The background to this study is an inquiry by the Swedish Transport Administration to develop methods for benefit-cost analyses for pedestrians’ appraisals of their walking environment and how different improvements in the environment affect decisions to walk. The issues studied are: 1. What type of road do pedestrians prefer when they choose which route to walk? 2. What is the willingness to pay to get more attractive footpaths? 3. How many persons will start to walk if it is built more attractive footpaths? The third issue was unfortunately not possible to answer because of the low response rate in that part of the study. One result from the study is that individuals do not seem to prefer separated pedestrian and bicycle paths or completely secluded footpaths to the extent one might expect. The main thing seems to be that the walk takes place on a footpath of some sort and not along the roadside on a road with motor vehicles. The visibility seems to be very important for which route people choose to walk. Other attributes such as maintenance, distance to a road with motor vehicles and type of crossing was not nearly as important. Finally, it seems not impossible to investigate individuals' appraisals for various types of footpath attributes and choice of footpath using stated preference methodology. However, the interest in walking issues seems not to be high and many of the questions in the questionnaire seemed to be difficult to answer. To make it easier to clarify some of the ambiguities, future studies about pedestrian appraisals should involve some kind of interview methodology. (Author/publisher)
Abstract