Pedestrian-Friendly Campus: Prioritizing Safe and Accessible Walking
Walailak University places great importance on prioritizing pedestrian access for students, staff, and visitors as part of its commitment to creating a safe, accessible, and sustainable campus environment. The university has developed campus infrastructure to provide pedestrian walkways across key areas of the campus, supporting safe and convenient movement between academic buildings, student dormitories, libraries, cafeterias, and outdoor activity spaces. These pedestrian facilities form an important part of the university’s Sustainable Campus Policy, which seeks to create an environment conducive to learning, living, and working.
The development of pedestrian infrastructure also reflects the university’s commitment to inclusive and sustainable campus planning. Walkways are designed with consideration for safety, accessibility, and Universal Design principles to facilitate movement for people with diverse mobility needs, including persons with disabilities. Where applicable, environmentally conscious approaches and materials are incorporated into campus infrastructure development to help reduce environmental impacts.
By improving pedestrian connectivity and making walking a practical means of moving around campus, Walailak University encourages students, staff, and visitors to make greater use of shared public spaces and reduce unnecessary reliance on private vehicles. This contributes to a safer and more people-centred campus while supporting physical activity, accessibility, and lower carbon emissions. These efforts contribute to the university’s vision of a Green University and demonstrate how pedestrian-oriented campus planning can support sustainable and inclusive communities
In 2025, Walailak University (WU) continued to provide and maintain pedestrian access across the campus as an integral part of its daily campus infrastructure and sustainable mobility practices. Pedestrian pathways are continuously available to support the movement of students, staff, and visitors between key destinations, providing a safe, convenient, and accessible alternative to motorized transportation. The Division of Landscaping and Building regularly monitored and maintained these routes to ensure their continued functionality, safety, and accessibility.
WU’s campus featured 56 pedestrian routes, including 25% covered walkways, connecting important destinations such as academic buildings, student dormitories, canteens, parks, and the medical center. These pathways form a permanent part of the campus environment and facilitate everyday movement for the university community. Rather than being a temporary or one-time infrastructure initiative, the provision and maintenance of pedestrian access represents an ongoing university practice that is incorporated into campus management and development.
The Division of Landscaping and Building was responsible for constructing, maintaining, and improving the pedestrian network to ensure that pathways remained safe, functional, and suitable for regular use. By continuously providing pedestrian access throughout the campus, WU encourages walking as a practical alternative to short-distance vehicle travel, reduces unnecessary reliance on motorized transportation, and supports a safer, more accessible, and environmentally sustainable campus.
Maintaining Safe, Accessible, and Comfortable Pedestrian Infrastructure
In 2025, Walailak University continued to maintain and improve its pedestrian infrastructure through the restoration of damaged walkways and related facilities across the campus. These maintenance activities were undertaken to improve safety, comfort, and accessibility for students, staff, and visitors, ensuring that pedestrian routes remained suitable for everyday use. The restoration of walkways also reinforced the university’s commitment to supporting walking as an integral part of sustainable campus mobility and as a practical, low-carbon alternative to short-distance motorized travel.
As part of the ongoing maintenance of pedestrian areas, WU also monitored and restored electrical facilities and related infrastructure along campus routes to help ensure safe operation and reduce potential hazards. Regular inspection and maintenance of these supporting facilities contribute to a safer pedestrian environment, particularly along routes used during different times of the day. By maintaining both the walkways and the infrastructure that supports them, the university helps ensure that pedestrian access remains safe, reliable, and functional over time.
In addition, WU continued to repair, repaint, and improve rest pavilions located along walking and jogging routes. The pavilions were given new coats of paint to refresh their appearance and create a more pleasant and welcoming environment for users. These facilities provide shaded and comfortable spaces where members of the university community can pause, rest, or participate in low-impact physical activities such as walking, running, and cycling. The surrounding landscape was also improved to create more attractive and comfortable green spaces, enhancing the overall quality, usability, and visual appeal of pedestrian areas.
In 2025, Walailak University also continued to enhance and beautify walking routes throughout the campus to create a more pleasant, attractive, and inviting environment for students, staff, and visitors. Improvement activities focused not only on the functionality of pedestrian routes but also on their surrounding appearance, helping to create comfortable spaces where members of the university community could enjoy walking, exercising, and spending time outdoors.
The enhancement of walking routes included improvements to surrounding landscapes, greenery, and pedestrian facilities, creating a more visually appealing and comfortable environment. These efforts helped integrate pedestrian pathways with the university’s green spaces and recreational areas, making walking routes more pleasant and encouraging members of the campus community to use them as part of their daily activities.
These ongoing maintenance and improvement activities demonstrate that pedestrian priority at WU extends beyond the provision of pathways alone. By continuously maintaining walkways, electrical facilities, rest areas, and surrounding landscapes, the university creates a safer and more pleasant environment that encourages people to walk and spend time in shared campus spaces. In turn, these efforts can reduce unnecessary reliance on motorized transportation, support healthier lifestyles, improve campus livability, and contribute to WU’s broader commitment to a sustainable and environmentally responsible campus.
Pedestrian Development Targets under the Sustainable Commuting Action Plan (2025–2028)
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote sustainable mobility, Walailak University has incorporated pedestrian access and infrastructure into the Walailak University’s Sustainable Commuting Action Plan (2025–2028). The action plan identifies pedestrian use and supporting infrastructure as important areas for continued development, with specific targets established to encourage greater use of walking routes and improve the pedestrian environment across campus.
Regarding pedestrian use, the action plan identified that approximately 10% of the Walailak University community used pedestrian routes on campus. To encourage a greater shift toward active and sustainable mobility, the university set a target to increase the proportion of students and staff using pedestrian routes by 15%. This target reflects WU’s intention to make walking a more practical and attractive mode of everyday campus transportation and to reduce unnecessary reliance on motorized vehicles.
The action plan also addresses the availability of covered pedestrian infrastructure. Approximately 70% of covered walkways had been constructed around lecture buildings and student dormitories, providing protection from sun and rain along important campus routes. WU has established a target to further expand the covered walkway network, particularly to improve connections between lecture buildings and student dormitories. This expansion is intended to make walking more convenient and comfortable throughout the year and encourage greater use of pedestrian routes.
In addition, pedestrian signage has been identified as an important component of campus safety and accessibility. Pedestrian signs had already been installed in 100% of major pedestrian areas on campus. Under the action plan, WU aims to extend pedestrian signage to at least 50% of minor pedestrian areas. Expanding clear and visible pedestrian signs can help users identify designated walking routes, improve awareness of pedestrian priority, and support safer movement throughout the campus.
Through these targets, WU demonstrates a continued commitment to developing a more pedestrian-friendly campus. By combining increased pedestrian use with expanded covered walkways and improved signage, the Sustainable Commuting Action Plan provides a framework for progressively improving the safety, convenience, accessibility, and attractiveness of walking as part of everyday campus mobility.
The continued development, maintenance, and enhancement of pedestrian infrastructure provide wide-ranging benefits for the Walailak University community. Safe, accessible, and well-maintained walking routes make it easier for students, staff, and visitors to move between buildings and facilities, while covered walkways and rest pavilions provide greater comfort in different weather conditions. Improvements to lighting, electrical facilities, signage, landscaping, and pedestrian amenities further contribute to a safer and more welcoming campus environment.
Promoting walking also supports the health and well-being of the university community by creating more opportunities for everyday physical activity. Attractive walking and jogging routes can encourage students and staff to incorporate walking, running, and other low-impact activities into their daily routines. At the same time, improving pedestrian connectivity can reduce the need for short-distance vehicle trips within campus, helping to reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
These efforts also contribute to a more inclusive campus by considering accessibility and the diverse mobility needs of students, staff, visitors, and persons with disabilities. By maintaining pedestrian facilities and progressively expanding covered walkways and pedestrian signage, WU works toward ensuring that walking is not only available but also safe, convenient, comfortable, and accessible to a broad range of users.
Overall, Walailak University’s continued commitment to pedestrian priority demonstrates that sustainable commuting is an ongoing campus practice rather than a one-time infrastructure project. Through continuous maintenance, infrastructure improvement, environmental beautification, and measurable targets under the Sustainable Commuting Action Plan (2025–2028), WU is creating a more walkable, people-centred, healthy, and environmentally responsible campus. These efforts support the university’s broader vision of a Green University and contribute to the development of a sustainable and inclusive campus community in line with Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
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