IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v118y2024ics0966692324001522.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Routes with roots: Pedestrian route choices and sense of place of an urban university community

Author

Listed:
  • Chan, Ho-Yin
  • Cheng, Dawei
  • Chen, Anthony

Abstract

Understanding how people choose routes in urban environments is essential for effective urban planning. While conventional transportation studies focus on utilitarian decision-making, this research investigates the complex interplay between human-environment interactions and emotional attachments to places, which influence transportation choices. Specifically, we examine the impact of sense of place in pedestrian route choice within a densely populated urban university community. Unlike typical urban settings characterized by clear roads and landmarks, university environments often feature intricate layouts with diffuse pathways, shared spaces, and a lack of clear spatial hierarchies. This complexity challenges conventional spatial knowledge acquisition methods. Individuals navigating such environments tend to rely on socio-sensory wayfinding strategies, developing emotional connections to specific places and routes over time. Consequently, route choices in these contexts may not always be deliberate but rather subconscious and nuanced. Our study focuses on elucidating the impact of the sense of place—a composite of conscious and subconscious perceptions, emotions, and attachments to a location—on daily route decisions. Through structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, we demonstrate that the sense of place significantly influences route choices within community building complexes, surpassing utilitarian considerations as a primary explanatory factor. These findings underscore the importance of emotional and psychological factors in shaping urban route decisions, offering valuable insights for urban planning and management strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Chan, Ho-Yin & Cheng, Dawei & Chen, Anthony, 2024. "Routes with roots: Pedestrian route choices and sense of place of an urban university community," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:118:y:2024:i:c:s0966692324001522
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2024.103943
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692324001522
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2024.103943?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:118:y:2024:i:c:s0966692324001522. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.