4 th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2018) EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ON WALKING BEHAVIOR OF THE URBAN POPULATION Dilip Goswami 1 , Shuvra Deb Chakrabarti 2 and Rajib Banik 3 1 Graduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Bangladesh e-mail: gshubro@yahoo.com 2 Graduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Bangladesh e-mail: shuvradeb011@gmail.com 3 Senior Lecturer, City University (CU), Bangladesh e-mail: banik0801001@gmail.com ABSTRACT Walking is an important diurnal mode of travel and key parts of our urban transport systems. People start and end with a walk from the bus stop or train station to the final destination. Walking sometimes recognized to as active travel or active transport for healthy living. Getting more people in walking results to increase capacity, and reduce congestion, in the overall transport network. Besides, it would reduce environmental impact, improve public health and reduce healthcare costs, improve community well-being as well as social cohesion. The objective of the research was to depict the leading causes, which were responsible for declining the walking behavior of the Dhaka Metropolitan’s dwellers. Total 400 survey data were collected from various points of Dhaka Metropolitan. Approximately 89% pedestrians believed that walking environment was unpleasant, nearly 82% thought the surface quality was poor and 86% believed they were unsafe at night. Although 66% preferred walking for short trip up to 1 km for traffic congestion. Traffic congestion could be reduced if authority takes the necessary steps to improve walking environments and safety. Key Words:Walking behavior, Traffic congestion, Environment, Safety 1. INTRODUCTION None of the world's megacities arises adjacent to Dhaka’s population density, nearly 45,000 people are living per square kilometer with worst traffic congestion (Newgeography, 2012.). Being highly dense capital city, Dhaka is one of the slightest motorized cities in the world, only 2,630 vehicles per 100,000 population. The remarkable thing is that Dhaka has just 16.53% motorized vehicle, although it has a vast population(Rahaman, 2006). Dhaka continuing its unplanned growing with 7% roads, while a standard city has the least road requirement is 25%. Nearly 30% of 7.5% road is occupied by the hawkers, salesman, and shopkeepers. A substantial portion is also held by construction materials and waste- containers of the City Corporation which are responsible for the long queue of the vehicles (Habib, 2005). Walking is a primary mode of transportation used for many purposes like going to work, going to school, recreation for most individuals. Walking is the sole means of conveyance in building interiors, public transit transfer stations, or shopping malls as short trips(National Household Travel Survey, 2009).A travel survey report for the city of Chicago depicts that the walking mode share was about 15% and 26% of total trips, respectively, for North Chicago and Central Chicago in 2008, which represents that walking demand becomes significant, especially in populated communities (Travel Inventory, 2010). Inappropriately designed walking amenities may fail to operate at acceptable levels when pedestrian demand exceeds the walkway capacity and reduce walkability(Zhang, 2012). Urbanites of Dhaka are greatly depended on foot about 60% of the total trips, while almost half of the remaining trips are on non-motorized vehicles(Rahman, 2006). The deficiencies of the significant crossing facility were responsible fornearly 77% of fatal pedestrian accidents in Dhaka Metropolitanin recent years(Pervaz, 2016). The objective of the research is to depict the significant causes, which have noticeable impacts on walking behavior of the Dhaka