Whether people would choose to walk or ride a bike for their daily travel is affected by how desirable the environment is for walking and biking. To better inform urban planning and design practices, studies on measuring walkability and bikeability have emerged in western countries over the last decade. However, such efforts are still rare in developing countries, partially due to the scarcity of urban data. Utilizing open source data, this paper puts forward a methodology to comprehensively and objectively measure street walkability and bikeability in China. The methodology was applied to four Chinese cities: Tianjin, Chongqing, Kunming, and Shijiazhuang. Analyses showed the following results: (1) city centers tend to have higher walkability than periphery areas; (2) a preliminary bikeable street network exists in most cities (except mountainous cities), but the prevalence of bike lanes on streets is much lower than that of sidewalks; (3) the problem of illegal parking on both sidewalks and bike lanes is severe, especially in city centers; (4) biking safety and comfort is compromised due to a lack of physically separated bike lanes; and (5) the street wall continuity varies from place to place whereas the street network in traditional city centers is much denser than newly developed car-oriented areas. The end of the paper provides corresponding policy implications.


    Access

    Download

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Using Open Source Data to Measure Street Walkability and Bikeability in China: A Case of Four Cities


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:
    Gu, Peiqin (author) / Han, Zhiyuan (author) / Cao, Zhejing (author) / Chen, Yulin (author) / Jiang, Yang (author)


    Publication date :

    2018-04-04




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Determining If Walkability and Bikeability Indices Reflect Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety

    Osama, Ahmed / Albitar, Maria / Sayed, Tarek et al. | Transportation Research Record | 2020




    Exploring Bikeability

    Hardinghaus, Michael | TIBKAT | 2021

    Free access

    Exploring Bikeability

    Hardinghaus, Michael | DataCite | 2021