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. 2023 Dec 6:11:1294360.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1294360. eCollection 2023.

The relation between barrier-free environment perception and campus commuting satisfaction

Jiang Li  1 , Chuyu Zhang  1 , Xiaoxi Cai  2 , You Peng  3   4 , Shaobo Liu  1   3 , Wenbo Lai  5 , Yating Chang  1   6 , Yudan Liu  1   6 , Liang Yu  7
Affiliations

The relation between barrier-free environment perception and campus commuting satisfaction

Jiang Li et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in the last quarter of 2019, has had a significant impact on urban transportation. With increasing demand for urban transport, the internal roads and public spaces of university campuses play an important role in facilitating commuting and communication between various functional zones. While considerable research has been conducted on route planning, pedestrian-vehicle segregation, and safety management in the internal transportation environment of university campuses, empirical investigations exploring barrier-free inclusive campus environment design and the subjective evaluation of road and public space users in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking. Recent developments in travel behavior models and positive psychology have led to an increased focus on the correlation among subjective perceptions, attitudes, emotions, and commuting satisfaction in urban transportation and planning design.

Methods: To elucidate this relationship, a study was conducted on the new campus of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. Using 312 valid samples, a structural equation model was constructed to analyse the relationship between commuting satisfaction and the barrier-free environment perception of university students regarding the internal transportation environment of the campus.

Results: The results revealed that individuals' instantaneous barrier-free environment perceptions and long-term established positive emotions had a significant positive effect on commuting satisfaction. Furthermore, positive emotions were found to mediate the relationship between commuting attitudes induced by COVID-19, barrier-free environment perceptions, and commuting satisfaction.

Discussion: The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for the necessity of accessibility design in the post-COVID era. In addition, this study considers the perspective of users to provide ideas for the planning and construction of barrier-free campus environments that are based on convenient and inclusive design.

Keywords: COVID-19; barrier-free environment; commuting satisfaction; positive emotions; structural equation modelling; university campus commuting.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor WR declared a shared affiliation with the authors JL, CZ, SL, YC, and YL at the time of review.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Diagram of the conceptual model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plan of the study site and photographs of the location.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average levels of barrier-free environment perception and commuting satisfaction for different commuting attributes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Estimated road map of the standardised parameters of the model. ***p ≤ 0.01.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Modified theoretical model. ***p ≤ 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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