Evaluation of Walking Comfort in Children’s School Travel at Street Scale: A Case Study in Tianjin (China)

Abstract

(1) Background: school travel is an important part of a child’s daily activities. A comfortable walking environment can encourage children to walk to school. The existing methods of evaluating walking environments are not specific to children’s walks to school. (2) Methods: this study proposes a method of evaluating walking comfort in children traveling to school at street scale. Related indexes were selected that reflect children’s school travel behavior and their needs in street environments based on walking environment audit tools. Factor analysis was then used to calculate the relative weight of each index. (3) Results: the new evaluation method was tested in the neighborhoods around the First Central Primary School in Hedong District, Tianjin, China. The walking comfort for children’s school travel was evaluated in eight indexes: effective street width; street flatness; street cleanliness; interface diversity; buffer; shade coverage; green looking ratio; and sound decibels. Different classes and types of streets were found to have various vulnerabilities. (4) Conclusions: this evaluation method can accurately locate the weak spots in streets to improve the local policymakers’ perception of street environments, which can greatly facilitate the implementation of precise measures to promote children walking to school.

Assessing and Comparing the Visual Comfort of Streets across Four Chinese Megacities Using AI-Based Image Analysis and the Perceptive Evaluation Method

“…Respiratory comfort is mostly influenced by air quality, while body surface comfort describes the street's microclimate, that is, the wind, humidity and heat meeting human needs [27]. Additionally, light [28] and sound [29] can also influence people's physiological comfort. There is also some research that explores the effects of streets' spatial structures, especially that of 'street canyon', on street microclimate [9].…”

Walkability Compass—A Space Syntax Solution for Comparative Studies

“…Both keywords were reported jointly, but concerning the walkability research, two research methods have been distinguished, the first using on-site data collection (e.g., field surveys) and the second based on geospatial data approaches, which this research belongs to. On-site data collection tools such as, e.g., the Path Environment Audit Tool, Walking Suitability Assessment Form, Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Survey, among others, takes into account urban factors such as pedestrian counting and direct observations of human activities [33], street width, street flatness, street cleanliness, shade coverage, presence of trees and sound decibels [34]. Furthermore, survey-based walkability assessments may include subjective data, such as people's perceptions of aesthetics, traffic and crime safety, or neighbourhood satisfaction [35].…”