ASSESSING BIKEABILITY FOR ACTIVE SCHOOL COMMUTING IN URBAN AREAS - A CASE STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SELCUKLU DISTRICT, KONYA, TURKIYE

Date

2024-1-25

Author

Dursun, Tuğba Sevgi

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Active commuting to schools is vital for urban transportation. It promotes a sustainable and healthy lifestyle for young students by encouraging walking and biking, which are economical and environmentally friendly alternatives. Besides the physical well-being of their younger population, fostering a culture of active commuting in cities can also improve overall urban environment, and support sustainable urban planning. For cities where biking is not a strong mode, this thesis introduces a methodology for evaluating urban bikeability with a focus on school accessibility, termed the Active School Commuting Bikeability Index (ASC – BI). This method includes a comprehensive assessment tool, employing a multi-step process that includes parameter description, spatial analysis, and scoring. Parameters are evaluated under two major dimensions: biking infrastructure and environment and traffic safety. The analysis not only evaluates a buffer area nearby schools, but also evaluates extended area around them to detect potentail problems in the spatial contunity of some measures (i.e. bike lane density, accidents density etc.). The study evaluates the scores received by schools using the combination of quadrant graphs, radar charts, and thematic maps, and categorizes schools to make recommendations for improving the overall ASC – BI. A case study is presented for secondary schools in Selçuklu District, Konya, Türkiye; which showed that some schools had better bike connection, whereas some were not directly connected by any bike road or lanes and needed infrastructure support. There were traffic safety problems around some schools, which has to be slowed before promoting biking among students.

Subject Keywords

Active School Commuting (ASC), Bikeability Index, Spatial Analysis, Traffic Safety, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108834

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis