An Analysis of the Impact of Physical-Spatial Factors on Walking of Citizen , Case Study: Qaen City

In the last few decades, the number and use of motor vehicles have increased dramatically in cities across the world and urban spaces and mobility have been dominated by motor vehicles. Thistrend has made various environmental, social, and economic issues for cities and has threatened their sustainable development. Therefore, in recent years, special attention has been paid to changing the mobility model as well as urban design and planning. So that the urban sustainable development paradigm and theories like New Urbanism emphasize the reduction of automobile dependence and increasing the walkability of urban space.Walkability refers to the extent to which an environment is suitable for walking. There are various environmental, social, and economic benefits for walkability in urban spaces. Therefore, recognizing the various factors affecting the walking of citizens, including physical-spatial indicators and planning to improve these indicators can be effective in the sustainable development of cities. Consequently, in the study, the relationship between physical indicators of urban space and citizens' walking rate in Qaen city neighborhoods is analyzed. 

The general approach of the present study is descriptive-analytical. This research is applied research and correlational research that seeks to investigate the relationship between a set of variables. The data collection method is library and field study. Statistical population is the inhabitants of Qaen city, that are about 43,000 people. The sample size is 360 people and the sampling method is simple random. The share of each neighborhood in this sample size was determined based on the population share of that neighborhood from the whole city. The dependent variable in this study is citizens' walking rate and the independent variable is composed of the physical-environmental factors, such as access to diverse land uses(land use mix), visual quality of urban spaces, quality of sidewalks, and connectivity of the street network. Multiple regressionhas been used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The results suggest that there is a positive relationship between the level of land use  diversity and the rate of citizens' walking. So it can be expected that with the increase in the land uses diversity in urban neighborhoods, the probability of walking will increase. The land uses diversity and proximity of residential units to various urban and neighborhood activities (commercial, office, green space, schools, parks, restaurants etc.) makes less need to use motor vehicles and instead, walking is considered as a basic mode of mobility within neighborhoods. On the other hand, the mixture and diversity of land uses in an urban area can cause more people to be present in urban spaces and this presence increases the sense of security that encourages walking.Another finding is that the connectivity of the street network has a positive effect on the level of citizens’ walking. In fact, the connectivity of streets, based on the frequency of intersections and their short distance from each other in a range, helps to connect multiple paths and, on the other hand, reduce the speed of vehicles. This makes it possible, firstly, to select a variety of routes for walking within the neighborhood, and secondly, due to the close distance of the intersections in reducing the speed of motor vehicles, the safety of walking increases.The results also showed that the effect of sidewalk quality is significant on people's walking rate. Thus, it can be said that improving the quality of sidewalks can increase the desire of citizens to walking. However, the relationship between visual quality and walking in the neighborhoods of Qaen city was not conformed. So the visual quality of urban spaces (beauty, cleanliness, lighting, etc.) has not affected the level of citizens’ walking.

The study examined four important physical indicators of walkability to determine how much it affects walking in Qaen city. According to the findings, 3 indicators including diversity of land use, connectivity of the street network, and sidewalk quality have a positive and significant effect on the amount of walking, but the visual quality indicator does not have a significant effect on  people's walking. Thus, it can be said that by improving these three indicators along with social and cultural planning, citizens' walking rate is expected to increase in this small city.