Willingness to walk in underground space – evidence from Singapore

Research on the environmental factors in promoting longer walks has focussed on the outside environment. This research concerns factors in the willingness to walk (WTW) in underground space, in a tropical climate, that of Singapore. Participants were accompanied on a pre-determined itinerary and responded to a questionnaire at intervals on perceptions of their experience and their willingness to continue walking. Several environmental factors were related to WTW. Participants ranked corridor width and the volume of pedestrians as the most important factors in comfort. Although WTW observed a distance-decay function as expected, there were restoration episodes across the participant group, strongly suggesting conditions that enable longer walks in underground space.