| Title |
An Empirical Study of Walking Amounts and Routes in Residential Neighborhoods - Based on Seoul Bukchon Housewives' Walking Data Drawn from GPS - |
| Authors |
Seo Han-Lim ; Choi Yee-Myung ; Park So-Hyun |
| Keywords |
Neighorborhood ; Walking Behaviour Pattern ; Walking Amount ; Walking Route ; Empirical Study ; GPS |
| Abstract |
Recently, with increasing needs for a healthier life, there are growing interests in planning for more walkable neighborhoods, which eventually would help residents walk more in their daily lives. Previous researches explored the relationships between walking and built environments and provided meaningful results, yet most of them used to collect the walking data from the indirect sources, such as residents' surveys. While those data are valid, it would bring more merits if researchers could collect more empirical data, directly reflecting residents' actual walking behavior and their walking paths. By using GPS, this study improves on the previous researches' data collecting methods of residents' surveys. Obtaining the agreements from the subjects, which are the housewives in thirties and forties living in Bukchon, Seoul, this study collected the empirical data of the subjects' actual walking behaviors in and around the neighborhood. The research findings show that; 1) average daily walking distance is about 3.2km, which would take about 45 minutes on foot; 2) variables which affect the average walking distance are the environmental elements, such as relatively big-sized parks and commercial districts in and near the neighborhood; 3) as for the walking paths, most used streets are identified for daily walking in Bukchon, which imply many elements increasing walking on the streets, such as street network system, location, connectivity with destinations and other busy streets, and aesthetic characteristics of streets. The contribution of this study include that by utilizing GPS tools, it built up an empirical data set about actual walking behaviors of the residents in Bukchon and it articulated the built environmental characteristics in relation with the walking behaviors. Further researches are currently under preparations to connect the findings of this study to the ultimate goal of drawing practical design implications for more walkable neighborhoods in Seoul. |