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Pedestrians

by Julia Römer and Felix Creutzig

Walking constitutes a particularly low-impact mode of transportation. While pedestrians can cover only relatively short distances, walking can have a high modal share and even substitute car trips if mixed-use and accessibility conditions enable neighborhood shopping and satisfaction of service demand.

What particular conditions are favorable for pedestrians? Here we summarize some insights from a recent report on Pedestrian Quality Needs in Europe (Methorst et al., 2010).

First, the safety of a pedestrian path network is a major factor because of its huge impact on use or avoidance of sidewalks. Safety includes two dimensions: traffic safety - being save from accidents and motorised vehicles; and subjective feeling of safety. Measures that reduce motorised traffic, lower motorised traffic speed or reduce crossing times of pedestrians increase traffic safety.One example is the implementation of so called Home Zones with reduced speed limits of 10 miles an hour. To improve the subjective feeling of safety the sidewalk’s design has to be pedestrian-friendly. An adequate illumination of a sidewalk at night is an example for improvement.

Second, a pedestrian path network has to give pedestrians the chance to get to their destination as quickly as possible. Barriers, needless detour or waiting time leads to modal shift to less environmentally-friendly modes. Measures that improve the directness of a pedestrian path network, the connection with public transport or reduce waiting time therefore make sense. Examples are the implementation of scramble signals on large intersections, or same level pedestrian networks.

Third, walking has to be more attractive compared to other transport modes. Important indicators for the attractiveness of a pedestrian path network are accessibility and land-use. Pedestrian networks can be made more attractive by diverse design of the built environment, a multitude of options for pedestrian use, and active street life.

The report on Pedestrian Quality Needs brings together crucial insights on pedestrians. Nonetheless, scientific analysis is still far away from operationalizing pedestrian demand and supply in a systemic perspective.

Methorst R., Monterde i Bort H., Risser R., Sauter D., Tight M. & Walker J. (Eds.) (2010) Pedestrians’ Quality Needs. Final Report of the COST project 358, Cheltenham: Walk21.

Posted by Felix Creutzig on June 13, 2011 11:07 PM | Permalink