Analysis of Pedestrian Performance in Shared-Space Environments

Abstract

The concept of shared space as applied in an urban road environment aims to reduce the dominance of motor vehicles by promoting pedestrian and cyclist activity and utilizing road space as a place. Unlike a conventional road, a shared space encourages all road users to legally occupy the same road space with little physical separation. The paper presents pedestrian-related performance measures that were developed under a multifaceted methodological framework to evaluate the success of shared-space schemes on the basis of study areas in the city center of Auckland, New Zealand. Analysis of the data before and after implementation revealed a positive result for pedestrian performance across all sites on the basis of a 24-h pedestrian profile, pedestrian trajectory, dwell time, and stationary activity. A comparative analysis of the data after implementation highlights the importance of the active frontage in enabling a lower (vehicular) speed environment in relation to the number of pedestrians within the shared space. The reported research analysis forms part of a doctoral research study at the University of Auckland with support from Auckland Transport, a regional transport agency in New Zealand.