google tools over conventional data collection techniques because they are more cost- and time-effective. The use of Google tools to assess pedestrian built environments remains in its early stages. Various challenges are encountered in assessing certain types of features and the intervals between the time of image/video capture and assessment. Thus, an in-depth study on the challenges of employing the Google tools is necessary. This study discusses the issues associated with the use of Google tools to assess pedestrian built environments and attempts to introduce new objectives for further tools and studies in this field to eliminate the aforementioned shortcomings of the existing tools.