So-Hyun Park, Yee-Myung Choi, Han-Lim Seo and Jun-Hyung Kim (2009-08), "Perception of pedestrian environment and satisfaction of neighborhood walking: an impact study based on four residential communities in Seoul, Korea," Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea: Planning & Design, 25(8): 253-261.
Abstract
While many previous studies investigated how individual elements of neighborhood forms, such as density, mixed use, street connectivities, impacted the physical activities including walking, their implication for designing walkable neighborhoods deemed minimal, if not unapplicable. Their results tended to reveal that the direct correlations between the neighborhood environment and the walking behavior are "small but statistically significant." This study takes a different research approach to the issue by considering the process of perception and satisfaction about the overall pedestrian environment, which would eventually impact the residents' decision to walk. The goal of this study is to provide research evidences of how pedestrian environment of the neighborhood is perceived comprehensively as meaningful perception factors and how those perception factors influence the overall satisfaction of neighborhood walkability. The research methods include surveys and statistical analyses. The survey was conducted in four representative residential neighborhoods of different walking environments, such as Gahoe, Sungsan, Sanggye, Hangdang, in which total 713 effective answer sheets were gathered. For the statistical analyses, the factor analysis and the ordered logit model were applied. As results, four perception factors were drawn from the nineteen measure variables, such as 'pleasantness' 'safety' 'vitality and 'complexity' that are significant to the satisfaction of neighborhood walkability. The order of four factors, according to the analysis, runs from the most pleasantness, safety complexity, and the least vitality, along with interpretation and implications for four residential neighborhoods' pedestrian environment. This study contributes to the advancement of research methods, in which the mechanism of residents' walking satisfaction in relation to their perception of neighborhood pedestrian environment is articulated in a more practical and persuasive way than the previous studies did. The further studies, based on the findings of this study, would elaborate the measure variables grouped under the each perception factor, so that they could be translated into design languages to plan for more walkable neighborhoods.
보행환경에 대한 기존 연구들은 주거지의 물리적 환경을 대표하려는 변수들을 찾는데 초점을 맞추고 있다. 본 연구는 이와 달리 보행환경이 주민들의 ‘인지’를 통해 보행활동으로 연계된다는 가정 하에, 이 인지는 구체적으로 무엇이며 실제 보행활동에 미치는 영향은 어떠한지를 살펴보는데 그 목적이 있다. 세부 물리적 환경의 특성이 아니라 순수한 인지의 내용만으로 측정변수를 구성하여 요인분석을 한 결과, 쾌적성, 생동성, 위험성, 복잡성이라는 네 가지 인지요인을 발견하였다. 그리고 각각의 요인이 보행만족도에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과, 기존에 중요하게 언급되었던 복잡성이나 생동성에 비해 쾌적성 및 위험성이 보다 큰 영향을 보임을 확인할 수 있다. 이는 보행활동을 증가시키기 위한 수단으로 일부 물리적 환경요소를 일반화하기보다 각 지역이나 상황에 맞게끔 다양한 특수해를 도출하는 것이 보다 효과적임을 시사한다.
Keywords
neighborhood walking; pedestrian environment; perception; satisfaction; impact; factor analysis; ordered logit model