NGUYEN TAT THANH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION NGUYEN TAT THANH GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC: EXPLORE THE PERCEPTION OF WALKABLE CITY: A CASE STUDY OF YOUNG GENERATION IN HO CHI MINH CITY Supervisor: Student’s name: MBA. VO VUONG BACH DANG DINH MINH ID: 2000000055 Class: 20DQT1C HCM City - 2023 NGUYEN TAT THANH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION NGUYEN TAT THANH GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC: EXPLORE THE PERCEPTION OF WALKABLE CITY: A CASE STUDY OF YOUNG GENERATION IN HO CHI MINH CITY Supervisor: Student’s name: MBA. VO VUONG BACH DANG DINH MINH ID: 2000000055 Class: 20DQT1C HCM City - 2023 COURSE INSTRUCTOR’S EVALUATION Total score:., September 2023 SUPERVISOR 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to pay my deepest gratitude and respect to my supervisor, Mr. Vo Vuong Bach, for guiding and supporting me throughout the process of making this thesis.
I also would like to thank my friends, family, and all the interviewees for participating in my research. Without them, this thesis would not have been possible. Ho Chi Minh City, September 2023 Dang Dinh Minh ii TABLE OF CONTENTS COURSE INSTRUCTOR’S EVALUATION. II TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Ill LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.VI LIST OF FIGURES.VII LIST OF TABLES. VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.2 What has already been done on this issue.2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.2 Walkable cities - what are they?.3 Characteristics of a walkable city.5 Why walkable cities are important.1 Why people today don’t walk more.2 Urban sprawl and Car dependence culture.3 Negative effects of bad urban planning and design.6 Benefits of walkable cities.6 A walkable city is a sustainable city.7 Drivers of change.8 Things I did to make the interviews more effective. 40 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.1 Perception of walkable city.2 Perception of walkable city benefits.3 Perception offlaws and setbacks.4 Attitude and support toward walkable city.2 Lesson from Singapore and Seoul. 51 APPENDIX 1 0 APPENDIX 2 0 V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAA American Automobile Association CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CTA Chicago Transit Authority DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs FDI Foreign Direct hlvestment GDP Gross Domestic Product GNP Gross National Product HCMƯT Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority ƯHI The Urban Heat Island NACTO National Association of City Transportation Offcials.
NTTU Nguyen tat thanh university RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology TOD Transit-Oriented Development WHO The World Health Organization vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1. Downtown Houston, Texas, 1970s. Truman Sports Complex, Kansas City, Missouri. Source: The cost of parking.
Source: Global Street Design, NACTO. Global CO2 emissions from transport, 2018. Urban sprawl and mono functional area, Jeff Peck. The loneliness epidemic is a search term.
The relationship between speed and stopping distance. Drives’ visual focus diminishes as speed increases. Hourly capacity of a 3 m-wide lane by different modes at peak conditions. Source: Global Street Design.S Department of Transportation.
Japanese traditional Starbucks’ exterior and interior. Global population size and annual growth rate. World Population Prospects - 2022. 35 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1.
Walkable city characteristics. Sustainable Cities International’s Indicators for Sustainability list. Participants and Interview’s information. 39 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The goal that all governments and city planners should strive for is to build cities more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
As of 2023, half of humanity, 4 billion people, live in cities. Even though the birth rate has slowed down, the rate of urbanization has not. It is estimated that by 2050, two out of every three people are likely to be living in cities or other urban centers, according to a new United Nations report. As more and more people keep moving to cities in search of jobs, education, and a better quality of life, the problem of sustainability begins to emerge.
“Many countries will face challenges in meeting the needs of their growing urban populations, includingfor housing, transportation, energy systems, and other infrastructure; as well as for employment and basic services such as education and health care,” said the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). People are beginning to realize the effects of bad urban plaiming and design, not only for themselves but the environment they live in. The rapid development of urban areas has led to numerous issues like congestion, polluted air, carbon emissions, high housing costs, and widening inequality. Cities are also the major contributors to the global warming.
Cities occupy just 3% of the Earth’s surface land area but account for 60-80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions (Jane Jacobs, 1992). Among those who are affected are GenZ and Millenials. They are currently fighting the rising cost of housing, and living, much greater than previous generations. GenZ and Millennials also have to face the effect of climate change to a greater extent, all while coping with the highest level of loneliness seen in any generation.
All of these factors and changes will impact the future city designs and thus, in turn, force people and businesses to adapt.2 What has already been done on this issue Walkable cities, walkability, and other related issues have been extensively researched ever since the 1970s. This model is a response to American urban 1 planning after WW2, specifically the urban sprawl and car dependency culture. Today, a walkable city is a part of a movement to help reduce the impact of bad urban planning on the environment, the economy, and the lives of the people within it. A walkable city shared more than just a few attributes of a sustainable city.
hl researching this subject, the author found that there are a lot of books, and research papers written regarding this issue by authors from all over the world. However, there is little information on this issue available in Vietnamese. The term walkable city is not familiar to many Vietnamese people. If you type “walkable city” into the Google search bar, the closest answer you’ll get is the walkable street.
So, it is obvious that this is not a common topic of conversation among Vietnamese. Of course, there are few research written by Vietnamese researchers that discuss this issue, but of course, they are all written in English, and none of them focus on college students' awareness of the issue.3 Objectives Research question: What are the young generations' perceptions of walkable cities? Research objectives: Explore young people's perception of a walkable city, its benefits, flaws and setbacks, and their attitude toward it. How businesses should adapt according to the new demographic trends. Research method: This study uses in-depth interviews to collect data and deductive coding to analyze data.4 Thesis structure The remainder of this study is structured as follows: Chapter 2 present a literature review of walkability, walkable city, its characteristics, and benefits; Chapter 3 methodology that the author has used; Chapter 4 discuss the results and provide suggestion to improve awareness among college student; finally, Chapter 5 will provide some practical implementations and conclude the study.
2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Walkability definition The term ‘walkability’ was first coined by Jane Jacobs, in her book The Life and Death of Great American Cities in the 60s. Since then, there have been a lot of definitions for the walkable city, however, there are 2 that simplify it best: Walkability is the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing pedestrian comfort and safety’, connecting people with varied destinations within a reasonable amount of time and effort, and offering visual interest in journeys throughout the network (Southworth, 2008). Walkability is “the extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence ofpeople walking, living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area" (Burden, 2010).2 Walkable cities - what are they? hl summary, a walkable city is a city where: Walking is a default mode of transportation for everyone, regardless of age, income, and ability. Enable people to travel from where they currently are to where they need to be without the need for a personal vehicle.
Personal vehicles are still allowed to coexist, but unnecessary. The entire city is designed and planned out so that it would best serve people’s mobility and improve their quality of life, i. adequate PT system, amenities are equally spread and easy to access. - A walkable city has many elements of a sustainable city.3 Characteristics of a walkable city To better understand it, we need to explore the characteristics of a walkable city: hl a walkable city, pedestrians are given priority over motorists.
Human-centric Motor vehicle speed and numbers are reduced and, in some Pedestrian first areas, banned entirely, commonly also known as Car-free city. 3 The city has a human-scale design, with block lengths and building sizes tightly regulated. Street has many facilities that allow pedestrians to stop, stay, and spend time like parks, plazas, and small parks. In a walkable city, being able to freely travel, access, and enjoy the city is recognized as a basic human right.
To that end, a city must promote diversity, equality, and inclusivity. Diversity in this context doesn’t necessarily mean race, ethnicity, or religion, but rather age, income, and occupation. Equality Inclusive toward those with disabilities (vision or hearing Inclusivity impairments, wheelchairs, and cane users). Diversity Meanwhile, Equality means providing social mobility, i.
the opportunity to move around, to access the city’s services and amenities, to find jobs, and to build a better life. hl short, a walkable city should provide the same opportunity for everyone and not discriminate against any targeted group. A walkable city allows everyone easy access to schools, hospitals, offices, shops, parks, libraries, outdoor coffees, and public spaces like town squares, and parklets. This is archived through Transit-Oriented Development Accessibility (TOD).
By providing many alternative modes of transpoiiation like bus, bicycle, train, subway, walking and spacing them within 10-20 min of where people are. The streets of the city must be linked continuously, allowing people to travel everywhere within the city unobstructed. This Continuity means providing many alternative routes, if one path is closed Connectivity for maintenance, others should still be available. At the same time minimize dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs.
4 For a city to be walkable, it must have things that attract people, i. a reason for them to walk. Cities should be places people want to be in, not just pass by quickly hl the theory of “walk Aesthetics appeal,” Steve Monzon argues that how far people will walk Attractiveness depends on what they encounter along the way. This could be Visually walkable public spaces, beautiful city squares, attractive Interesting architecture, historical buildings, landmarks, and public arts.
Mystery alleys and building design also add to the city a sense of mystery and intrigue, which provokes curiosity and compels visitors to explore them. Comfortable means clean air, low noise level, sidewalks are Comfortable wide enough to accommodate a large number of people, and Pleasantness clean with good quality pavements and furniture. Protecting Enjoyable people from harsh weather and motorists. Reduce encroachments into the pedestrian right-of-way.
Safety means that pedestrians should be protected from motorized traffic, while security means that pedestrians should be protected from crime and incivilities. The city must provide the people with safety, or the perception of safety, from crime, and accidents both in the morning and at night. The feeling unsafe negatively impacts people’s Safety willingness to walk. Security Adequate light can help make people feel safer and increase nighttime activities.
Traffic calming measures to slow driving speeds and reduce traffic volumes like chokers, chicanes, speed bumps, raised crosswalks, narrowed streets, rough paving, traffic diverters, roundabouts, and landscaping; Physical separation from fastmoving cars, or buffers, include curb extensions, parklets, 5 stormwater management features, parking, cycle racks, cycle share stations, and curbside cycle tracks; Adequate time and signalization protection when crossing intersections The city as a whole is built to assist people to move around. Convenient This could be benches, public toilets, signs and pathfinders. An example is the rams built to aid wheelchair users.