Barriers to Walking Among College Students

Pedestrian mobility and factors affection walking are main issues that need further attention in research studies. However, detecting complex relations among many factors is a rather challenging task, which cannot be observed by traditional pedestrian volume surveys or route choice analysis. Instead, an in-depth interview study was conducted among college students at the Middle East Technical University (METU) Campus, seeking information regarding their walking behavior on-campus as well as off-campus locations. The responses of 30 students revealed 217 keywords/phrases describing different situations. Further indexing of these situations using 67 factors grouped under 10 different categories showed high frequencies for some factors. Stray dogs and cobblestone pavement related barriers were commonly stated by the students, in addition to maintenance related ones. Beyond the METU campus related ones, time limitations, walk distance and walking at night were found to be repeated factors considered as barriers to walking.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians.
• Authors:
  • Tuydes-Yaman, Hediye
  • Oz, Bahar
  • Karatas, Pinar
  • Dalkıç, Gülçin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; College students; Distance; Interviewing; Mobility; Safety; Walking
• Identifier Terms: Middle East Technical University
• Uncontrolled Terms: Barriers (Obstacles)
• Geographic Terms: Middle East
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01658477
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05877
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 31 2018 10:37AM