Market Research and Concept Study for a Smart Pedestrian Network Application

Unfortunately, today people drive more and walk less. The use of vehicles has become the main way of traveling, even for short distances. This has a negative impact on many socioeconomic areas, some of which are related to the planning of cities, the health of people, the natural environment, and generally the quality of life. This paper presents a market research study investigating citizens' attitudes on the pedestrian network conditions as well as the potential for a smartphone application that provides users relevant information for effective route selection and connectivity to enhance and improve their walking experience. For this purpose, an on-site survey was carried out in two selected areas, one with low quality pedestrian network conditions and the other with high quality pedestrian network conditions. Based on the analysis of the collected data, we see that citizens are aware that walking is beneficial for their health and have a positive attitude towards walking. However, it seems that the adverse walking conditions negatively influence the actual decision to walk. Further, there seems to be a demand for a smartphone pedestrian network application that provides relevant information to citizens, but this is dependent on specific business models. This paper contributes to sustainable development and the idea of a smart city. The findings support further research to be carried out to develop and market such a system, which would be useful both for citizens and local governments in order to improve urban spaces, the natural environment and the quality of life.