Understanding how and why pedestrians choose their walking routes is crucial for designing inclusive, livable, and sustainable urban environments. However, pedestrian route choice decision-making process remains underexplored, particularly in rapidly developing urban contexts that may lack well-developed infrastructure. Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, presents a compelling case where walkability is increasingly relevant but challenged by infrastructural, environmental, and behavioral complexities. This study adopted a revealed preference approach combining GPS data, street view images, and other geospatial datasets, to examine how path efficiency, street vitality, and streetscape quality influence pedestrian route choice. Using a Path Size Logit model, we found that pedestrians prioritize different factors depending on the time of day and across the CBD, recreational, and commercial urban contexts. While path efficiency consistently influences route choice across all contexts, other factors such as vitality and streetscape quality vary in their importance. These variations result in differing levels of perceived accessibility across central, recreational, and commercial urban areas, diverging largely from objective distance-based measures. Our findings highlight that walkability and perceived accessibility are highly context specific. By capturing these variations, our approach offers context-sensitive accessibility measures that better reflect the perceptions and experiences of pedestrians and support more responsive, evidence-based urban planning, contributing to SDG 10, which seeks to reduce inequality within and among countries by providing more equitable access to opportunities, and SDG 11, which aims to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
- Walking the preferred path: exploring spatial-temporal variation in pedestrian route choice through revealed preferences in a developing city
- Xiaohan Liu - Singapore University of Technology and DesignSarah Wong - Singapore University of Technology and DesignBayi Li - Singapore University of Technology and DesignSamuel Chng - Singapore University of Technology and DesignHarvey Neo - Singapore University of Technology and Design
- Travel, behaviour & society, Vol.44, p.101278
- Elsevier
- 12
- Singapore University of Technology and Design; Singapore University of Technology & Design
- 9913330709846
- LKYCIC
- English
- Journal article