RESEARCH ARTICLE

The walking friendliness of ladder trails for the elderly: An empirical study in Chongqing

  • Rui Chen 1 ,
  • Miao Xu , 2 ,
  • Liyuan Zhang 2 ,
  • Zhen Yang 2
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  • 1. China Academy of Urban Planning & Design Western Branch, Chongqing 404100, China
  • 2. School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

Received date: 25 Oct 2021

Revised date: 16 Feb 2022

Accepted date: 20 Mar 2022

Published date: 31 Oct 2022

Copyright

2022 2022 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

Against the backdrop of a healthy city initiative in helping encourage and facilitate walking behavior, this study first elaborates the fitness function of the ladder trails, which largely form the daily living spaces for the people in mountainous cities or areas. It then analyses the existing research on the elements and guidelines of environmental design from the perspective of their pedestrian friendliness while discussing their suitability to the needs of the elderly. With the research framework set up in the first part, empirical research focusing on the walking behavior of the elderly has been carried out based on two comparable cases of Chongqing Mountain trails. Observing, survey, and interviews have been applied to collect the data. This study concludes with a summary of the elements and principles for designing ladder trails, which are walking-friendly for the elderly.

Cite this article

Rui Chen , Miao Xu , Liyuan Zhang , Zhen Yang . The walking friendliness of ladder trails for the elderly: An empirical study in Chongqing[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2022 , 11(5) : 830 -845 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2022.03.006

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