An Analysis of Users’ Satisfaction on King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Campus Walkway System

Walkability is one of the foundations of campus-wide mobility, which determines the movement of students and employees as they move comfortably, safely, and efficiently across campus. It is therefore important in the analysis of effective campus walkway systems to understand how pedestrian infrastructure is utilized by the users. The behaviour of people and usefulness/function have always been major considerations for design, and walkways are no exception. Professionals in the built industry have studied human behaviour to adequately cater to their design needs. Pedestrian walkway design involves creating safe and efficient paths for people to walk, jog, and use smart mobility devices in outdoor spaces. Effective pedestrian walkway systems on university campuses are important for students and teachers to connect, reach in to different destinations which enhance their satisfaction of living in campus and academic experience. To improve usefulness of walkway system in university campuses, it is essential to study on how students use, perceive walkways, their safety, comfort, and satisfaction meet their needs. This study aims to analyse and understand the criteria of useful university campus walkways to satisfy the users through a case study of KFUPM. To achieve the aim a multimethod approach is adopted whereby observational walk-in audits of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) campus walkways, in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey is employed to obtain qualitative and quantitative data from 10 experts and 85 students living inside KFUPM campus. The outcome of this study shows that lack of universal accessibility, way finding and amenities along the walkways are the major drawbacks in KFUPM walkway system. On the other hand, the students and teachers are overall satisfied with the comfort level while using walkways in KFUPM campus.