Pedestrian Environment Quality Assessment in Portuguese Medium-Sized Cities

Adriana Sousa,Bertha Santos,Jorge Goncalves

doi:10.1088/1757-899x/471/6/062033

Adriana Sousa, Bertha Santos + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/6/062033

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Abstract

The features of pedestrian spaces contribute to sustainable urban mobility and consequently to improve the quality of the built environment. A pedestrian space free of obstacles, with slight slopes, continuous, agreeable, attractive and safe, is definitely a space that invites to enjoyment and socialization. With the aim of improving the pedestrian circulation conditions, the present paper describes a set of approaches for assessing the quality of pedestrian environment and presents an adapted approach that can be used in medium-sized cities. Land use, pedestrian facilities and road/traffic attributes are the most common topics addressed in the pedestrian environment evaluation. These attributes can be expressed in scores and their spatial distribution can be represented using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), supporting the decision making process of pedestrian system improvement. For Portuguese medium-sized cities, the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI) was adapted and tested through a case study in Covilhã city. The main steps of the methodology include the definition of relevant data, preparation of survey forms, training of data collection teams, data collection, database organization, PEQI calculation and GIS data visualization, management and maps production. The case study focused on the areas that have a significant pedestrian flow, either because of commercial, services and recreation activities, or because they are important links of the public transport system. As main findings, it was possible to conclude that the selected approach allows a great flexibility in the incorporation of new attributes and weights according to specific technical goals and scenarios (calibration).

Highlights

With the constant development of today's society, there is a wide variety of means to travel ranging from motor vehicles to non-motorized vehicles and pedestrian
A study of indicators considered in the evaluation of pedestrian environments for the 3 approaches described, as well as the set of indicators proposed for Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI) adapted to medium-sized Portuguese cities (PEQI PT), was made and is presented in Tables 4 and 5
From the study carried out it was possible to conclude that in most cases the pedestrian system evaluation is performed separately for intersections and street segments based on their different characteristics and the pedestrian’s behaviour at these places

Summary

Introduction

With the constant development of today's society, there is a wide variety of means to travel ranging from motor vehicles to non-motorized vehicles and pedestrian. It is necessary to ensure harmony between different networks and transportation modes by applying the concept of sustainable mobility, which promotes public and smooth transport modes. According to [1] and [2], walking is a highly sustainable transport mode for the following reasons: All trips include at least one small journey made on foot, so some improvements in pedestrian infrastructures can/should be included in the budget of planned interventions on other transport networks.

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