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Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia

This study focuses on assessing the walkability of scholars in the Otjiwarongo Town municipal area in Namibia. The research looks at the overall infrastructure and the conflict between pedestrians and motorists. This study is done to find out the serviceability of walkable paths and their existence...

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Main Author: Mavuna, Chika
Other Authors: Vanderschuren, Marianne
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author Mavuna, Chika
author2 Vanderschuren, Marianne
author_browse Mavuna, Chika
Vanderschuren, Marianne
author_facet Vanderschuren, Marianne
Mavuna, Chika
author_sort Mavuna, Chika
collection Thesis
description This study focuses on assessing the walkability of scholars in the Otjiwarongo Town municipal area in Namibia. The research looks at the overall infrastructure and the conflict between pedestrians and motorists. This study is done to find out the serviceability of walkable paths and their existence for school-going children, how safe they are, and the state of their quality, shelters and visibility. It also reveals the level of conflict scholars tend to encounter on their respective routes every day, and identifies improvements that can be made in order to make it easier for them to walk. Through a literature review from different fields and through an empirical study, this project investigated the concept of walkability by trying to understand the different ways in which the built environment influences walking, e.g. directly influencing the quantity of walking through linking destinations, or enhancing the experience and the quality of walking by determining the condition of roads and sidewalks as a walking environment. It also investigated the different aspects of walking by partitioning walking activities and understanding how they are influenced by different properties of the built environment. By partitioning both the influence of the built environment on walking and the walking activity, the knowledge that this thesis tries to produce is not only on whether or not, but more on how and why the built environment influences walking behaviour. Scholars were used as participants and they were briefed on what was expected of them and the questionnaires were explained to them. The participants came from two different schools and they were randomly selected. Data was analysed using the average or the highest number of respondents from the areas of study on specific criteria. The results of this study are mixed, meaning some areas are worse for walking, while others are much better. The poor area has worse minor streets linking to the main road which is better for walking, and this is in the old suburbs. Newly developed suburbs show good, walkable streets. This is because they were designed according to modern changes in residential area development or beautifications. Orwetoveni suburb has a better walkable rating than Central Town. The municipality needs to improve the walkability of streets rather than paying too much attention to motorists. Pedestrians and cyclists also pay rates too, just as motorists do.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:00.978Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
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:11427/30902 Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia Mavuna, Chika Vanderschuren, Marianne Engineering This study focuses on assessing the walkability of scholars in the Otjiwarongo Town municipal area in Namibia. The research looks at the overall infrastructure and the conflict between pedestrians and motorists. This study is done to find out the serviceability of walkable paths and their existence for school-going children, how safe they are, and the state of their quality, shelters and visibility. It also reveals the level of conflict scholars tend to encounter on their respective routes every day, and identifies improvements that can be made in order to make it easier for them to walk. Through a literature review from different fields and through an empirical study, this project investigated the concept of walkability by trying to understand the different ways in which the built environment influences walking, e.g. directly influencing the quantity of walking through linking destinations, or enhancing the experience and the quality of walking by determining the condition of roads and sidewalks as a walking environment. It also investigated the different aspects of walking by partitioning walking activities and understanding how they are influenced by different properties of the built environment. By partitioning both the influence of the built environment on walking and the walking activity, the knowledge that this thesis tries to produce is not only on whether or not, but more on how and why the built environment influences walking behaviour. Scholars were used as participants and they were briefed on what was expected of them and the questionnaires were explained to them. The participants came from two different schools and they were randomly selected. Data was analysed using the average or the highest number of respondents from the areas of study on specific criteria. The results of this study are mixed, meaning some areas are worse for walking, while others are much better. The poor area has worse minor streets linking to the main road which is better for walking, and this is in the old suburbs. Newly developed suburbs show good, walkable streets. This is because they were designed according to modern changes in residential area development or beautifications. Orwetoveni suburb has a better walkable rating than Central Town. The municipality needs to improve the walkability of streets rather than paying too much attention to motorists. Pedestrians and cyclists also pay rates too, just as motorists do. 2020-02-07T09:23:25Z 2020-02-07T09:23:25Z 2018 2020-02-03T11:19:41Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30902 eng application/pdf application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
spellingShingle Engineering
Mavuna, Chika
Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
title_full Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
title_fullStr Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
title_full_unstemmed Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
title_short Walkability Assessment For Schoolgoing Children Case Study: Otjiwarongo Town - Namibia
title_sort walkability assessment for schoolgoing children case study otjiwarongo town namibia
topic Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30902
work_keys_str_mv AT mavunachika walkabilityassessmentforschoolgoingchildrencasestudyotjiwarongotownnamibia