Introduction

Promoting walking has become a policy concern in the public health and transport fields. Street improvement interventions aimed at increasing walking require an assessment of their effectiveness in influencing walking behaviour. There is a current gap in understanding how the magnitude of a change in walkability relates to a change in pedestrian volumes and walking experience.

Methods

This study reports a before-after analysis of the effects of a built environment intervention in the walking behaviour of adults in Lisbon, Portugal. The Eixo Central project aimed at improving walking conditions by changing physical factors in three sites – two avenues connected by a plaza. Each site had particular and distinct improvement approaches. We performed a before-after walkability assessment of the intervention area using a validated methodology, a longitudinal analysis of the pedestrian volumes in the intervention sites and control areas, and a quasi-longitudinal survey on the walking experience of residents, workers and frequent visitors of the area.

Results

The Eixo Central project improved overall walking conditions. Walkability scores point to changes of different magnitude in the walkability of each of the three sites. The results show a significant change in the sites' pedestrian volumes and walking experience between baseline and follow up, and a non-significant change in the control areas’ pedestrian volumes in the same period. We found higher walkability changes to be associated with a higher increase in pedestrian volumes and to a higher positive influence in walking experience. Conversely, smaller scale walkability changes were associated with a less expressive change in pedestrian volumes and walking experience.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the scale of walkability change of environmental interventions is a significant factor in influencing walking behaviour. In this sense, smaller-scale interventions may be effective in improving the walking experience but not as effective in increasing walking activity.

中文翻译：

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步行能力变化与步行行为变化如何相关？街道改善对行人数量和步行体验的影响

介绍

促进步行已成为公共卫生和交通领域的一项政策关注。旨在增加步行的街道改善干预措施需要评估其在影响步行行为方面的有效性。在理解步行性变化的幅度与行人数量和步行体验的变化如何相关方面存在当前差距。

方法

这项研究报告了对葡萄牙里斯本成年人的步行行为进行室内环境干预效果的前后分析。Eixo Central项目旨在通过改变三个地点的物理因素来改善步行条件，这三个地点是由广场相连的两个通道。每个站点都有特定而独特的改进方法。我们使用经过验证的方法对干预区进行了前后可步行性评估，对干预区和控制区的行人量进行了纵向分析，并对居民，工人和经常来访者的步行经历进行了准纵向调查该地区。

结果

Eixo Central项目改善了整体步行条件。步行性得分指向三个地点中每个地点的步行性变化幅度不同。结果表明，在基线和跟进之间，站点的行人量和步行经验发生了显着变化，而同期的控制区行人量则没有显着变化。我们发现，较高的步行能力变化与步行者数量的增加和步行体验的较高积极影响有关。相反，规模较小的步行性变化与行人数量和步行体验的较少表现性变化相关。

结论

结果表明，环境干预措施的步行能力变化的规模是影响步行行为的重要因素。从这个意义上讲，较小规模的干预措施可能会有效地改善步行体验，但不能有效地增加步行活动。