Walkability in hilly regions

Abstract

More than thirty years of research have been conducted in a variety of scientific disciplines, including geography, psychology, public health, transportation, and urban planning, about how the built environment influences people's propensity to walk. Walking behavior can be affected by the environment in a variety of ways depending on the qualities of the land-use, the transit systems, and the urban planning. Walking is attractive in the transportation sector because it can help reduce the number of car miles traveled, emissions of local pollutants, emissions of greenhouse gases, and sprawl, and it also improves public health. The term "walkability" was coined by Transport for London Department and refers to "the amount to which walking is readily available to the consumer as a safe, connected, accessible, and pleasurable activity." In New Zealand, it was described as the degree to which the built environment encourages people to walk. Urban Street Design Manual has been established by Abu Dhabi, and one of its goals is to include the idea of the pedestrian realm into the overall composition of the street. Several cities, particularly in Europe, have developed plans and supporting laws explicitly to increase the walkability and cyclability of the entire city. These plans focus on making the city more accessible to those using these modes of transportation. Walking has been researched a lot with its relation to neighborhood planning, livability, health, sustainability, tourist attractions, housing prices, crime, and safety. There seems to be a gap in literature when it comes to relating walkability and hilly regions. The study conducted on traffic and transportation policies and strategies in urban areas by Ministry of Urban development in 2008 ranks hilly regions (population less than 5 lakh) lowest in walkability index score. The pedestrian infrastructure is not robust in Indian cities and worse in hilly areas. Walking is one of the major modes of commuting for the people in the hills. Providing a robust public transport infrastructure is a challenge due to the limitations in right of way and turning radius. The Indian Road congress provided guidelines in 2012 for pedestrian facilities which specifies the width of footpath based on the abutting land-use. It does not mention the change in elevation levels, its effect on the walking behavior of pedestrians and different guidelines for slopes. The global walkability index of 2005 defines the qualitative parameters that determine walkability in an area. This study focuses on the quantitative parameters of walking in a midblock. It deals with the pedestrian flow, pedestrian speed, vehicle flow, vehicle speed, number of pedestrian crossings, crossing speed, pedestrian density, and vehicle density. It tries to establish a relationship between all these parameters and analyses the effect of one parameter on another. Speed, flow, and density relationships have been studied for pedestrians and the change in these parameters based on slope have been analyzed. This is done to answer the research question on the need to assess walking in hills different from walking in plains.