jaue2015020 Utilizing the Key-elements of PL.AC.E. and its Key-attributes to Understand Current Walking Experience in Yahatanishi, Kitakyushu, Japan

Abstract

The importance of walking in sustainable and environmentally-friendly urban setting had been acknowledged in many studies previously. Following a thorough literature study conducted by authors, three key-elements were concluded and introduced with the abbreviation of PL.AC.E., which stands for Profile, Activity, and Environment, of the pedestrian. These key elements with its key-attributes were proposed to be used as common framework to investigate walking experience in urban areas. For this purpose authors assessed those key-elements by distributing a questionnaire to a group of students of the Department of Architecture in the University of Kitakyushu, Japan. By descriptive analysis, authors concluded that the responses represented the profile of fresh-men university students which were also new inhabitants to the area near to the university, mostly in Yahatanishi area. In general they were also physically active, thus were able to really practice green transports or low carbon urban mobility methods such as cycling, walking, and/or using public transportation in daily setting. Meanwhile the bivariate analysis found a phenomenon that might be related to cultural and psychological anomaly. However it failed to find other significant associations between the attributes of gender, hometown, and current address with the attributes of Pedestrian Activity. This might be because of the homogenous character of respondents and relatively small number of samples. Authors also concluded that there were positive evaluations of the physical condition of pedestrian facilities. Therefore authors were convinced that the questionnaire could be further tested on more representative targets