Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi
Background: Cities in developing countries are upgrading their public transport at unprecedented rates in efforts to create transportation systems that are more sustainable and equitable. South Africa and India are seeing massive investments in features that are improving operational characteristics...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Civil Engineering
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613587783024640 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Wasswa, Banele |
| author2 | Zuidgeest, Mark |
| author_browse | Wasswa, Banele Zuidgeest, Mark |
| author_facet | Zuidgeest, Mark Wasswa, Banele |
| author_sort | Wasswa, Banele |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Background: Cities in developing countries are upgrading their public transport at unprecedented rates in efforts to create transportation systems that are more sustainable and equitable. South Africa and India are seeing massive investments in features that are improving operational characteristics of public transport systems. However, more effort will need to be expended in improving public transport access/egress conditions, in order to ensure that public transport is a competitive alternative to door to door motorised transport trips. Particular attention will need to be paid to non-motorised transport, as it is the most common means of access/egress for people in the Global South, despite conditions for pedestrians being uncomfortable and a threat to their safety and security. Traditional methods of evaluating the accessibility of public transport stations have been found to be overly mechanistic. Through improved operationalisation of built environment factors and crowd sourcing user perceptions, a better understanding of how supportive the built environment is for walking can be achieved. Study details: This study presents the following: 1. The development and testing of an Android mobile phone application, along with its associated online dashboard. The mobile phone application allows for the collection of data on the pedestrian experience and is a shift away from the mechanistic approach to understanding pedestrian challenges. Using the application, users rate their walking environment along dimensions of safety, security, infrastructure and comfort, while geo-tagging walking routes. The dashboard is used to store and visualise the users' perception data and multimedia captured using the mobile phones. 2. A proposed spatial analysis method, using Spatial Clustering Algorithms for analysing data captured using the mobile phone application. As crowd sourced datasets are very large, filtering approaches may not be capable of distinguishing between outliers and clusters of high/low ratings. Thus, more robust analysis methods are required in order to extract meaningful insights. 3. The piloting of the application and proposed spatial analysis method in Cape Town and New Delhi. Results of pilot studies: Six public transport locations across Cape Town and New Delhi were chosen for the pilot studies. Survey facilitators, with the application preloaded on mobile phones, intercepted public transport users travelling along their egress trips. Respondents were asked to make use of the application to report on their perception of the walking environment as they were escorted to their destination. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21184 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:38:31.640Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Civil Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Civil Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21184 The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi Wasswa, Banele Zuidgeest, Mark Vanderschuren, Marianne Civil Engineering Transport Studies Background: Cities in developing countries are upgrading their public transport at unprecedented rates in efforts to create transportation systems that are more sustainable and equitable. South Africa and India are seeing massive investments in features that are improving operational characteristics of public transport systems. However, more effort will need to be expended in improving public transport access/egress conditions, in order to ensure that public transport is a competitive alternative to door to door motorised transport trips. Particular attention will need to be paid to non-motorised transport, as it is the most common means of access/egress for people in the Global South, despite conditions for pedestrians being uncomfortable and a threat to their safety and security. Traditional methods of evaluating the accessibility of public transport stations have been found to be overly mechanistic. Through improved operationalisation of built environment factors and crowd sourcing user perceptions, a better understanding of how supportive the built environment is for walking can be achieved. Study details: This study presents the following: 1. The development and testing of an Android mobile phone application, along with its associated online dashboard. The mobile phone application allows for the collection of data on the pedestrian experience and is a shift away from the mechanistic approach to understanding pedestrian challenges. Using the application, users rate their walking environment along dimensions of safety, security, infrastructure and comfort, while geo-tagging walking routes. The dashboard is used to store and visualise the users' perception data and multimedia captured using the mobile phones. 2. A proposed spatial analysis method, using Spatial Clustering Algorithms for analysing data captured using the mobile phone application. As crowd sourced datasets are very large, filtering approaches may not be capable of distinguishing between outliers and clusters of high/low ratings. Thus, more robust analysis methods are required in order to extract meaningful insights. 3. The piloting of the application and proposed spatial analysis method in Cape Town and New Delhi. Results of pilot studies: Six public transport locations across Cape Town and New Delhi were chosen for the pilot studies. Survey facilitators, with the application preloaded on mobile phones, intercepted public transport users travelling along their egress trips. Respondents were asked to make use of the application to report on their perception of the walking environment as they were escorted to their destination. 2016-08-11T10:16:18Z 2016-08-11T10:16:18Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21184 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Civil Engineering Transport Studies Wasswa, Banele The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| title_full | The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| title_fullStr | The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| title_full_unstemmed | The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| title_short | The use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in Cape Town and New Delhi |
| title_sort | use of mobile phone technology in the collection of user perceptions of walkability along pedestrian routes from public transport in cape town and new delhi |
| topic | Civil Engineering Transport Studies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21184 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wasswabanele theuseofmobilephonetechnologyinthecollectionofuserperceptionsofwalkabilityalongpedestrianroutesfrompublictransportincapetownandnewdelhi AT wasswabanele useofmobilephonetechnologyinthecollectionofuserperceptionsofwalkabilityalongpedestrianroutesfrompublictransportincapetownandnewdelhi |