A step in the right direction or losing your way?: A quantitative and qualitative master's thesis on the factors that influence pedestrian route choice

Abstract

When people go for a walk, they must decide how they are going to walk from A to B. This can vary from person to person. Do you want the shortest route, or a scenic route? And how do you decide this if you are using a navigation system? Do you follow the navigation precisely? Or do you still let the environment guide you? Or what if you find out that the navigation does not meet your needs, because, for example, you want a route through nature, but are only guided through the city? Using mixed methods, this research examines the extent to which human, environmental and navigation factors influence the route choice of pedestrians in Wageningen. This is being investigated to find out whether navigation systems meet the wishes of pedestrians, and how walkability in a city can be increased. The results show that the pedestrian route choice is decided by the reason for the walk. When a pedestrian takes a practical walk, he or she will often take the shortest route. If the walk is recreational, it will be more likely to be guided by environmental factors, such as the aesthetics of the surroundings. A navigation system is only used if the pedestrian does not know the route and appears to be especially useful for walks where pedestrians want to walk the shortest route. However, there is no option for a recreational route that leads the pedestrian past attractive environmental places, partly because the maps are too incomplete for this.