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Cultural visitation routes represent an important opportunity for the public display of the famous historical and cultural city of Beijing, and its pedestrian environment, as a linear spatial carrier linking various historical and cultural attractions, is of great significance for the preservation of the famous historical and cultural city of Beijing through analysis of its spatial quality. At present, Beijing's cultural visitation routes are in the stage of exploration and improvement, and scholars mainly focus on the selection, integration, and construction of cultural visitation routes in their research on cultural visitation routes, while the amount of research on the quality of the pedestrian environment for visitors is relatively small; in particular, the evaluation methods and indicator systems are still in the exploration stage. In this study, from the perspective of environmental behaviour theory, we took the Forbidden City–The Red House of Peking University–Wangfujing cultural visitation route as the research object and constructed a structural equation model to determine the perception of the pedestrian environment quality of the cultural visitation route in Beijing, starting from the visitors' feelings of the pedestrian environment of the cultural visiting route. This study found that there is a positive correlation between the quality of spatial behaviours, the quality of the pedestrian environment, and the quality of the facilities on the emotional response of the visitors, with the quality of the facilities having the greatest impact on the emotional response of the visitors; among the observational variables, cultural and scientific facilities, spatial landscapes, street furniture, and safety play a more obvious role, and they are the main factors affecting the emotional response of the visitors. Based on the results of this study, an optimisation strategy for enhancing the pedestrian environments of Beijing's cultural visitation routes is proposed to provide a reference for their design and optimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary urban development places a critical emphasis on pedestrian environments, especially in historic cities like George Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malaysia. Although survey questionnaires effectively captured public perceptions of issues such as poor road connectivity, weak accessibility, crime and safety concerns in George Town, they fell short in providing a comprehensive understanding of the root causes. This study leverages space syntax theory to model and analyze George Town's unique pedestrian landscape, aiming to identify strategies for improving pedestrian networks in historical urban landscapes. Space syntax theory, known for revealing structural issues within urban contexts, is applied after a thorough examination of George Town's urban layout, climate, architectural features, and development policies. George Town employs an informal grid layout widely utilized in British colonial port cities to enhance overall efficiency. The predominant architectural form is the shophouse, which is characterized by a ground level designed for pedestrian movement known as the "five-foot way" and adapted to Malaysia's climate. Various axis drawing methods for the unique five-foot way under different circumstances are considered. The George Town special area plan (SAP) emphasizing heritage preservation guides development policies, thus requiring an inclusive approach to pedestrian environments. This enhances the practical significance of the current study, with the eastern and northern coastal areas serving as crucial focal points for investigation. This approach results in a comprehensive spatial model that captures the essence of George Town's pedestrian landscape. Evaluation using space syntax indicators such as connectivity, integration, intelligibility, and choice reveals issues like poor overall network connectivity, inadequate access to key attractions, suboptimal integration, concentrated pedestrian flows, and significant safety concerns, which are exacerbated by limited infrastructure on certain two-way roads and a lack of zebra crossings. The practical implications of this study include recommendations for enhancing pedestrian spaces along identified roads and strategically installing zebra-crossings. This research is significant for its focus on a historical city in a Southeast Asian developing country, deeply integrating local environmental characteristics and providing insights into urban planning and optimization, thereby serving as a reference for similar cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary urban development places a critical emphasis on pedestrian environments, especially in historic cities like George Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malaysia. Although survey questionnaires effectively captured public perceptions of issues such as poor road connectivity, weak accessibility, crime and safety concerns in George Town, they fell short in providing a comprehensive understanding of the root causes. This study leverages space syntax theory to model and analyze George Town’s unique pedestrian landscape, aiming to identify strategies for improving pedestrian networks in historical urban landscapes. Space syntax theory, known for revealing structural issues within urban contexts, is applied after a thorough examination of George Town’s urban layout, climate, architectural features, and development policies. George Town employs an informal grid layout widely utilized in British colonial port cities to enhance overall efficiency. The predominant architectural form is the shophouse, which is characterized by a ground level designed for pedestrian movement known as the “five-foot way” and adapted to Malaysia’s climate. Various axis drawing methods for the unique five-foot way under different circumstances are considered. The George Town special area plan (SAP) emphasizing heritage preservation guides development policies, thus requiring an inclusive approach to pedestrian environments. This enhances the practical significance of the current study, with the eastern and northern coastal areas serving as crucial focal points for investigation. This approach results in a comprehensive spatial model that captures the essence of George Town’s pedestrian landscape. Evaluation using space syntax indicators such as connectivity, integration, intelligibility, and choice reveals issues like poor overall network connectivity, inadequate access to key attractions, suboptimal integration, concentrated pedestrian flows, and significant safety concerns, which are exacerbated by limited infrastructure on certain two-way roads and a lack of zebra crossings. The practical implications of this study include recommendations for enhancing pedestrian spaces along identified roads and strategically installing zebra-crossings. This research is significant for its focus on a historical city in a Southeast Asian developing country, deeply integrating local environmental characteristics and providing insights into urban planning and optimization, thereby serving as a reference for similar cities.

In this paper, an analysis of the pedestrian environment based on users' perceptions is proposed. The specific aim of the study is to discover the aspects mostly influencing the pleasantness of a path in a university campus situated in southern Italy and used by young pedestrians every day to reach various destinations for their university activities. The work is based on data collected by a sample survey and analyzed through a two-step methodology consisting of the application of a Chi-square test and a development of an ordered logit (OL) model. The model results reveal which aspects affect path pleasantness. The specific finding suggests that these aspects relate to the presence of buildings with good facades along the path and to the continuity of the path. As a general and highly relevant finding, we can state that the applied methodology could be very useful in identifying the path characteristics that can be considered as the most important for pedestrians. This identification could support practitioners to plan new strategies and future interventions to improve the pedestrian environment and increase the sense of pleasure perceived by pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scientific papers that deal with the topic of the pedestrian environment use a predefined form for assessing or evaluating its quality as a basic methodological instrument. The aim of this research is to emphasize the dimension of the available audit tools or methodologies in order to develop a full-scale database of indices that can be used for the measurement and evaluation of the pedestrian environment. By analyzing 115 research papers selected according to predefined selection criteria, the basic methodological apparatus or the evaluation instrument was observed. Based on the analysis carried out in this way, a number of 40 valid instruments were identified by which it was possible to evaluate the pedestrian environment. The observed instruments have a high level of reliability according to the high values of the ICC coefficient, IRR test, or Kappa value. There are 193 items for the evaluation of the pedestrian environment that were derived from the observed instruments. The items were arranged over seven groups regarding the quality of the pedestrian environment, namely, Functionality, Safety, Comfort, Mobility, Environment, Connectivity, and Aesthetics. On average, the items distributed over those seven groups are in use throughout the entire pool of instruments at the level of 47.41% across all groups. There are 30 instruments or methodologies that are objectively based, 4 subjectively oriented, and 6 with elements of both approaches. Of the instruments, 14 measure and assess the pedestrian environment through a quantitative data set, while 20 are designed for qualitative assessment. Only six of the instruments contain both qualitative and quantitative measuring items. A large percentage of analyzed papers that use a predefined methodology or instrument indicate the need to deepen the field of research and to include additional aspects that would give more authoritative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian-friendly cities are gaining traction worldwide. This study focused on sidewalk width and green space designs that comprise the walking environment. This study examined uniform planting patterns made without considering the width of the sidewalk and derived an appropriate green area pattern created according to the width of the sidewalk. We conducted a survey using virtual reality, satisfaction and preference review, and multilinear regression analysis. The results showed that ensuring safety through planting on a narrow sidewalk with a width of less than 3 m and 3 m to 5 m had a higher effect on satisfaction, while places with sufficient shade environments had an effect on overall satisfaction for a sidewalk width of 5 m to 8 m or more. The green spots were not quite preferred; on the contrary, there was a popular opinion that many green spots felt stuffy. This study is meaningful in that it identified the reason for appropriate planting plans, according to the width of the sidewalk, by applying the changing traffic paradigm, and conducted the study from the perspective of pedestrians. In addition, this study demonstrated the possibility of using virtual reality in the planning of smart cities, by applying a new research methodology using VR to visualize tasks that are difficult to perform in reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the global construction of low-carbon cities and residents' pursuit of healthy living, the improvement in the urban walking environment has gradually been emphasized in the field of planning and transportation research. Using Harbin, China, as an example, this paper combines gradient boosting decision trees (GBDTs) and impact-asymmetry analysis (IAA) methods to explore the differences in residents' preferences for the pedestrian environment needs in old and new urban areas, analyze the asymmetric relationship between walking environment factors and overall satisfaction, and provide a sound basis for the renewal and reconstruction of the walking environment in old urban areas and the improvement of the walking environment in new urban areas. The factors affecting the pedestrian environment in the old and new urban areas are similar and different, with the aesthetics and safety and the aesthetics and comfort of the pedestrian environment having a greater impact on the old and new urban areas, respectively. According to the results of the IAA, the old city should focus on improving green landscaping, street furniture, the uncivilized behavior of pedestrians, pavement encroachment, barrier-free facilities, and the speed of motor vehicles; the new city should focus on improving the building facade effect, the uncivilized behavior of pedestrians, and green landscaping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article retraces the impact of evolving hegemonic rapid transit planning and design strategies on pedestrian integration between stations and neighbourhoods, using Hong Kong as a longitudinal case. Mixed-methods research, triangulating documentary analysis, spatial analysis, and in-depth interviews, identified six typologies across three historical phases. The findings demonstrate that pedestrian access to transit is spatially heterogeneous, shaping the evolution of the station area from a connecting structure into an interconnecting infrastructure. Unfolding the historical interplay of hegemonic forces in the production of pedestrian spaces, this study innovatively bridges the research gap between planning policies and fine-grained urban design features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between the degree of satisfaction with the pedestrian environments in their neighborhoods and the degree of neighborhood satisfaction in Seoul, South Korea. This study employed proportional odds logistic regression and gradient boosting decision tree models, using the 2021 Seoul Urban Policy Indicator Survey. The key findings are as follows. First, there was a significant and positive relationship between the two factors. Second, respondents' satisfaction levels with pedestrian environments showed higher feature importance than other factors. Third, the partial dependence plots show non-linear relationships; specifically, when respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with pedestrian environments, the partial dependence on the dependent variable increased significantly. This study contributes to (1) finding the association between the two factors, (2) offering insights into how to improve residents' satisfaction with their neighborhood through pedestrian environment satisfaction, and (3) unfolding what active mobility means to people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an analysis of the pedestrian environment based on users’ perceptions is proposed. The specific aim of the study is to discover the aspects mostly influencing the pleasantness of a path in a university campus situated in southern Italy and used by young pedestrians every day to reach various destinations for their university activities. The work is based on data collected by a sample survey and analyzed through a two-step methodology consisting of the application of a Chi-square test and a development of an ordered logit (OL) model. The model results reveal which aspects affect path pleasantness. The specific finding suggests that these aspects relate to the presence of buildings with good facades along the path and to the continuity of the path. As a general and highly relevant finding, we can state that the applied methodology could be very useful in identifying the path characteristics that can be considered as the most important for pedestrians. This identification could support practitioners to plan new strategies and future interventions to improve the pedestrian environment and increase the sense of pleasure perceived by pedestrians.

Many scientific papers that deal with the topic of the pedestrian environment use a predefined form for assessing or evaluating its quality as a basic methodological instrument. The aim of this research is to emphasize the dimension of the available audit tools or methodologies in order to develop a full-scale database of indices that can be used for the measurement and evaluation of the pedestrian environment. By analyzing 115 research papers selected according to predefined selection criteria, the basic methodological apparatus or the evaluation instrument was observed. Based on the analysis carried out in this way, a number of 40 valid instruments were identified by which it was possible to evaluate the pedestrian environment. The observed instruments have a high level of reliability according to the high values of the ICC coefficient, IRR test, or Kappa value. There are 193 items for the evaluation of the pedestrian environment that were derived from the observed instruments. The items were arranged over seven groups regarding the quality of the pedestrian environment, namely, Functionality, Safety, Comfort, Mobility, Environment, Connectivity, and Aesthetics. On average, the items distributed over those seven groups are in use throughout the entire pool of instruments at the level of 47.41% across all groups. There are 30 instruments or methodologies that are objectively based, 4 subjectively oriented, and 6 with elements of both approaches. Of the instruments, 14 measure and assess the pedestrian environment through a quantitative data set, while 20 are designed for qualitative assessment. Only six of the instruments contain both qualitative and quantitative measuring items. A large percentage of analyzed papers that use a predefined methodology or instrument indicate the need to deepen the field of research and to include additional aspects that would give more authoritative results.

Pedestrian-friendly cities are gaining traction worldwide. This study focused on sidewalk width and green space designs that comprise the walking environment. This study examined uniform planting patterns made without considering the width of the sidewalk and derived an appropriate green area pattern created according to the width of the sidewalk. We conducted a survey using virtual reality, satisfaction and preference review, and multilinear regression analysis. The results showed that ensuring safety through planting on a narrow sidewalk with a width of less than 3 m and 3 m to 5 m had a higher effect on satisfaction, while places with sufficient shade environments had an effect on overall satisfaction for a sidewalk width of 5 m to 8 m or more. The green spots were not quite preferred; on the contrary, there was a popular opinion that many green spots felt stuffy. This study is meaningful in that it identified the reason for appropriate planting plans, according to the width of the sidewalk, by applying the changing traffic paradigm, and conducted the study from the perspective of pedestrians. In addition, this study demonstrated the possibility of using virtual reality in the planning of smart cities, by applying a new research methodology using VR to visualize tasks that are difficult to perform in reality.

Research shows that, lack of ideal pedestrian environment along with increase in number of vehicles is responsible for declination in walking. This paper formulates an index with five main domains which have also been used to outline the phrase “Pedestrian environment”. The domains and subsequent indicators were identified through meta-analysis of literature studies as well as reconnaissance surveys in the chosen city of Bengaluru. The major aim of this research is to prioritize and emphasize the shaping parameters, contributing to pedestrian environment and steering future investments in that direction to eventually benefit the pedestrians and to encourage pedestrian activity. The index will be utilized in assessing the pedestrian environmental scenario at a street level for different land uses. As part of a pilot study, observation surveys in streets with high pedestrian activity in 3 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Corporation wards with different land uses, were carried out. Subsequently the index scores for each of the streets were calculated. By availing quantitative results, we were able to conduct intensive comparative studies between roads of similar hierarchies and different land uses. Through the pilot study result, we could identify those streets which require prompt attention and the sequence in which the investments can be directed. This index will aid the governing bodies in progressive decision making, as well as help prioritize and schedule pedestrian-oriented investments. The output of the entire research entails in the documentation of the study into a useful model to planners.

Sustainable mobility concerns have seen cities introducing mass transit systems, but travel choice factors such as accessibility, convenience, comfort and safety cannot be addressed through a transit system alone. A trip made on a transit system requires commuters to utilise more than one mode of transport. Walking is generally the most common transport mode to access and egress transit stops. While there is evidence on the pedestrian environment influencing transit ridership, only a few studies have explored how it affects the share of people who walk to/from transits, especially in the context of the developing world. This article postulates that the pedestrian environment influences users’ decision to walk the last mile, substantiating it with the findings of a study of transit users across the metro stations of Delhi, India. A pedestrian environment index is developed by including elements of the built form and activities adjacent to the network of streets, in addition to the pedestrian infrastructure quality. Interestingly, the route environment is found to have a significant and much higher correlation with walk share in contrast to pedestrian infrastructure availability. Within the route environment, the sub-indicator that impacts walk share the most is placemaking. It highlights the significance of planning for an enhanced pedestrian environment in a larger context of the catchment area, in contrast to the current myopic approach of station-centric pedestrian infrastructure provisioning.

Robot motion planning in dynamic environments is significantly difficult, especially when the future trajectories of dynamic obstacles are only predictable over a short time interval and can change frequently. Moreover, a robot’s kinodynamic constraints make the task more challenging. This paper proposes a novel collision avoidance scheme for navigating a kinodynamically constrained robot among multiple passive agents with partially predictable behavior. For this purpose, this paper presents a new approach that maps collision avoidance and kinodynamic constraints on robot motion as geometrical bounds of its control space. This was achieved by extending the concept of nonlinear velocity obstacles to incorporate the robot’s kinodynamic constraints. The proposed concept of bounded control space was used to design a collision avoidance strategy for a car-like robot by employing a predict-plan-act framework. The results of simulated experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm when compared to existing velocity obstacle based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to classify the types of street parking in low-rise residential areas. First of all, prior research was reviewed to examine the background of occurance and the process of change of low-rise residential areas. and derive factors that affect the street environment. Next, based on the selection criteria, the residential area of Bangi 2-dong, Songpa-gu was selected as the site of the case and the status analysis was conducted on streets, buildings, and on-road parking. The summary of the results is on-road parking usually occurs on residential streets where social consensus is difficult to reach, suggesting that alternatives to on-road parking in residential areas are needed. Based on the results of the previous analysis, street types were classified considering the characteristics of streets, structures and street parking. Then, the characteristics of each type of street were analyzed and implication for improving the street environment were suggested. In addition, the results of the classification of street types confirmed that different street parking occurred depending on the width of the street and the use of the lower floors, even if it was the same area, and that a solution was needed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assessing aspects of intersections that may affect the risk of pedestrian injury is critical to developing child pedestrian injury prevention strategies, but visiting intersections to inspect them is costly and time-consuming. Several research teams have validated the use of Google Street View to conduct virtual neighborhood audits that remove the need for field teams to conduct in-person audits.Methods: We developed a 38-item virtual audit instrument to assess intersections for pedestrian injury risk and tested it on intersections within 700 m of 26 schools in New York City using the Computer-assisted Neighborhood Visual Assessment System (CANVAS) with Google Street View imagery.Results: Six trained auditors tested this instrument for inter-rater reliability on 111 randomly selected intersections and for test-retest reliability on 264 other intersections. Inter-rater kappa scores ranged from -0.01 to 0.92, with nearly half falling above 0.41, the conventional threshold for moderate agreement. Test-retest kappa scores were slightly higher than but highly correlated with inter-rater scores (Spearman rho = 0.83). Items that were highly reliable included the presence of a pedestrian signal (K = 0.92), presence of an overhead structure such as an elevated train or a highway (K = 0.81), and intersection complexity (K = 0.76).Conclusions: Built environment features of intersections relevant to pedestrian safety can be reliably measured using a virtual audit protocol implemented via CANVAS and Google Street View. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been shown that mean shift tracking algorithm can achieve excellent results in pedestrian tracking task. It empirically estimates the target position of current frame by locating the maximum of a density function from the local neighborhood of the target position of previous frame. However, this method only considers its past trajectory without considering the influence of pedestrian environment when applying to pedestrian tracking. In practical, pedestrians always keep a safe distance away from obstacles when programming their paths. To address the issue of obstacle avoidance, this paper proposes a novel extended social force model‐based mean shift tracking algorithm in which pedestrian environment is full taken in consideration. Firstly, an extended social force model is presented to quantify the interaction between pedestrian and obstacle by means of force. Furthermore, directional weights and speed weights are introduced to adjust the strength of the force in terms of the difference of individual perspectives and relative velocities. Finally, the initial target position is predicted by Newton's laws of motion and then the Mean Shift method is integrated to track target position. Experiment results show that this algorithm achieves an encouraging performance when obstacles exist.

Detection of traversable areas is essential to navigation of autonomous personal mobility systems in unknown pedestrian environments. However, traffic rules may recommend or require driving in specified areas, such as sidewalks, in environments where roadways and sidewalks coexist. Therefore, it is necessary for such autonomous mobility systems to estimate the areas that are mechanically traversable and recommended by traffic rules and to navigate based on this estimation. In this paper, we propose a method for weakly-supervised recommended traversable area segmentation in environments with no edges using automatically labeled images based on paths selected by humans. This approach is based on the idea that a human-selected driving path more accurately reflects both mechanical traversability and human understanding of traffic rules and visual information. In addition, we propose a data augmentation method and a loss weighting method for detecting the appropriate recommended traversable area from a single human-selected path. Evaluation of the results showed that the proposed learning methods are effective for recommended traversable area detection and found that weakly-supervised semantic segmentation using human-selected path information is useful for recommended area detection in environments with no edges.

Highlights • The non-motorized mobility in a residential Street (RS) generate lower environmental impacts (EI). • Omitting a detailed analysis in the materials selection for a specific zone of RS may occasion significant EI. • The specific use of materials employed in the construction of the RS has a significant influence on the EI. • The use of granite should be limited in configuring and designing RS. • Applying LCA in the design phase can lead to a reduction in the EI generated in the product and construction stages of a RS. Abstract Currently, few studies have compared the variations in environmental impact throughout the different stages of the life cycle of urban construction elements; and of these, only a minority approach it from the perspective of favoring mobility on a human scale and reducing the space allocated to motorized traffic flow. This study, by means of quantitative data, shows the environmental implications associated with prioritizing the non-motorized mobility of a city's inhabitants during the design process of an urban construction element, the residential street (referring to the stages of the product and the construction process: the "cradle to handover" approach). An emerging methodology in urban themes was used in order to obtain the environmental analysis: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The results show that the increase in the human scale and the favoring of non-motorized mobility generate a lower environmental impact (considering the same uses of materials for the different zones of analysis). Additionally, it was possible to establish the influence that the specific use of materials employed in the construction of the streets may have, as well as the importance that an LCA acquires in the design of the urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling route choices of pedestrians is complex, as they attend to the details of the walking environment, including attributes of the walking facilities, perceptions about safety, weather conditions, etc. To this end, we propose a utility-based choice model that jointly considers physical network attributes and pedestrian preferences. We conduct a D-efficient stated-preference experiment to obtain pedestrians' behavioral responses to ten street-level walking facility attributes. Based on the multinomial logit model and the panel mixed model, we estimate the cost coefficient for each facility attribute, which is then incorporated to develop the utility-based walking accessibility measure. For illustration purposes, we apply this measure to analyze the walking accessibility for the district of Kwun Tong in Hong Kong and appraise the expected benefits of two infrastructure improvement schemes that are under construction. Such appraisals with the proposed utility-based walking accessibility measure are important for policy-making and prioritizing improvement schemes with objective measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shade distribution in the pedestrian environment directly affects pedestrian thermal comfort, so it is necessary to evaluate the influence of shade on thermal comfort and guide shade planning. This study proposed a concept of pedestrian shade space from a 3D perspective for accurately analyzing the thermal impact of shade on pedestrians. Pedestrian shade space is a space that can completely cover a pedestrian in the shade when the pedestrian is on a sidewalk. Pedestrian space is considered to be composed of two types of space: pedestrian sunlit space and pedestrian shade space. A quantification method of pedestrian shade space distribution on sidewalks was also discussed in this paper. By estimating a thermal index (Physiological equivalent temperature, PET) in the pedestrian space, pedestrian thermal comfort can be analyzed based on pedestrian shade space distribution. The evaluation process and application of the proposed method were demonstrated through case studies in actual urban districts. The analysis results show that the proposed method can be used to support the planners in the thermal evaluation of the pedestrian environment and design proposal optimization. • Concept and quantification method of pedestrian shade space were proposed. • Difference between shade area and pedestrian shade space in the thermal evaluation was discussed. • Thermal evaluation by the ratio of pedestrian shade space was proposed. • Application of the proposed method in guiding urban shading was conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US suburbs have often been characterized by their relatively low walk accessibility compared to more urban environments, and US urban environments have been char- acterized by low walk accessibility compared to cities in other countries. Lower overall density in the suburbs implies that activities, if spread out, would have a greater distance between them. But why should activities be spread out instead of developed contiguously? This brief research note builds a positive model for the emergence of contiguous development along “Main Street” to illustrate the trade-offs that result in the built environment we observe. It then suggests some policy interventions to place a “thumb on the scale” to choose which parcels will develop in which sequence to achieve socially preferred outcomes.

Navigating a robot in a dynamic environment is a challenging task, especially when the behavior of other agents such as pedestrians, is only partially predictable. Also, the kinodynamic constraints on robot motion add an extra challenge. This paper proposes a novel navigational strategy for collision avoidance of a kinodynamically constrained robot from multiple moving passive agents with partially predictable behavior. Specifically, this paper presents a new approach to identify the set of control inputs to the robot, named control obstacle, which leads it towards a collision with a passive agent moving along an arbitrary path. The proposed method is developed by generalizing the concept of nonlinear velocity obstacle (NLVO), which is used to avoid collision with a passive agent, and takes into account the kinodynamic constraints on robot motion. Further, it formulates the navigational problem as an optimization problem, which allows the robot to make a safe decision in the presence of various sources of unmodelled uncertainties. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is evaluated for different parameters and is compared to existing velocity obstacle-based approaches. The simulated experiments show the excellent performance of the proposed approach in term of computation time and success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older people are limited by the pedestrian environment in human settlements and are prone to travel difficulties, falls, and stumbles. Furthermore, we still lack systematic knowledge of the pedestrian environment affecting the gait of older people. The purpose of this review is to synthesize current evidence of effective human settlement pedestrian environments interfering with gait in older people. The systematic effects of the human settlement pedestrian environment on gait in older people are discussed. Databases such as Web of Science, Medline (via PubMed), Scopus, and Embase were searched for relevant studies up to June 2022. The literature was screened to extract relevant evidence from the included literature, assess the quality of the evidence, and analyze the systematic effects of the pedestrian environment on gait in older people. From the 4297 studies identified in the initial search, 11 systematic reviews or meta-analysis studies were screened, from which 18 environmental factors and 60 gait changes were extracted. After removing duplicate elements and merging synonymous features, a total of 53 relationships between environmental factors and gait change in older people were extracted: the main human settlement pedestrian environmental factors affecting gait change in older people in existing studies were indoor and outdoor stairs/steps, uneven and irregular ground, obstacles, walking path turns, vibration interventions, mechanical perturbation during gait, and auditory sound cues. Under the influence of these factors, older people may experience changes in the degree of cautiousness and conservatism of gait and stability, and their body posture performance and control, and muscle activation may also be affected. Factors such as ground texture or material, mechanical perturbations during gait, and vibration interventions stimulate older people's understanding and perception of their environment, but there is controversy over the results of specific gait parameters. The results support that human settlements' pedestrian environment affects the gait changes of older people in a positive or negative way. This review may likely contribute evidence-based information to aid communication among practitioners in public health, healthcare, and environmental construction. The above findings are expected to provide useful preference for associated interdisciplinary researchers to understand the interactions among pedestrian environments, human behavior, and physiological characteristics.

Navigating a robot in a dynamic environment is a challenging task, especially when the behavior of other agents such as pedestrians, is only partially predictable. Also, the kinodynamic constraints on robot motion add an extra challenge. This paper proposes a novel navigational strategy for collision avoidance of a kinodynamically constrained robot from multiple moving passive agents with partially predictable behavior. Specifically, this paper presents a new approach to identify the set of control inputs to the robot, named control obstacle, which leads it towards a collision with a passive agent moving along an arbitrary path. The proposed method is developed by generalizing the concept of nonlinear velocity obstacle (NLVO), which is used to avoid collision with a passive agent, and takes into account the kinodynamic constraints on robot motion. Further, it formulates the navigational problem as an optimization problem, which allows the robot to make a safe decision in the presence of various sources of unmodelled uncertainties. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is evaluated for different parameters and is compared to existing velocity obstacle-based approaches. The simulated experiments show the excellent performance of the proposed approach in term of computation time and success rate.

Nowadays, the crisis associated with cities and their residents has discarded the spirit of the city. Moreover, latest researches of environmental psychology have indicated that meeting human needs, including the need for privacy, relaxation, contemplation, self evaluation and self development, are effective in enhancing the rate of mental health and active participation of pedestrians in the city. This can result in reduction of many mental and physical illnesses and also social diseases in communities. However, as long as there is no favorable place for the addresses, the quality of life in cities can't be fulfilled. Revival of pedestrian life in cities has become a major concern of architects and urban designers are which has been eliminated due to dominant focuses on motorists. Fundamental principles of urban space organization are based on the citizen needs. Since different sense level of each group (pedestrians and motorists) are involved, the exploration and explanation of the factors that affect the perception of each groups, would be essential. Urban landscape is all the information in the space that can be received by the senses and will be processed by the perception. But, when the scale of the city is configured based on motorists, pedestrian ways and sidewalks in urban areas, a sense of disorientation and anonymity is produced. Architects, urban planners and designers in response to psychological needs and also the interaction between city and citizens, have proposed different ideas. However, perceptual differences between addresses (pedestrians and motorists) and regards to non-visual stimulus have not been considered adequately. The main question is how much the city spaces meet our non-visual sense. Since the most significant sense is visual sense, non-visual senses are neglected by designers. As the pedestrians step walk with a range of active senses (touch, hearing, smell, taste and sight) in the city, so it is important to concern how much the city space is tangible or how much it is audible. By attendance of the citizens in the city space, the urban scale changes and spaces are placed in front of them. So this close interaction provides a favorable context for the presence of other senses. It seems by recognizing non-visual qualities which are important in urban spaces and utilizing them in appropriately, the vitality and liveliness among pedestrians will be promoted. Besides, engaging all the senses in the perception of a space can lead to improvement in sense of place. This article considers the key role of non-visual senses on perception of citizens and also considers the differences between the perception of pedestrians and motorists via their environment and tries to express some strategies to stimulate all senses of walking people in public urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A walking distance of approximately a quarter mile is normally used as an estimate of willingness to walk when planning a pedestrian-related infrastructure. However, there are variations in walking distance across pedestrian environments, yet there is scant empirical literature on the subject. In this study we propose an energy-based approach to aid the planner in establishing reasonable walking distances while taking into account the effect of pedestrian environment quality. The Pandolf et al model (Pandolf et al, 1977 Journal of Application Physiology 44 577-581) is used to analyze the walking energy expenditure (WEE). The terrain factor is adjusted using the calibrated regression function to fit the urban street space in the experiment. A goodness-of-fit test for the 385 WEEs surveyed suggests a gamma distribution. Using the isoenergy curves, walking distances are shown according to energy level, street type, and gender in order to improve the traditional single measure. The results of this study suggest that, instead of a concentric pattern, the pattern of accessible walking distance around a service facility should be designed based on the service contour lines which take into account the different pedestrian environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effects of sloped roads in the pedestrian environment on the body during ambulation with a walking frame can help design friendlier living environments for elderly individuals. A survey of the characteristics of walking frames used in different pedestrian environments was investigated in five communities, and a controlled study of the effects of a sloped road on a subject with different walking frames was carried out as foundational research in the laboratory. A synchronous acquisition system consisting of a wireless motion capture module and a physiological information recording module was applied to collect data on the motion of the shoulder joint and skin conductance response (SCR) of fingers in one participant. Force data were collected from sensors placed on the four legs of the walking frame. The experimental data obtained during different tasks were quantitatively analyzed. Compared to flat ground, the shoulder joint rotated in the opposite direction in horizontal and internal/external planes when using a wheeled walking frame on an uphill road, and the supportive force decreased on both uphill and downhill roads. The range of motion of the shoulder joint reduced and the direction of the shoulder joint motion changed when using a footed walking frame on both uphill and downhill roads. Additionally, the peak value of the supportive force on the uphill road appeared in the first 50% of the gait cycle, which was earlier than in the other cases. In addition, walking on the uphill road with a walking frame had a maximum SCR value, which means a greater impact of psychological arousal. Biomechanics of the shoulder joint and psychological arousal are closely related to the ease of walking on a sloped road with a walking frame. These findings are beneficial for designing more appropriate environments for elderly individuals who walk with aids.

• This study examines whether immersive virtual reality can replace the field audit. • 360 VR and field audit were compared using quantitative and qualitative techniques. • 360 VR audit were more reliable than streetview based audit in some aspects. • Low reproducibility and cost-effectiveness should be improved to replace field audit. • The larger the size of the study area, the greater the advantage of VR audit. Although many studies have developed indoor streetscape audit instruments, given the limitation of conventional image information, these have merely been optimized for auditing objective elements of a street. Against this backdrop, this study ascertains whether omnidirectional videos and fully immersive virtual experiences using head-mount displays can be applied to audit the subjective streetscape qualities, thereby replacing the field audit. The study conducts a series of experiments (test audits) using street view images, 360 VR video, and field experience, comparing them using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The results show that VR audit generates results more consistent with the field audit than the street view based audit. In particular, 360 VR video is appropriate for auditing items related to the sense of space, behavioral qualities, and overall street atmosphere. This result unveils the possibility of a recorded VR-based visual assessment survey as a new indoor audit method for evaluating the quality of urban design, which is rarely addressed in existing streetscape audit tools due to its high subjectivity. However, intra-rater agreement estimates of a VR audit demonstrate that its reproducibility remains unreliable. Moreover, a VR audit is less cost-effective than other methods and is not adequate for auditing items that require sensory experience other than the audiovisual. Thus, even if a VR audit can replace much of the streetscape audit, the need for on-site experience remains unlikely to be replaced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]