Walking in China’s Historical and Cultural Streets: The Factors Affecting Pedestrian Walking Behavior and Walking Experience

Abstract

The urban street has evolved into an important indicator reflecting citizens’ living standard today, and pedestrian walking activity in the streets has been proved to be a major facilitator of public health. Uncertainties, however, exist in the factors affecting pedestrian walking behavior and walking experience in streets. Especially, the factors affecting pedestrian walking behavior and walking experience in the historical and cultural streets. For the study of their main influencing factors, Hefang Street business block and Gongchen Bridge life block in Hangzhou are selected here as the study objects. Both non-participatory and participatory research methods are adopted to collect pedestrian information and observe pedestrians’ ambiguous behavior, specific behavior, and stopping behavior. According to the study result, walking preference, walking time, environmental characteristics, and land-use mix (LUM) significantly impact pedestrian walking motivation. The type differences between Gongchen Bridge life block and Hefang Street business block leads to the difference in pedestrians’ behaviors and their stopping time in business. Meanwhile, gender differences bring pedestrians’ significant differences in walking motivation. Pedestrian walking preference and walking time are positively correlated with walking motivation in both streets. Environmental characteristics and LUM have also been proved to be important influencing factors of pedestrians’ walking motivation. In this article, design and planning strategies are proposed for streets of different types in an attempt to provide reference for the revitalization and utilization of cultural heritage streets.