Changes in Walkable Streets during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Suburban City in the Osaka Metropolitan Area

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for an interesting paper on what is very clearly a topical issue. I don't know how strong the motoring lobby is in Japan. In my country it would be very difficult to persuade local authorities to convert car lanes to bike lanes. Nevertheless you have made a good case for this in terms of community health. Often elderly people have limited mobility. What do you propose to do for such individuals?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

 

 

We appreciate the reviewer for the generous comment on the manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in Sustainability and look forward to hearing from you concerning your editorial decision.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Haruka Kato

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The study presents an interesting topic and method in terms of need for reconsidering street designs owing to the changing travel behavior and the utilization of location history to map the changes in the mobility indicators. However, currently the study does not provide a comprehensive presentation of data, methods and analysis. Following improvements and additions in the manuscript can be considered -

1. A detailed literature review of the methods used to elicitate mobility data utilizing secondary sources like GPS, mobile networks and remote sensing imageries is required.
2. Selection of the timeline is questionable as because of the lockdown overall mobility of the people is restricted that has also restricted work related trips. Change in the timeline or addition of one more timeline in post lockdown period should be used to draw useful and meaningful comparisons.
3. Validation of the speed and mobility data needs to be added.
4. The manuscript needs to present the criteria used for classifying residential clusters. 
5. Description of  residential clusters and their distribution is missing.
6. Authors should consider adding statistical analysis and significance to draw meaningful association between residential clusters, street type and change in mobility patterns.
7. Estimation of street score and its utilization is not clear. 
8. Sensitivity analysis can be conducted to gain robust results.
9. Description of the existing infrastructure typology by residential clusters also need to be provided.
10. Conclusion can specify short- and long-term street design changes to meet safe mobility demand in the city.  
11. What is the zone size or areal unit considered for measuring residential clusters? 

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

 

 

We appreciate the reviewer for the generous comment on the manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in Sustainability and look forward to hearing from you concerning your editorial decision.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Haruka Kato

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Page 1: Since both authors have the same affiliation, there is no need to put superscript “1” after their names.

Page 1, Keywords: Please include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Keywords.

Page 1, lines 28-29: “Improving walkability is expected to contribute not only to the health of residents [2,3] but also to urban sustainability [4].”. The three pillars of sustainability cover “health”, so I do not understand why you separately refer to “health” apart from “urban sustainability”.

Page 1, line 30: “…in many cities worldwide, such as China,…”. Please change this sentence to “…in many countries worldwide, such as China,…”.

Page 1, line 39: “On the other hand, the WHO [9] has…”. Please change this sentence to “On the other hand, WHO [9] has…”. In addition, please also include the full title of all the acronyms used in the paper (i.e., World Health Organization (WHO)).

Section 1. Introduction: Please use subsections to present the information included in Section 1. For example, one subsection can be dedicated to the COVID-19 & transport in general, then you can focus on the urban environment, and more especially to sustainable urban mobility. Then, you can present the use of technology to monitor and assess the impacts of the pandemic in walkability etc.  

Section 1. Introduction: Please insert a paragraph at the end of Section 1 (on page 2) where you must describe the structure of the paper (i.e., the content of the following Sections).

Section 1. Introduction: Please try to enhance your literature review which is now rather weak. The bibliography in the specific research topic is extremely rich.

Page 2, Section 2. Materials and Methods: Please insert a Data Flow Chart (DFC) where you must present all your methodological steps. The specific DFC will help the reader to obtain a clear overview of your work from the early beginning of your paper. Please note that you can use, among other things, Figure 1 and Figure 2 for this purpose.

Page 10, Section 4. Discussion and Conclusions: My suggestion is to have two separate Sections, one for the “Discussion” and one for the “Conclusions”.

Please include the limitations and constraints of your research in the Section of Conclusions. In addition, please include the proposed future research steps (i.e., continuation of your research).

Please try to address your policy recommendations arising from your findings to the stakeholders involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation process of the proposed measures (i.e., central government, local authorities etc.). In order to do so, you need to carry out a stakeholder’s analysis.

Reference [35] is missing from the text although it appears in the Reference List at the end of the paper.

Please check your paper throughout for English grammar and syntax errors.

 

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

 

 

We appreciate the reviewer for the generous comment on the manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in Sustainability and look forward to hearing from you concerning your editorial decision.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Haruka Kato

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript has improved significantly. However some improvements can still be undertaken - 

1. It is still lesser convincing to redesign streets based on the data comparison between pre-lockdown and during lockdown. Post lock-down when the activities resume completely shall showcase better understanding of the behavior and mobility patterns. Concerning this and as the dataset utilized in the study cannot be changed, the authors can add scope of redesigning, how redesigning can help in achieving requisite behavioral change towards long term sustainable mobility and limitations of the study showcasing the observed changes are only for the limited period and this may change in the post-lockdown assessments.
2. Figure 8 - What are the horizontal bars in the chart. It is not clear and not explained as well.
3. Line 307 - Is the log ration calculated using the total log respective of the year 2019 and 2020? If yes, then this needs to be mentioned.
4. Line 344 - It should be during the state of emergency 
5. Line 369 - need to be rewritten for better clarification

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

 

 

We appreciate the reviewer for the generous comment on the revised manuscript. We believe that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in Sustainability and look forward to hearing from you concerning your editorial decision.

 

Yours sincerely

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf