This study focuses on assessing the walkability of scholars in the Otjiwarongo Town municipal area in Namibia. The research looks at the overall infrastructure and the conflict between pedestrians and motorists. This study is done to find out the serviceability of walkable paths and their existence for school-going children, how safe they are, and the state of their quality, shelters and visibility. It also reveals the level of conflict scholars tend to encounter on their respective routes every day, and identifies improvements that can be made in order to make it easier for them to walk. Through a literature review from different fields and through an empirical study, this project investigated the concept of walkability by trying to understand the different ways in which the built environment influences walking, e.g. directly influencing the quantity of walking through linking destinations, or enhancing the experience and the quality of walking by determining the condition of roads and sidewalks as a walking environment. It also investigated the different aspects of walking by partitioning walking activities and understanding how they are influenced by different properties of the built environment. By partitioning both the influence of the built environment on walking and the 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 behaviour. Scholars were used as participants and they were briefed on what was expected of them and the questionnaires were explained to them. The participants came from two different schools and they were randomly selected. Data was analysed using the average or the highest number of respondents from the areas of study on specific criteria. The results of this study are mixed, meaning some areas are worse for walking, while others are much better. The poor area has worse minor streets linking to the main road which is better for walking, and this is in the old suburbs. Newly developed suburbs show good, walkable streets. This is because they were designed according to modern changes in residential area development or beautifications. Orwetoveni suburb has a better walkable rating than Central Town. The municipality needs to improve the walkability of streets rather than paying too much attention to motorists. Pedestrians and cyclists also pay rates too, just as motorists do.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/30902 |
| Date | 03 February 2020 |
| Creators | Mavuna, Chika |
| Contributors | Vanderschuren, Marianne |
| Publisher | Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Department of Civil Engineering |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MPhil |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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