MODELING FACTORS AFFECTING THE USE AND ACCESSIBILITY OF PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS

A walkable city promotes sustainable development in transportation through its benefits that includes environment preservation, reduction in traffic, increased economic activity, increased health and social benefits. Apart from the physical environment characteristics of the walkway, walkability should also take into consideration of pedestrians' perception and emotion. The objective of this paper is to assess the pedestrians' perception and preference towards various existing walkway facilities in Kuala Lumpur. A survey was carried out to evaluate walkway users' perception and evaluation in terms of accessibility, safety, adequacy of walkway facilities provided and walkway aesthetics. Data obtained was summarised and analysed for each key parameter and a pedestrian behaviour model was developed using multiple regression analysis. The parameters used for the model development include pedestrian environment or travel experience, walkway facilities, safety and walkway aesthetics. From this model, it can be concluded that the factor that most strongly influences walkway accessibility is safety. Other significant factors include walkway facilities and aesthetics. Therefore, in designing pedestrian walkways, the safety of pedestrian is of outmost importance.