Assessing the Walk-Score of Walking Paths in Kandy City Area for Better Walking Experience for the Tourists

Abstract

Walking has been always considered as a sustainable method of transportation which is more suitable for short distance trips. It is observed that tourists would prefer to walk more than local residents in cities with many tourist attractions located in close proximity. The City of Kandy, in Sri Lanka, can be recognized as one good example for such cities. Even though the tourists are willing to walk longer distances, this study has assessed the walking experience of a pedestrian in the city limits of Kandy, based on a walk score. Several walkability characteristics are taken into account to generate the walk score for segments of roads in the city and Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS) was also considered. The objective of this study was to recognize the best walking paths between the tourist attractions using these qualities. This study used an evaluation criterion previously developed by Dias in 2012 to obtain the walk-score, and tourism specific features such as availability of shops and ATM machines were considered. The study area was based on the tourist attractions in Kandy. Data were collected through field surveys in 2018 to identify walking facilities provided and to estimate PLOS in the selected street segments. Twenty-six road segments were selected for the study and the Walk-score ranged from 24% to 60% with an average of 45%, which cannot be considered as a satisfactory situation. The results showed lack of pedestrian amenities in many street segments could be discouraging tourists to choose the street segment for their route. When selecting a walking path to reach a tourist destination it is expected that tourists will tend to select the best walking path.

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