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Why Campus Walkability?

According to the University of Utah’s commuter survey (Cannon et al, 2018), walking is by far the most popular mode of travel on campus (82% of students and 69% of employees). Despite the high rates of walking on campus, there are still some concerns about the walking environment. These include conflict points between different modes (cyclists, skateboarders, scooters, etc.), fear for personal safety, and fear of vehicular conflict. Promoting active transportation among university students is important to shape their travel behavior later in life in favor of more active and healthy transportation modes (Kuhnimhof et al., 2012). Campus environments are an ideal place to encourage active transportation, thanks to coordinated planning and infrastructure that support walking, bicycling, and physical activity on campus.

Walkability Workshops
U-Walk Fest, the Spring '23 Walkability Workshop, is on April 4th from 12-2 PM. The workshop's intention is to inform students, faculty, and staff about the components of walkability as well gather walkability data on the University of Utah's campus.
RSVP
Walkability Audit
U-Walk, the campus walkability audit, measures the safety, comfort, and environment of a university's walkability. U-Walk is intentioned for both inner and outer campus audits.
U-Walk Audit
Walkability Instruction
The U-Walk field manual includes images and descriptions of definitions used in the audit. Without a clear understanding of what is being measured the data gathered may be unreliable. The field manual helps auditors and reduces errors.
Field Manual

How We Got Here

The walkability audit's current version was created based on conversations with students and decision-makers, literature review, item reduction through data analysis, and review of campus survey results. From these varied references came a shortened, jargon-less audit that acknowledges students' varied concerns.

  • Item reduction through statistical analysis was performed to provide researchers with a better understanding of questions’ correlation and reliability. Two primary statistical analyses were used to inform researchers: Coefficient Alpha and Factor Analysis. Variability was also used, but provided secondary insight.

    Data Analysis Methods:

    • Coefficient Alpha (Chronbach's Alpha): Measures inter rater reliability
    • Factor Analysis: Informed correlation between questions
    • Variability: Insight into question reliability

  • Student feedback was provided by students in the semester-long undergraduate class titled CMP 4010: Field Studies in Urban Ecology and a mix of graduate and undergraduate students attending the U-Walk fall workshop specifically designed for student feedback on the audit. A total of 52 responses were received from the Urban Ecology class, while 7 responses were received during the fall workshop. Urban Ecology students spent five weeks performing audits on each of the five different routes. They received in-class training, were provided with a field manual, and walked a segment as a group before pairing up for audits. While the Urban Ecology class performed audits for five weeks on each of the routes, workshop participants only performed audits on one designated route during a two hour workshop. This influenced students’ familiarity with the audit and its relationship to the campus. Feedback was analyzed with those limitations in mind.

    Common Themes from Community Feedback:

    • Dividing routes into segments made data collection more relevant
    • Length of audit should be shortened
    • Too much unnecessary jargon
    • Some questions irrelevant to campus environment
    • Fear of personal safety (from other people)
    • Fear of vehicular safety, especially at crosswalks

  • For secondary insight into student concerns for safety, researchers reviewed Campus Survey responses from the University Safety Department Survey Report (2021) and University’s Health Campus’ Safety Surveys (2022).

    Common themes from Safety Surveys included:

    • Feeling of safety directly correlated with pathway lighting
    • Fear of vehicles occurs most often at crosswalks, especially low-visibility crosswalks
    • Students' primary concerns were personal safety from other people
    • Pedestrian and Bike safety was a secondary concern