Structural relationship about pedestrian vibrancy and street environment in central areas of Kyoto, Seoul, Beijing and Florence

In several city centers around the world, there has been a trend to restrain the entry of automobiles and improve pedestrian movement. It is to create central areas that are vibrant with people. However, it is not clear which factors affect vibrancy and how they are related in the city center. We surveyed pedestrians as well as relevant factors on each street in central areas of Kyoto, Seoul, Beijing, and Florence to elucidate the relationship between vibrancy and street environment. Then, structural equation modeling was performed with the survey data to determine the structural relationship between pedestrian vibrancy and street environment. In central areas of these four cities, it is clear that pedestrian comfort has a direct and indirect positive effect on vibrancy, although the existence of parking areas has a negative effect on vibrancy.