Street Users Research Articles

Identifying Great Street in Bandung as Part of Bandung Technopolis Concept: a Perception-Based Approach

Great Street is required for making a great city. Bandung will develop new City Centre Service (CCS) in Gede Bage with Bandung Technopolis concept which one of the main programs is making Bandung Great Street. It is important to see potencies and problems based on the user perspective so that the concepts will be applicative and effective. Using the perception-based approach, this paper aims to identify the perception of the street user in Bandung based on their experience in using the streets in Bandung, so it can lead to a contextual concept. From Jacobs’s Great Street Criteria, the PPS’s criteria and Bandung Great Street criteria can be summarized into five normative variables such as activities, comfortable and amenities, walkability and transportation option, visual attractiveness, and local identity. The analyzed variables are preferences of the favorite street in Bandung, the reasons, the real usages of the street, the way of using the street, the companion in using the street, and the interesting things. These variables represent all normative variables which combined with three perception variables such as cognitive, affective and conative. After analyzing the data, it can be concluded that the respondents prefer Ir. H. Djuanda Street, Braga Street, and RE Martadinata Street as the most favorite street, and choose Cihampelas Street as the least favorite street

Urban Oasis: an integrated water shelter and city-scape beacon

<p>Urban densification and a global shift towards the creation of walkable neighbourhoods have generated demand for more sustainable transport models and supporting infrastructure. Transforming streetscapes from car dominated spaces to places for people. A review of public space allocation in streets demonstrates the need to re-prioritise and re-organise streets to provide improved infrastructure to meet present and future demands on transport corridors.<br />This paper proposes the creation of, an integrated design solution in the form of an urban 'Oasis' that provides a network of on street facilities for cyclists and pedestrians. Planning the network of ‘Oasis’ is informed by the principal of Link and Place creating a visual balance between vehicles and other street users while promoting sustainable ideologies. The 'Oasis' presents itself as a multi-purpose drink station, bus shelter, public seating area, bike rack, public art piece and environmental education tool that, at its core functionality, captures, stores and purifies rainwater so that commuters can park, rest and access water after a walk or ride to the station.<br />The paper explores available technologies and a range of modular adaptable designs to suit various urban landscapes. An integrated network of ‘Oasis’ transforms the street combining furniture combining cycling and pedestrian facilities, comfort and user friendliness, in a unique and attractive form. The development of the Oasis, draws on a range of fields including urban planning and design, landscape architecture, natural resource management, urban water engineering, digital communications and technologies and the visual arts.<br />This research demonstrates the potential flow-on benefits of the Oasis including improved road safety, increased patronage on public transport, increase in cycling, improved natural resource education and management, improved sense of place and foster community building.</p>

商店街の運営者意識と活動特性の関係性

The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of the living environments in neighborhood spaces (living environments based on the principle of normalization) from a variety of resident perspectives and, based on the results, to identify the future role and direction of shopping streets. The basic knowledge obtained in this study can be used to develop a systematic methodology for creating good spaces and functional distributions and so on that will allow those engaged in activities to play a leading role in future urban planning in neighborhood spaces. The study consisted primarily of a comparison of operator consciousness and activity characteristics, based on the interrelationships of people, activities and spaces. The following basic knowledge was obtained through the study. 1) From the standpoint of the stores and offices being operated, there was a connection between (a) activities related to the measures taken in the store to provide easy access for the elderly and physically disabled and the efforts in the area around the store and (b) the operator consciousness toward revitalization of the shopping street. 2) From the standpoint of the relational aspect of the shopping street as a whole, there was a connection between activities in the shopping street that also included promoting interchange in the community as a whole and operator consciousness toward revitalization of the shopping street and the degree of satisfaction with the shopping street. Moreover, based on a comparison of operator consciousness and activity characteristics: 3) In terms of “people,” operators with an awareness of use by users other than regular customer persons and able-bodied persons tended to be engaged in various activities in one's own store and the shopping street. 4) In terms of “activities,” operators with a low level of interest in future measures to provide easy access for the elderly and physically disabled also tended to be unmotivated with regard to current activities. 5) In terms of “space,” operators with an awareness of barriers at other stores were implementing measures to provide easy access for the elderly and physically disabled at their own stores, and operators with an awareness of barriers in the shopping street as a whole tended to be engaged in activities within the shopping street and local community and activities to revitalize the shopping street. This indicates a connection between awareness and activity. 6) A comparison of activity characteristics and operator consciousness with regard to shopping streets revealed that concerns regarding stimulation and overall degree of satisfaction were related to the aspects of the store or office being operated and the relational aspects pertaining to the shopping street as a whole. In particular, this study revealed that there is a correlation between activity characteristics and operator consciousness toward people, activities and spaces. Conversely, the results obtained from the study did not provide support for a cause-and-effect relationship between operator consciousness and activity characteristics. Continued research will be needed in the future in order to organize the trends in operator consciousness and activity characteristics, and to conduct a factor analysis. Moreover, the author intends to conduct a study of the actual situation and the consciousness of shopping street users, for the purpose of more deeply verifying the sustainability of living environments from the standpoint of diverse residents.

Overcoming barriers to cycling: understanding frequency of cycling in a University setting and the factors preventing commuters from cycling on a regular basis

Much local and regional transport policy is attempting to increase cycling as an everyday mode of travel through infrastructure changes, education initiatives, and safety campaigns. While considerable research has examined the influence of the built form on cycling, less research has examined the barriers that prevent people who wish to cycle more (as part of their routine) from doing so. This study examines several factors influencing the frequency by which people do (and do not) cycle in a campus setting in a large metropolitan area. Mixed methods reveal differences between barriers to cycling as well as the relative strength of these barriers across categories of age, sex, and current mode used. A multinomial logit model, which controls for residential self-selection effects, predicts whether and how often a respondent cycles based on socio-demographic and trip characteristics. The presence of cycle paths is found to be strongly associated with a higher frequency of cycling commutes. Additionally, an analysis of stated barriers reveals effort and a lack of safety as the most important barriers to potential cyclists. Finally, a qualitative analysis of respondents’ open-ended responses confirms the influence of bicycle paths, but reveals other factors such as the importance of improved interactions among various street users. Findings from this research can be of benefit to transportation engineers and planners who are aiming to increase the use of cycling among various groups of commuters.

Real-Time Merging Traffic Control at Congested Freeway Off-Ramp Areas

This study presents a real-time merging traffic control algorithm to mitigate the problem of freeway congestion resulting from an overspilling off-ramp. The proposed control algorithm aims at maximizing the merge area outflow of the surface street and at the same time preventing the off-ramp queue spillover into the freeway mainstream and the resulting freeway congestion. The potential benefits obtained by applying the proposed control concept are demonstrated by the use of microscopic simulation applied to a real freeway network where recurrent freeway traffic congestion is created as a result of an overspilling off-ramp. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed control algorithm may improve the prevailing traffic conditions, preventing the formation of freeway congestion and benefiting freeway drivers and surface street users.

Increasing Disciplinary for Children Age 5-6 Years through Traffic Simulation Games

Discipline in traffic is all kinds of behavior of the street user both with vehicles and without ones on the street according to the law. The teaching of it should be started as soon as possible to a child in order to obtain traffic disciplinary when a person lives in a society. The application by learning through traffic simulation is one of the ways that can be used to grow traffic disciplinary to a child aged 5-6 years old. The problem formula in this research is what are types of games applied in the learning through traffic simulation to the disciplinary of preschool students? Furthermore are there any influences of the application of such learning through traffic simulation in preschool students disciplinary? The purpose of the research is to know types of traffic simulation games applied n students’ learning process and to know whether applying learning through traffic simulation games influences the disciplinary of preschool students. The approach used in this research is a quantitative study. The population is students aged 5-6 years old in TK Bhayangkari Kecamatan Gajahmungkur Semarang. The sample is 30 students of grade B of TK Kemala Bhayangkari 90 and 30 students of grade B of TK Kemala Bhayangkari 08. Types of games used in the learning through traffic simulation games are the basic rule of pedestrians, the basic rule of bikers, the introduction of traffic signs, information of how to use a helmet, and manners on vehicles. After treatment given to experiment group, it is found that there was an increase in children’s traffic disciplinary, the mean in experiment group was 103.87 and control group 72.87. the score gained by the experiment group showed a higher number than the control group with the difference of 31,0 and the counting score on post-test of 10.282 with sig (2tailed) 0,00<0,05 which means Hi is acceptable thus there was a significant influence on applying learning through traffic simulation games to increase child’s traffic disciplinary. How to cite Ekapuspahati, H. & Nurwaniasih. (2015). Increasing Disciplinary for Children Age 5-6 Years through Traffic Simulation Games. Indonesian Journal of Early Childhood Education Studies , 4(2), 90-95. doi:10.15294/ijeces.v4i2.9462 DOI 10.15294/ijeces.v4i2.9462

Urban Social Sustainability Contributing Factors in Kuala Lumpur Streets

This study aims to identify contributing factors for urban social sustainability in small-scale built environment units in a Southeast Asian city. A self-administered questionnaire has been administered on a sample of 227 street users patronizing vibrant streets located in the city center of Kuala Lumpur. Through conducting factor analysis, nine constructs including quality of place, participation and accessibility, legibility, adaptability, place attachment, street amenity, food and economic services, heritage and local culture and permeability have been extracted. This study can be used by urban planners and designers to plan and make decisions for creating more socially successful and sustainable places in cities.

Green infrastructure as an adaptation approach to tackling urban overheating in the Glasgow Clyde Valley Region, UK

Although urban growth in the city of Glasgow, UK, has subsided, urban morphology continues to generate local heat islands. We present a relatively less data-intense method to classify local climate zones (LCZ) and evaluate the effectiveness of green infrastructure options in tackling the likely overheating problem in cold climate urban agglomerations such as the Glasgow Clyde Valley (GCV) Region. LCZ classification uses LIDAR data available with local authorities, based on the typology developed by Stewart and Oke (2012). LCZ classes were then used cluster areas likely to exhibit similar warming trends locally. This helped to identify likely problem areas, a sub-set of which were then modelled for the effect of green cover options (both increase and reduction in green cover) as well as building density options. Results indicate green infrastructure could play a significant role in mitigating the urban overheating expected under a warming climate in the GCV Region. A green cover increase of approximately 20% over the present level could eliminate a third to a half of the expected extra urban heat island effect in 2050. This level of increase in green cover could also lead to local reductions in surface temperature by up to 2°C. Over half of the street users would consider a 20% increase in green cover in the city centre to be thermally acceptable, even under a warm 2050 scenario. The process adopted here could be used to estimate the overheating problem as well as the effectiveness green infrastructure strategies to overcome them.

Assessment of predicted versus measured thermal comfort and optimal comfort ranges in the outdoor environment in the temperate climate of Glasgow, UK

In a warming world, the risk of overheating is significant in temperate climate areas such as Glasgow, UK where adaptation to overheating is low. An easy-to-use thermal comfort evaluation is therefore a necessary first step towards developing effective coping mechanisms. In this study, we explore the effectiveness of Predicted Mean Vote, Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied and Physiologically Equivalent Temperature, together with air temperature in mimicking actual thermal sensation votes of street users obtained in 2011 in Glasgow City Centre. The Predicted Mean Vote/Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied indices developed for controlled indoors show a surprising similarity to actual thermal sensation votes derived from outdoor surveys, than the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature developed specifically for the outdoors. The method of calculation of mean radiant temperature is the key to improved performance of Physiologically Equivalent Temperature, with fish-eye lens photographs improving its performance. The results also show air temperature alone has nearly equal predictive power of the actual thermal sensation. A preliminary comfort range for Glasgow is also derived and its limitations are explored. Practical application: The strong relation between thermal sensation votes and air temperature (Ta) enables future thermal comfort studies to predict the thermal comfort using easy-to-access Ta only. A current thermal comfort study in Glasgow aiming at developing a link between urban morphology and Ta is already using this strong relation to predict outdoor thermal comfort in the city centre. This helps to establish a correlation between these three factors.

Urban resilience and main streets in Ankara

The decline of main streets and the rise of shopping centres have been discussed for decades. This paper aims to describe the role of main streets in achieving a high level of urban resilience. We analyse shopping preferences of main street users in terms of resilience. The increasing number of shopping centres has become a threat for main streets in Ankara, which has the highest level of shopping centre space supply among Turkish cities. Our research area covers 11 main streets in the Central Business District. Users' perceptions on various street attributes, shopping and the built environment are investigated using a survey. The survey results show that main streets are mainly used by urban dwellers living near the city centre. The users visit these streets for shopping, eating and entertainment purposes. This creates personal bonds and familiarity, offering trust in a cozy atmosphere with reasonable prices and the opportunity to bargain increase loyalty, which contributes to the economic resilience. Th...

구도심 가로경관에 대한 집단별 인식차이 연구 -김해시 구도심을 중심으로-

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences of opinion among the user groups in revitalizing the old urban center. To this end, the old downtown commercial street users in Gimhae traders, local and foreign visitors were surveyed. To examine the statistical significance, the chi-square test was performed. There were differences of opinion among three groups about the present condition and improvement of the street. Therefore, in activating the old commercial street we should reflect not only the opinions of merchants but also those of visitors. The results of this study are intended to be used as a reference to the revitalization of old commercial street.

The relationship between urban street networks and the number of transport fatalities at the city level

There are factors that impact traffic safety and the number of accident-related fatalities, such as street users, environment, road design and vehicle characteristics, but there have been limited studies that examine the relationship between street network factors and traffic-related crashes and fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this paper focused on this relationship by introducing urban street network variables, such as blocks per area, nodes per selected areas and length of roads and motorways, as independent variables and the number of fatalities as the dependent variable. This study used Open Street Maps (OSM) and International Association of Public Transport (UITP) data from 20 cities around the world. The number of blocks per area and nodes per selected areas resulted from modifying and analyzing OSM maps in ArcGIS software. The strength of the relationship in this study was found using generalized linear modeling (GLM). The findings of this research indicated that increases in fatalities are correlated with an increasing number of blocks per area, number of nodes per selected areas and length of the motorways.

Speeding behavior on urban residential streets with a 30 km/h speed limit under the framework of the theory of planned behavior

To combat speeding issues on urban residential streets with a speed limit of 30km/h, it is necessary to identify the determinants as to why this violation has often been committed willingly. The present study employed the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a frame of reference to address this issue. Vehicle speeds were observed individually on two residential street sections both with a 30km/h speed limit, then a questionnaire survey was conducted to the corresponding drivers. The results based on the sample of 376 Japanese respondents showed that speeding intention significantly associated with objectively-assessed speeding behavior while a number of variables were found as significant predictors of speeding intention. Apart from the factors that have been reported in literature, this study proposed three new context-based variables including perceived appropriateness of the 30km/h speed limit, perceived function of residential streets, and perceived right of vulnerable street users. The data showed that all of the three variables significantly associated to speeding intention while perceived appropriateness of the 30km/h speed limit had a direct impact on observed driving speed after controlling for other TPB variables. On the basis of the aforementioned findings, the implications for speeding interventions and related polices were also discussed.

Out of Place, Still in Motion

Historically, in Mexico City, people who conduct trade on the streets have been engaged with a highly regulated world of spatial restrictions, fines and detentions, still they remain on the streets. This article explores how the regulation of street-vending activities has contributed to the constitution of an ideal hierarchy of would-be social agents in public spaces by consecrating the distinction between authorized and unauthorized street users. The central aim of this article is to understand and explain how people who have been defined as out of place in the urban realm have become constituted as ‘mobile’ actors in order to ‘stay’ in the spaces from which they were originally displaced. Street vendors find that, in exchange for a license, which provides them some security and stability, they must confront challenging legal and bureaucratic demands; whereas, vendors who choose to be unlicensed must employ other strategies, such as being mobile. These regulatory strategies seem to condemn them to work at the margins of the central city. However, neither their daily mobility nor their spatial location is restricted to ‘what the law states’; everyday needs to earn a living determine the need to (re)create a particular way of being on the streets influenced, but not constricted, by state delimitation of the specific spaces and times where the population should perform routine footwork.

Urban street design in Ghana: a case study of Accra

The West African city of Accra, home to over two million of Ghana’s 25 million residents, serves as the country’s political capital and economic centre. Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has made significant investments in road infrastructure and services. Road transportation accounts for the majority of passenger and freight traffic in the country. This paper discusses current street design practices and some of the challenges faced by designers and residents in Accra. After providing background information on the city’s urban form, transportation system and street design agencies, case studies are conducted on three of Accra’s thoroughfares. These case studies evaluate how current design practices, based on US and British standards, meet the needs of different street users. Each of the selected roads serves a different purpose within Accra’s transportation network. The case studies revealed that pedestrians and other non-motorised transport (NMT) users are largely neglected by current design pra...

Drivers' perceptions regarding speeding and driving on urban residential streets with a 30 km/h speed limit

Previous studies have shown very little information regarding drivers' opinions, attitudes and behaviours with respect to speeding and driving on urban residential streets with a 30km/h speed limit. The present research aims to address this issue by conducting a questionnaire study with a sample of 367 Japanese drivers. The results showed that drivers tended to have positive beliefs about complying with the 30km/h speed limit and understand the negative consequences of speeding; however, a majority of the drivers considered breaking the speed limit as a way to reduce their travel time. While the extent of speeding was found to be very serious, a number of drivers still supported the use of a 30km/h speed limit on residential streets and favoured protecting the right of vulnerable street users. The logistic regression models developed in this study identified that the drivers who did not support the 30km/h speed limit were associated with those who had committed traffic-law violations, who had negative beliefs about complying with the speed limit, who did not consider residents' opinions, who believed it is acceptable for them to drive at a high speed, and who felt it difficult to refrain from speeding. With regard to anti-speeding countermeasures, under drivers' point of view, streets should be designed to make the 30km/h speed limit more credible, although this study also showed evidence supporting the application of public awareness programmes and social campaigns as speeding interventions. In addition, this research investigated drivers' speed choices in various specific driving circumstances, and six underlying factors affecting drivers' speed choices were determined. On the basic of the findings, the implications and suggestions for speeding interventions were also discussed.

No Country for Old Men

Within affluent societies, people who grow up in deprived areas begin reproduction much earlier than their affluent peers, and they display a number of other behaviors adapted to an environment in which life will be short. The psychological mechanisms regulating life-history strategies may be sensitive to the age profile of the people encountered during everyday activities. We hypothesized that this age profile might differ between environments of different socioeconomic composition. We tested this hypothesis with a simple observational study comparing the estimated age distribution of people using the streets in an affluent and a socioeconomically deprived neighborhood which were closely matched in other ways. We were also able to use the UK census to compare the age profile of observed street users with the actual age profile of the community. We found that people over 60 years of age were strikingly less often observed on the street in the deprived than in the affluent neighborhood, whereas young adults were observed more often. These differences were not reflections of the different age profiles of people who lived there, but rather of differences in which residents use the streets. The way people use the streets varies with age in different ways in the affluent and the deprived neighborhoods. We argue that chronic exposure to a world where there are many visible young adults and few visible old ones may activate psychological mechanisms that produce fast life-history strategies.

Radical streets? The impact of innovative street designs on liveability and activity in residential areas

This article aims to understand whether streets designed to be more liveable encourage a greater variety of street users and activities. To date there is little evidence that traffic calming or speed limits alone result in a change in how streets are used. This study is focused on more radical treatments. It discusses UK streets that conform to woonerf design criteria, which in the United Kingdom are called home zones. Seven recently completed new-build case studies were observed for 6 hours each and the nature of activity within the street environments was recorded. The results show that children in particular used the streets intensively for long periods, and that they engaged in a wide variety of play activities across the whole area of the street with relative freedom. Adults were also seen spending time in home zones, but the sense is that this was in response to the children playing there. The results suggest that these more radical street treatments are lived in and used differently compared to streets with just speed limit controls or traffic calming.

Public life in Bangkok's urban spaces

The paper examines public life within Bangkok's urban spaces on the premise that user needs and satisfaction should play an integral component in the design of these spaces. An ecology-culture-behaviour paradigm is introduced to appropriately rationalise the relationship between urban design, ecology and sociology. Bangkok, a canal- and river-based port city, echoes the urban morphological processes of early Southeast Asian coastal settlements, but differs in its social and physical construct because of its lack of exposure to colonial dominance. Only in the latter part of the 19th century, when Western influence was introduced and became stronger, a change in its physical form was manifest, but the city still retained the social construct within its urban spaces and activity nodes (i.e. informal, commercial and religious spaces). Bangkok street users and their corresponding activities within the contemporary urban street space are also examined through field observation and survey to paint an overall picture of the behaviour and attitudes of the street users. The Bangkok experience presents a case of a dynamic city with competition between its traditions and the Western contemporary influences on its urban spaces. Finally, the paper reiterates the significant need to reconsider the intrinsic relationship between ecology, culture and behaviour to better understand the life between structures to create an urban space that satisfies its end users.

Auto-Disabilities: The Case of Shared Space Environments

Many urban environments are being redesigned around a relatively new approach to street design termed shared space. Shared space is a traffic engineering concept that eliminates physical barriers separating motor vehicles, pedestrians, and other road users to encourage a sharing of street space. Such sharing is seen as a means to calm traffic and to create convivial urban spaces. The evidence shows that local authorities in the UK and overseas are enthusiastic about shared space for its potential to enhance the urban realm. Vulnerable street users, such as vision-impaired people, do not share this enthusiasm. They perceive shared space as likely to bring them into increasing contact with motor vehicles, and as compromising their safety and well-being. Shared spaces are, potentially, what I refer to as auto-disabling environments. Referring to data from the UK, I develop the proposition that shared space can be characterised as ‘disembodied urban design’ that fails to capture the complexity of corporeal form and the manifold interactions of bodies-in-space. The disembodied understanding of the interactions between bodies, space, and movement, propagated by shared space design, (re)produces both existential insecurity and ontological uncertainty amongst certain categories of users, such as vision-impaired people. Shared space can be understood as a manifestation of disabling design in the built environment, and as a reaffirmation of disabled people's relative invisibility in relation to the crafting of designed spaces.