Critical Evaluation of the Pedestrian Walking Distances on the Congested Urban Networks

Abstract

The continuous increase in traffic demand during the last years has generated changes in urban road networks design. Implementation of roundabouts is a general trend in the large Romanian cities. Thus, even in dense built areas, the signalized intersections have been turned into multiple lanes roundabouts, without taking into account, besides drivers, other important groups of road users: pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities, etc. - or the requirements for implementation of modern strategies regarding priority for public transport. The paper proposes a critical analysis of pedestrian movements in the road network when, in congested areas of a medium sized city where are grouped educational and public institutions, retail centers, touristic and residential buildings, were implemented multiple roundabout intersections. Modeling of the traffic flows using the computer programs, allows obtaining some performance indicators taking in account the influence of pedestrians’ flows, and helps establishing the network efficiency, before and after the implementation of the proposed solutions for increase of sustainable urban mobility. Data required for traffic flows modeling, that should correctly describe the real geometric, traffic and signaling conditions, their complexity, as well as the impossibility to analyze the network at a global level, are limitations of the study.