Public Perception on Attributes of Walking Avenues in Urban Areas of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Currently, the urban areas become more congested; numerous health concerns such as obesity are becoming more prevalent among urban dwellers followed by lack of exercise. With this situation, provision of adequate areas for exercising to the satisfaction of all is critical with limited space in urban areas. Hence, an ideal solution emerges as ‘walking ways’ where a strip of land is only needed. The interest of walking ways is also developed in Sri Lanka very recently. However, there is no evidence on a research to identify the attributes, should developed along with the walkway to increase the attraction of the users. The main aim of this study is to examine the public perception on attributes of walking avenues in urban areas of Sri Lanka. Data was acquired by a personal-administered questionnaire from a convenience sample of 150 walking trail users on three settings. The descriptive statistics, univariate analysis, hoc multiple comparisons and homogeneous subsets technique were used as methodological analysis. The findings disclose ‘safety’ as the preferred attribute while shading and natural settings significant. An income variation presents that user with above the income level of LKR 65,000 preferred cafeterias providing herbal drinks while the users with below that income level are less interest with the attributes of changing rooms and street vendors. This article fills the gap of identifying user perceptions particular to a novel design concept of walking trail in Sri Lanka with interesting attributes getting more benefits.