Optimization Exploration of Residential Roads Space in Clifford Estates from the Perspective of Active Travel

Built environment and population health are eternal topics of concern for the development of human society. Since the reform and opening-up, China has experienced rapid urbanization, with the urbanization rate rising from 17.92% in 1978 to 66.16% in 2023. While rapid urbanization has brought great achievements to the economy and society, it has also been accompanied by a series of impacts of rapid construction on the health of the population. Many studies have shown that there is a close link between physical activity and human health, and that an appropriate increase in the amount of physical activity can help to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of certain diseases. Active travel refers to travel from one point to another by non-motorized means of transport, usually walking or cycling, and must involve the consumption of physical power in the process of travel, so it is essentially a kind of physical activity. As an important space for active travel, residential roads are closely related to the daily functional travel activities of residents and can effectively affect people' health. Clifford Estates is a large residential area located in Panyu District of Guangzhou City, built in the 1990s, with a planned area of about 400 hectares and population of over 200,000 people. Due to certain historical backgrounds, the original concept of residential roads planning is no longer applicable nowadays. Residents are facing many problems during the trips of active travel, such as the road space is mostly occupied by motorized traffic, people-vehicles mixing serious. Based on this, this thesis tries to optimize the residential roads space design in Clifford Estates, to achieve the purpose of promoting the residents' active travel, and then increase the amount of daily physical activity, and ultimately to achieve the effect of improving people' health. This thesis could be mainly divided into three parts. The first part is the research background and related theoretical and practical basis. Firstly, it introduces the origin of the problem and related background of this thesis; and secondly, it combines the behavioral theoretical models under the multidisciplinary perspectives, as well as active travel design guideline and road reconstruction cases in foreign countries, which serve as the theoretical and empirical basis of this thesis. The second part is the current condition research, which firstly constructs the evaluation framework of residential roads space based on the theoretical models and practical experiences, and then evaluates the residential roads in Clifford Estates in accordance with this framework to analyze the problems existing in the roads space. The third part is the optimization design methodology and specific design schemes of residential roads in Clifford Estates. Based on the analysis in previous two parts, putting forward the principles and strategies of residential roads optimization design, among which "coherent, safe, convenient, comfortable and enjoyable" are design principles, and "determine active travel range, create protected active travel space, shorten active travel distance and time, improve supporting facilities of roads space, and enhance visual diversity of roads space" are the design strategies. Finally, the conclusions and prospects of the thesis are presented.