Walking to transit stations is proposed as one of the strategies to increase the use of transit. Urban planners, transportation planners, environmentalists, and health professionals encourage and support environmental interventions that can reduce the use of cars for all kinds of trips and use alternative modes of travel such as walking, biking, and mass-transit. This study investigates the influence of the built-environment on walking to transit stations. Transit-oriented communities at quarter and half-mile distances from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) station in Dallas, Texas, were analyzed to identify the relation of various constructs of built-environment on walking to the DART stations. Twenty-one pedestrian indices were reviewed to develop a comprehensive list of 73 built-environment variables used to measure the suitability to walk. This study aims to objectively measure built-environment using spatial data. Based on this criterion the total number of variables was narrowed to 32. Walking to transit, calculated as a percentage of transit users who walk to the DART LRT stations, was used as the dependent variable. The number of stations in operation and used for analysis in this study is 20(n). Therefore, bootstrapping was used to perform the statistical analysis for this study. The final pattern of variable grouping for the quarter-mile and the half-mile analysis revealed four principal components: Vehicle-Oriented Design, Density, Diversity, and Walking-Oriented Design. Bootstrap regression revealed that density ( = -0.767) was the only principal component that significantly (p<0.05) explained walking to transit station at quarter-mile distance from the station. At half-mile distance built-environment variables did not report any significant relation to walking to transit. The present study revealed that mere increase of density should not be taken as a proxy of increase in walking. Environmental interventions that can promote walking should be identified even at locations with high density. Further studies should use advanced statistical techniques such as Hierarchical Linear Modeling or Structural Equation Modeling to test the relationship of both the principal components and the individual variables that define the principal component to clearly understand the relationship of built-environment with walking to transit station.

There are many benefits to living in a walkable city, and just as many barriers to making a city truly pedestrian-friendly. In hot climates such as Austin, Texas, high temperatures are a principal challenge to walkability and also a safety concern when temperatures rise above 100°F. Although city planning came about largely to protect the streetscape from unbridled, sunlight- blocking development, too much sunshine can be just harmful and therefore shade provision merits the attention of urban planners. One useful tool for shade analysis and planning for shade provision is Geographic Information Systems (GIS). However, GIS has typically been limited to tree cover analysis, leaving out the significant contributions of the built environment for shade provision. This report examines recent applications of GIS for walkability analysis and planning efforts to enhance pedestrian comfort in Austin, and then presents an analysis of shade provision in East Sixth Street, Austin, Texas, focusing on 3D modeling of the built environment. It is the hope that this study will inform future shade research and analysis for improved walkability, particularly in cities located in hot climates. / text

Degree Not Listed / Department Not Listed / Huston Gibson / Recent studies have shown that walkability can have a positive impact on a community. Walkability has been associated with better public health (Jensen et al., 2017), lower carbon emissions (Morris, 2009), more taxes per land area, and more transportation options which helps low income residents (Speck, 2012; Forsyth, 2015). Additionally, there have been studies done that show housing in walkable areas commands a price premium (Pivo & Fisher, 2011). This should be a good sign for communities because walkable areas are more likely to get built if a land developer can fetch a higher price for a walkable property. But what exactly is the walkability premium for properties in Omaha, NE if there is one? The studies that have linked walkability to higher property values were done in larger cities and few studies have looked at smaller metros in the Midwest (Hack, 2013; Leinberger & Alfonzo, 2012). This study seeks help to fill in this gap in the research by looking specifically at walkability’s correlation to property values in Omaha, NE, a mid-size midwestern city. This study looked at three different land uses in Omaha, NE to see if there is a correlation between walkability and property value. The three land uses were single-family houses, apartments, and restaurants. Property values were measured using data from the Douglas County, NE assessor’s office. The walkability of each parcel was measured using a 1-100 scale as generated from WalkScore.com. A positive correlation between WalkScore and property values was found but only in the eastern part of the city. The correlation was highest in the apartment land use and lower but still positive for single-family houses and restaurants. In the western part of Omaha, there were negative correlations between WalkScore and property value across all three land uses. These results are expected to contribute to walkability literature as a case study on the relationship of walkability to property valuation. It could also be used by municipalities and land developers who are interested in the value of properties they are developing for their communities.

<div>The rising inactive lifestyle highlights the need to find efficient ways to tackle this worldwide lousy habit. Conventionally, polices of resolving healthy issues such as smoking and overeating focus on providing regulations and information, drawing on the assumption that people will change behavior when they consciously realize the harms and benefits. However, policy interventions have only shown limited success. On the other side, nudging, which assumes people act subliminally and aims to steer people in the right direction without limiting their freedom of choice, is suggested as a promising approach in lessening healthy issues. However, nudging interventions have not received sufficient attention in research so far, especially with regards to walkable designs that lead people to intend to walk instead of taking motor vehicles. </div><div><br></div><div>To bridge this gap, innovatively, the present study incorporates nudging techniques into walkability design. Nudging techniques include priming, salience, and norms. Priming is a phenomenon whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance. The present study primed participants with walking shoes in advance, expecting they have higher intention in walking in later experiments. Salience bias predisposes individuals to focus on items that are more prominent or emotionally striking and ignore those that are unremarkable. In order to generate salience bias, sidewalks of a street view on a black-and-white sketch were highlighted with colors. Then, the study displays the sketch with colored sidewalks to participants, expecting those with salience bias have a higher intention to walk. Norms are typical patterns of behavior, generally accompanied by the expectation that people will behave according to the pattern. The norm in this study delivered the information that most tourists are walking, expecting a participant who received the information will act consistently with the majority. </div><div><br></div><div>The research is based on a carefully designed online questionnaire with scenario-based experiments where participants imagined to be tourists. Research results reveal: 1) priming with walking shoes has significant effects on inspiring people to walk, 2) salient sidewalks nudge people to walk and warm colors like red even have more potential in encouraging walking, and 3) descriptive norms have potent effects on nudging walking, especially when added with identification information. Further, three mediators were identified to bridge the effect of salience on walking intention, namely visibility, excitement, and enjoyment. Visibility represents how noticeable the sidewalks are. Excitement indicates colored and un-colored sidewalks bring expected exciting or boring experience. Enjoyment is the degree of pleasure that participants perceived when imaging to walk on the sidewalks. Collectively, visibility, excitement, enjoyment, prime, and norms together play crucial roles in nudging people to walk. Additionally, females, exercise lovers, and hospitality and leisure industry workers tend to have higher intentions in walking while traveling. </div><div><br></div><div>Theoretically, the thesis adds new knowledge to interventions and deconstructions of tourists' walking intentions. Additionally, the study contributes to the refinement of descriptive norms and the literature of social comparison. Practically, the study implies that wellness resources need to be easily noticed by the public so as to make optimal use of healthy support. It also alarms tourism practitioners that besides improving tourists' health, wellness resources can become a pull factor of the tourist attraction and thereby bring tourism economic benefits.</div>

This project proposes a mobility plan for the city centre of Limassol, with the goal of minimizing the use of the car and the social and environmental impacts of car traffic. The inner city of Limassol with the population of 160 000 to 200 000 suffers from a high dense traffic, facing excessive pollution, disconnected areas, an incomplete pedestrian and bike system. The project will focus on minimzing traffic and creating a complete pedestrian system in order to find new life lines for the city. The proposal presents a clear structure of a circular loop and six linear axes. The strategy in designing the loop and these lines is to highlight the unique qualities and different characters of specific locations. Together the loop and axis will allow the inner city to function more as a whole, in respect to live, work, culture, education and tourism.

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Recent demographic studies suggest a shift in consumer preference away from auto-centric suburban housing to more walkable suburban communities. In response to these changes, efforts have been made to model the walkability of a location and determine its effect on the market value of both residential and commercial real estate. Existing walkability models have considered the importance of amenities and potential pedestrian routes, but have neglected to identify the importance of pedestrian surfaces such as sidewalks and trails as a proportion of the route traveled, and have typically modeled pedestrian movement using exclusively street or trail centerline data. The following paper uses a new walkability model to provide insight on the effect pedestrian surfaces along these amenity routes have on the market value of single family detached and semi-detached homes in Fairfax County, VA. It was found that increases in pedestrian surfaces along amenity routes had little to no effect on home value, but that 3.3%, 1.2 %, and 0.7 % price premiums existed for single family homes that had amenity paths of less than 1 mile to public transportation, public spaces, and recreational facilities, respectively. Price reductions of 3.0 % were discovered for homes that had amenity paths within 1 mile of retail locations. / Master of Science

The planning and design of the walkable environment is receiving more and more attention for its various benefits related to public health, sustainability, economy, or social life. Therefore, there is a growing need for knowledge about the walkability of the built environment. While urban planning, design, and transportation research have also examined walking in urban environments, a recently growing field of research usually referred to as walkability research have been actively investigating the relation between the built environment and walking behavior through correlation analysis. Although one must acknowledge the value of current walkability research to be used as the framework which can make significant contributions to urban design research and practice, it also has a few shortcomings in terms of applicability. There is also a problem that the design factors that are often discussed as promoting walking or creating ‘pedestrian-friendly environments’ in urban design theories and discourses are often based on little evidence and that these factors have been shown to be insignificant in the quantitative analyses on the amount of walking. This project aims to support urban design knowledge and practice and to contribute to the broader field of “walkability” by refining the methods and measures used to analyze the relation between walking behavior and physical environment. Its goal is to integrate knowledge from the medical field of walkability with urban design research and provide new empirical knowledge about the concrete level in which urban design and architectural practice operates. What has been done during the earlier part of this PhD research project and is presented in this licentiate thesis is producing knowledge for a better understanding of the complexity behind the relationship between the built environment and walking. Through literature review from different fields and also through an empirical study, this project tried to investigate the concept of walkability by trying to understand the different ways/aspects in which the built environment influences walking, e.g. directly influencing the quantity of walking through providing destinations, or enhancing the experiential quality of walking by determining the condition as a walking environment. It also investigated the different aspects of walking by partitioning walking activities in understanding how they are influenced by different properties of the built environment. By partitioning both the influence of the built environment on walking and walking activity, the knowledge that this thesis tries to produce is not only on whether or not, but more on how and why the built environment influences walking behavior. Three residential areas from Stockholm were selected for the empirical study. The results of the empirical study show how the various factors and condition of the built environment influence walking with different effects and leverage and the importance of investigating the factors on different levels and from different aspects. Also, it seems that the different types of walking are related to how they are influenced by the built environment, and the different conditions of the environment also seem to influence the presence and characters of the walking activities of their inhabitants. The findings from this project provide insights into how we can better understand the interaction between the built environment and walking behavior in influencing each other. / <p>QC 20120917</p>

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition regarding the importance of walkability in urban design. Walking, as the most common form of physical activity, has gained recognition for its numerous benefits. While walkability has been extensively studied by urban designers, there is a gap in understanding how to promote and enhance walkability in suburban areas. The United States has historically prioritized car-centric transportation systems, resulting in less developed infrastructure for walking and cycling. Although efforts have been made in recent years to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, there is still much progress needed to elevate the country's standing. The City of Alexandria, Virginia, boasts a diverse population and is known for its unique neighborhood called Old Town. Old Town is widely recognized for its high level of walkability, characterized by streets that are designed to prioritize pedestrians, creating a welcoming environment that encourages social interaction and a strong sense of community. However, in the suburban areas surrounding Old Town, there is a notable lack of walkability. This study look at challenges and opportunities in promoting walkability in a suburban area of Alexandria. By examining the specific context of Alexandria, This thesis aims to create a more walkable environment in an area that currently focuses on cars. The goal is to create more livable and pedestrian-friendly suburban environments that encourage walking and bicycling, and support the well-being of residents. / Master of Science / In recent times, there has been a growing acknowledgment of the value in designing cities that prioritize walkability and placing pedestrians' needs. Walking, which is the most popular way to stay active, has been recognized for its numerous benefits for our health and well-being. However, when it comes to making suburban areas more walkable, there is still a lot we don't fully understand. In the past, many urban designs in the United States have focused on cars, making it challenging for people to walk or cycle comfortably. While efforts have been made to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, European countries are still ahead in terms of walking and cycling rates. The City of Alexandria, located in Virginia, is characterized by its diverse population and renowned for its distinctive neighborhood known as Old Town. Old Town is celebrated for its walkability, with streets that prioritize people over vehicles. IN contrast, the surrounding suburban areas don't enjoy the same level of walkability. This study aims to explore the obstacles and opportunities in making suburban areas more walkable, focusing on Alexandria's context. By implementing design solutions, aim to transform suburban areas into vibrant, pedestrian-friendly communities that promote walking and biking, contributing to the overall well-being of residents.

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