The biomechanics of constant speed walking have been well quantified, but little is known about transitions between walking speeds. Spatiotemporal behavior (step time, length, and speed) has been investigated in starting, stopping, and walking to running transitions, but speed transitions during walking have yet to be investigated. This study quantified the spatiotemporal parameter behavior during walking speed transitions with a range of magnitudes (or differences between pre- and post-transition normalized speeds ranging from 0.03 to 0.13, or approximately 1.18 m/s to 1.58 m/s). 23 healthy adults walked on a treadmill at five different constant speeds for one minute each to establish a baseline. They then performed walking speed transitions, in which they walked on the treadmill as it randomly changed between the five speeds. Linear mixed effect models showed that subjects converged to slightly different post-transition step time and step length averages than established in the constant speed baseline, but the differences are likely too small to be meaningful (on the order of 0.01 s and 0.01 m). When diverging from the pre-transition speed, subjects either diverged in only step time (with step length remaining the same), only step length (with step time remaining the same), or both step time and step length to reach the post-transition speed, with the behavior strongly tied to the magnitude of the speed transition ($p<0.001$). Step time often overshot the new value before converging. The number of steps required for each parameter to converge increased with increasing transition magnitude ($p<0.001$) and was consistently higher at all magnitudes for speed than step time and length ($p<0.001$). In summary, transition magnitude affected the spatiotemporal behavior during walking speed transitions. Further, step time, length, and speed all exhibited slightly different divergence and convergence behavior during transitions.

匀速步行的生物力学已经被很好地量化，但是对于步行速度之间的转换知之甚少。在开始，停止和步行到跑步的过渡过程中已经研究了时空行为（步长，长度和速度），但步行过程中的速度变化尚未研究。这项研究对步行速度过渡过程中的时空参数行为进行了量化（幅度范围为0.03至0.13，或大约1.18 m / s至1.58 m / s）。23名健康成年人以五种不同的恒定速度在跑步机上行走一分钟，以建立基线。然后，他们执行步行速度转换，在跑步机上行走，因为跑步机在五种速度之间随机变化。线性混合效应模型显示，受试者在过渡后的步伐时间和步长平均值收敛于在恒定速度基线中确定的值，但差异可能太小而无意义（约0.01 s和0.01 m）。当偏离转换前速度时，受试者要么仅在步长时间（步长保持不变），仅步长（步长时间保持不变）或步长和步长都达到了过渡后就偏离了。速度，其行为与速度变化的幅度密切相关（$p<0.001$）。在收敛之前，步长时间通常会超出新值。每个参数收敛所需的步数随过渡幅度的增加而增加（$p<0.001$），并且在所有速度上始终高于步长和步长（$p<0.001$）。总之，过渡幅度影响步行速度过渡期间的时空行为。此外，步长，长度和速度在过渡过程中均表现出略微不同的发散和收敛行为。