Pedestrian level of service simulating and redesigning sidewalk in crowded urban areas

Abstract

The design of sidewalks in crowded areas is of great importance in cities. These spaces are sensitive if they happen to be in a central business district (CBD). In this research study, the main objective is to analyse and design the sidewalk adjacent to the bazaar in Semnan, Iran, in a CBD, positioned in a historical location of the city. After surveying number of pedestrian sidewalks during peak hours in the morning and evening, the above-mentioned street was divided into eight parts, and the highest traffic flow was considered as a criterion for the design. Then, based on HCM2016, the density and the level of service (LOS) of each part were obtained. The findings indicated that part 4 had LOS E and density 11 < 11, 52 < 18, part 6 had LOS E and density 11 < 12, 06 < 18 and part 7 with the highest traffic volume of about 2500 people and LOS E was prioritised to increase LOS. The data obtained for each part were studied by PathFinder software and compared with the obtained manual information. Therefore, the road-diet theory was implemented. By increasing the width of the sidewalk by about 3–5 ft/section, there was a resulting improvement in LOS.