Empirical research provides evidence that, in neighborhoods with higher walkability, individuals make more walking trips. However, it is not clear what the exact nature is of the relationships between neighborhood walkability and walking trips, since a higher walking frequency can be explained in different ways. This study examined whether the extra walking trips in better walkable neighborhoods are related primarily to trip generation, destination choice, or transport mode choice and whether this is the same for different age groups. A neighborhood fixed effects regression analysis was conducted in a first step to obtain a walkability measure for each neighborhood in the Netherlands including systematic as well as unobserved effects. Subsequently, the estimated fixed effects were used as walkability data for a path analysis based on a causal model to test the hypotheses stated. The results of the path analysis show direct relationships of neighborhood walkability with trip generation, destination choice, and transport mode choice, after controlling for the mutual relationships between the activity and trip variables. Comparing different age groups (i.e., children, adults, and elderly), the differences found mostly concerned the relationship between neighborhood walkability and trip generation. We concluded therefore that conditions for walkability are not the same for all age groups.

Cultural heritage (CH) plays a vital role in passing history to the present and also the future, which means it is important to build an efficient and friendly way to broadcast and inherit these past civilizations. Information communication technology (ICT) is one of the popular methods that can attract people’s attention on understanding history or joining in heritage preservation. To achieve that, governments have built a large numbers of official ICT platforms. However, most of them neglected people’s preferences on the retrieval of cultural heritage information. In terms of user experiences, the previous platforms are less than satisfactory in increasing the awareness of the cultural heritage. Thanks to the new technology, 3D models and virtual reality (VR) bring spring life to cultural heritage. This paper developed a new multimedia platform based on people’s preferences to overcome these disadvantages. UML-based web engineering (UWE) is applied to present the web application’s architecture, the database structure, and the platform’s interface. To demonstrate the multimedia platform, Strijp-S, an industry cultural heritage site in the city of Eindhoven (the Netherlands), has been used as a case area. This proposed platform provides a new idea on system architecture design of the multimedia platform and may strengthen the public’s knowledge of cultural heritage, and thereby increase the awareness of cultural heritage to keep it sustainable.

This study aims to provide insights in the relation between neighborhood walkability and place attachment and the mediating role of (satisfaction with) social interaction. Both objective and perceived walkability are tested. To analyze these relations, two structural equation models are estimated on data collected among 251 residents of different neighborhoods across the Netherlands. The results show that perceived neighborhood walkability is a stronger predictor of place attachment than objective walkability. Perceived walkability has both a positive direct effect on place attachment and an indirect effect, via neighborhood-based social interaction. Objective walkability only has a positive direct effect on place attachment.

The walkability of a neighborhood is important for alleviating transport problems and improving the social and physical wellbeing of residents. However, it is unclear to what extent high walkability contributes to positive attitudes about walking and walking experiences on university campuses. In addition, little is known about the extent and mechanism by which walking attitude influences the affective walking experiences of students. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between campus walkability and students’ affective walking experience, as well as to explain the role of walking attitude as a mediator of this relationship. To address these issues, data were collected via questionnaires at a Chinese university and analyzed by using the structural equation model. After controlling for personal characteristics, the results indicated that campus walkability had a positive direct and indirect (through walking attitude) association with affective walking experiences. Our findings have proved that walkable campuses are important because they promote positive walking attitudes and walking emotions, which are beneficial to students’ mental health and subjective wellbeing.