01334644

Component

Extensive research in response to the decline of walkability in the past 30 years has identified a multitude of factors that affect children's ability to walk or bicycle to school. Among others, urban form - the layout and configurations of urban blocks and street networks, can constrain or facilitate pedestrian travel to destinations like schools. While contemporary research uses approximate measures of walkability such as straight line distance between origin and destination, or even measures of distances along roadway networks, the presence of physical barriers and facilitators of walking calls for a more accurate method for assessing walkability as a function of distance dictated by constraints of urban form. Modern technologies like GIS offer capabilities to calculate such measures. This paper presents a GIS methodology that analyzes children’s travel to school as a function of distance along the network and the role of barriers and facilitators that impact the path and the accessibility to school. The study population is 32 randomly selected elementary schools in four Florida counties. Three pedestrian sheds of 1/2 mile (10 minute walk) were generated around each school based respectively on (a) straight line distance, (b) roadway network distance, and (c) pedestrian network distance adjusted for barriers such as major roads and lack of sidewalks and facilitators such as pedestrian paths, crossing guards, and rear entrances to school. The pedestrian sheds are compared based on two measures: (1) pedestrian route directness, an index that measures urban form permeability and connectivity, and (2) the student count in each shed, a measure that indicates how effectively the pedestrian shed captures potential students along these networks. Results show that the pedestrian shed decreases in size when considering network distance over straight-line distance, and readjusts when considering barriers and facilitators. Pedestrian route directness values decrease as the pedestrian shed is adjusted which indicates that shorter, more direct paths to schools are available. Findings suggest that inclusion of barriers and facilitators when measuring distance along the network offers a more realistic version of the true distance a child could potentially walk to school. The study found that barriers and facilitators play critical roles in how the urban landscape can be traversed and, in turn, affect walkability and accessibility to school. Barriers can reduce walkability and accessibility to school whereas facilitators can increase the permeability and connectivity of pedestrian networks. In addition to improving walkability measurement methods by enhancing the GIS network analysis to include barriers and facilitators, this research has broader implications for the study of walkability as it relates to urban form. The findings can be used by local governments to develop better policies to align school siting with residential development and transportation. These findings can also inform the design layout and configuration of street networks, urban blocks and placement of buildings to support safe pedestrian circulation with good permeability, connectivity, and accessibility throughout the neighborhood. In particular, findings from this study emphasize the importance of designing connected pedestrian paths that minimize barriers and maximize facilitators.

01329018

11-4085

English

16p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References; Tables (3)

Geographic information systems; Network analysis (Planning); Schools; Students; Urban design; Walkability; Walking; Walking distance; Walkways

Design; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-4085

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 6:45PM