01623142

Component

Middle East Technical University (METU) Campus includes a large-capacity pedestrian alley among the academic units that encourages walking strongly. But, recent expansion of the campus has threatened walkability and it has triggered ongoing studies on pedestrian level service and flows on METU Campus. Based on the prior results, a recent survey was designed to investigate a) pedestrian perspective on walking environments via traditional questions and b) walking limits and routes for the most common destinations via map-based questions. The study included 623 student surveys provided data for 1844 walking routes. Though the detailed analyses have not been finalized,yet,this study focused on displaying the strength and weaknesses of these two data collection techniques.Preliminary findings based on response to traditional questions showed that walking infrastructure was seemed mostly sufficient, but students, especially females, stated improvements on lightning, safety precautions, and arrangement for disabled users were further needed. On the other hand, spatial variation of walking behavior (i.e. in routes, walking distances, time, etc.) was more successfully portrayed by the Geographical Information System (GIS)-based evaluation of the route data.It is the authors' conclusion that both data collection techniques have different advantages in capturing different aspects of pedestrian mobility and walking choices, and should be used jointly as much as possible, to maximize the outcomes of pedestrian data collection efforts. Future studies should assess the capability of route-based data collection via smartphones and internet-based surveys, considering their potential biasedness.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians. Alternate title: Evaluation of Walkability Among Middle East Technical University Students via Traditional Survey Versus Route-Based Data

01618707

17-05216

English

22p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Alternatives analysis; College students; Data collection; Evaluation; Geographic information systems; Internet; Mobility; Pedestrians; Routes; Smartphones; Surveys; Walkability; Walking

Middle East Technical University

Traditional systems

Data and Information Technology; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-05216

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:02PM