Design elements to improve pleasantness, vitality, safety, and complexity of the pedestrian environment: evidence from a Korean neighbourhood walkability case study

The relationship between walking and the built environment has attracted the attention of many researchers. It is commonly recognized that a more walkable environment enhances walking activities. Although numerous empirical studies have supported that certain design elements have statistically significant effects on walking, many have methodological limitations due to the assumption that the relationship between walking and the built environment is a one-to-one, direct correspondence. To supplement these limitations, this paper embraces a 'perception' step in the decision-making process of walking, where perception is not determined by one design element, but by the integration of several elements. Acknowledging four perceptional factors, this paper draws certain design elements of 'pleasantness', 'vitality', 'unsafety', and 'complexity' in residential neighbourhoods. Residents in four neighbourhoods completed a questionnaire, from which the following five additional design factors were extracted using factor analysis: sidewalk difficulty, crosswalk difficulty, well-ordered street furniture, poor building design and management, and various walking destinations. The regression analysis indicated that the design factors had statistically significant effects on the four perception factors, which substantiated this paper's hypothesis that walking activities are generated by the combination of several environmental elements, rather than a single attribute. The key study finding is that appropriate design factors are necessary to enhance a certain perception factor: designing and managing street furniture and street buildings induce a high level of pleasantness and vitality. The feeling of unsafety and complexity is mainly driven from the sidewalk and crosswalk difficulty. We expect that the results of this paper will contribute to formulating future guidelines in planning for more walkable neighbourhoods.