Evaluation of Walkability Among METU Students via Traditional Survey Versus Route-Based Data

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.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • 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
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Tuydes-Yaman, Hediye
  • Karatas, Pinar
  • Tagmat, Zeynep Pinar
  • Dalkıç, Gülçin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 22p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; College students; Data collection; Evaluation; Geographic information systems; Internet; Mobility; Pedestrians; Routes; Smartphones; Surveys; Walkability; Walking
• Identifier Terms: Middle East Technical University
• Uncontrolled Terms: Traditional systems
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01623142
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-05216
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 24 2017 3:15PM