Estimated travel time for walking trails in natural areas

Abstract An increase in walking or hiking activities in natural areas requires improvements in information and advice about trails, including their difficulty, available services and estimated travel time. Comparative studies show remarkable differences between measured and calculated travel times obtained by available predictive procedures (Naismith’s rule, Tobler’s hiking function or MIDE). A new procedure has been designed by combining pre-existing methods (Tobler’s and MIDE), and travel times have been calculated for 21 trails located in different protected natural areas of Spain. Times obtained are compared with travel times measured by individual users and uploaded into specialized walking-hiking websites (Wikiloc). Results show that the new procedure (Modified Tobler) reduces differences between calculated and measured travel times, which makes it suitable not only for trail managers to estimate travel times but also as a key part of pedestrian transport analysis in trail networks.