Pedestrian Areas and Routes

Taxonomy and description

Walking could be defined as the most fundamental form of mobility. It is the mode that is always used as part of any journey whether it is a vehicle-based trip or otherwise. It is such an omnipresent activity that it is often not regarded as a transport mode at all. However, even in highly motorised societies, it is an important component of almost all trips and in most places it still remains an important mode in its own right. Walking mostly takes place within a transport system that must work for a variety of road users.

A pedestrian is any person who is travelling by walking for at least part of his or her journey. In addition to the ordinary form of walking, a pedestrian may be using various modifications and aids to walking such as wheelchairs, motorized scooters, walkers, canes, skateboards, and roller blades. The person may carry items of varying quantities, held in hands, strapped on the back, placed on the head, balanced on shoulders, or pushed/pulled along. A person is also considered a pedestrian when running, jogging, hiking, or when sitting or lying down in the roadway (World Health Organisation, 2013).

Pedestrianisation is a traffic limitation policy that is intended to reduce the adverse environmental and safety effects of vehicles, to reclaim space for pedestrians and non-traffic activities, and, more fundamentally, to improve the urban environment as a place in which to live (Brambilla and Longo 1977; Hass-Klau, 1997; Yuen and Chor, 1998).

Pedestrian routes extend the concept of pedestrian areas to networks in which pedestrians have a dedicated right of way.  In urban areas they are typically provided by a combination of footways (sidewalks) beside carriageways and dedicated crossing points.  One specific example is the designation of pedestrian routes to schools, which are sometimes reinforced by the use of “walking buses” (Kingham and Usher, 2005). However, it is relatively uncommon for these to be planned and signed as a network.  Pedestrian routes can also be shared with other users, most commonly with cyclists.  

Walkability describes the extent to which the built environment is walking-friendly. It is a useful way to assess the characteristics of an area or a route. It may be determined by its material design, but what motivates a pedestrian to walk is the atmosphere, the quality that speaks to the senses, stimulating emotion and exchange (PQN Final report, 2010).

Design of Pedestrian Areas

Design and planning archetypes for urban public spaces appear to have changed in a number of cities. There is quite a shift towards providing more spaces for people in the city centres.

To accommodate pedestrians’ needs, route-planning must be combined with place-making, meaning that provisions for linear movements (‘links’) are just as important as places for people to stay (‘place’) (Alves, Sauter, 2010).

Given the diversity of pedestrians, scheme designs should consider a wide range of user needs, including the needs of children, those who need mobility support and senior citizens. This type of approach removes access barriers for those with special needs, and ensures pleasant, convenient routes that are beneficial for all pedestrians. Successful public spaces pay dividends for cities, building civic pride, increasing tourism and economic investment, and contributing to health and quality of life (Harnik, 2003). In addition public spaces share a significant role in city planning and community socializing (Pasaogullari and Doratli 2004).

Gehl (1997) divided outdoor life in public spaces into three categories:

• Necessary activities
• Optional activities
• Social activities.

The design of pedestrian areas should be based on encouraging the necessary activities (walking and shopping) as well as the optional and social activities (activities that one chooses to do only if the conditions and place are inviting) and social activities (activities that depend on the presence of other people such as talking, people-watching).

Careful urban design can result in drivers, cyclists and pedestrians modifying their behaviour and can reduce the dominance of motorised traffic. Creating a multi-purpose space when a development is being built eliminates the later need to adjust a road network with disconnected traffic-calming devices. This further contributes to enhancing the walking environment, and can result in areas deliberately created with fewer cars and greater pedestrian activity. We need to ensure that our view of a street is more than just functional. Streets and public spaces should be beautiful, engaging and inspiring. Too often they are boring, repetitive and ugly.

As a general principle, it is important to provide a quality public environment where impediments to walking are only implemented when they are absolutely essential. As part of the design process, legislation designating the area as a pedestrianised zone is usually required. In addition, it will be necessary to provide for servicing (e.g. to shops within the pedestrianised zone) and most importantly to allow for diversions and alternative traffic routes around the pedestrianised zone.

Where other users are permitted to use a pedestrian area, the allocation of space requires careful design.  It can be done by allowing completely free sharing of space that requires clear signing and effective enforcement.

Design of Pedestrian Routes

The overwhelming majority of pedestrian routes cross a mixture of land types. Routes for pedestrians comprise:

• the road corridor - footpaths and footways along major highways – pedestrians travel along and across roads;
• routes over land available for public use, such as canal towpaths and river banks and through parks, transport interchanges and car parks;
• other public places.

The European Union funded project, PROMPT (New Means to PROMote Pedestrian Traffic in cities; PROMPT, 2002) identified six clusters of potential obstacles to walking in a sample of 6 cities across Europe as follows: 

• Lack of or scarce offer of physical and social space;
• Lack of equipment and services in outdoor spaces;
• Interference from motor vehicles;
• Poor support by and connection to other modes of transport;
• Poor natural, architectural and psychological features of the environment;
• Poor environmental performance.

A key finding of the PROMPT study was that reallocation of road space to pedestrians to reduce the interference with motor vehicles is essential as part of the traffic management strategy associated with implementation of a pedestrianisation policy. Road space should be allocated back to non motorised modes such as cycling (Hass-Klau, 1994). In some cases, bicycles can be rented << hyperlink to cycling here >> within the pedestrian zones. This has occurred in many city centres in Europe e.g. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy.
Yannis et al (2007) point out that “safety is among the most important quality aspects of walking” and suggested actions centred on four core actions that are of importance in improving safety concerns (note that these are also outlined in Pucher and Dijkstra, 2003):

• Action 1: Management of Vehicle Traffic – include slowing speeds to reduce severity of accidents (see Traffic Management and traffic calming)
• Action 2: Provision or improvement of pedestrian infrastructure
• Action 3: Improving user perceptions
• Action 4: Education and Enforcement.

A structured process is desirable when pedestrians already walk or wish to walk within a deficient road corridor.  A hierarchy of solutions will be helpful to consider:

• reducing traffic volumes on the adjacent roads;
• reducing traffic speed on the adjacent road;
• reallocate space of the road corridor to pedestrians
• provide direct at-grade crossing treatments;
• improve pedestrian routes on existing desire lines;
• provide new pedestrian route alignment and grade separation.

In the COST 358 Pedestrians’ Quality Needs Report (Methorst, Monterde i Bort, Risser, Sauter, Tight and Walker, 2010) a result from the EU project “ASsess and Implementation” (ASI) referred to for instance the fact that experts underestimate the importance for walkers, of different preconditions like:

• accessibility of public transport stops / urban furniture / time to reach the destination / shops – number, time of opening, activities open during the night / acoustic conditions / number of facilities / interesting views / presence of green elements in the area / presence of people working and living in the area / traffic volume / number of speeds / respect of speed limits / crossing points / accessibility of sidewalk / quality of the street lights / width of sidewalks / efficiency of the garbage collection system /cleanliness of the street /shade / perception of safety and security.

Hence the design issues that should be considered centre around the concept of the 5 Cs as summarised by Tolley (2003). The 5 Cs are “Connected, Comfortable, Convenient, Convivial and Conspicuous" and with it come the following important design questions as follows:

• Are there places to walk to (i.e. existence of amenities)?
• Walking along the street (Henson, 2000)
• Continuity of the path: Are there gaps or obstacles in the sidewalk or path?
• Capacity: Is the footway wide enough?
• Comfort: Is the walk pleasant?
• Crossing the street:
• Safety, comfort and convenience
• Is there sufficient queuing space?
• Delay: Total Crossing time
• Deviation Required: How far does a pedestrian need to detour to find a safe crossing point?
• Lighting:
• Needed to improve personal security in hours of darkness
• Particularly for women and the elderly.

Design of pedestrian environment concepts:

• Living streets
• Pedestrian precincts
• Shared zones

Living streets
The concept of living streets acknowledges that streets should be designed to accommodate living and community interaction. A living street aims to balance the needs of residents, businesses, pedestrians and cyclists with cars, and thereby encourage a better quality of life and a greater range of community and street activity. The concept is most useful for roads without a predominant through traffic function, but can be applied in part to a minor arterial road.

Pedestrian precincts
Pedestrian-only areas created by restricting traffic access or closing roads to traffic, lead to the best possible conditions for pedestrian freedom of movement and road safety. This type of zone could be implemented under different forms:

• one closed street, dedicated to pedestrian use only;
• a  pedestrian plaza;
• a continuous area – several streets and cross streets.

Pedestrian precincts are most beneficial where there is heavy pedestrian activity, retail or mixed development, a high number of pedestrian/vehicle conflicts, and motor traffic can be accommodated elsewhere.

Shared zones
Shared zone is a residential or retail street that has been designed to give priority to residents and pedestrians while significantly reducing the dominance of motorised vehicles. In the United Kingdom, shared zones are called home zones and in The Netherlands they are referred to as a woonerf.
The route is physically constrained for vehicles by landscape, physical structures and tight turning radii, with no delineation between the footpath and roadway, slowing vehicles to very low speeds.
Shared zones are most suitable for streets and compact areas with a low demand for through traffic movement.
Shared zones are considered more fully under traffic calming.

Design for Pedestrian Movement:

The concept of footway capacity is formalised in the Level Of Service (LOS) concept for walkways (Fruin 1971). The main question for designers in this case would be whether the route is sufficient to cope with an expected flow of pedestrians and under what circumstances pedestrians would feel that their personal space is being “invaded” by others.

When designing and planning urban environments, it is essential to analyse the mobility options for pedestrians. A pedestrian network must be simultaneously created in cities with the road network and with the same priority.

Well designed footpaths encourage walking and reduce the risk of crashes. Most footpaths within the road reserve lie between the edge of the roadway and the frontage of adjacent private property. There are four distinct zones within this area.

1. kerb zone – defines the limit of the pedestrian environment, blocking vehicles from using the footpath. It also represents a major tangible signal for the vision-impaired pedestrians.
2. street furniture zone – is used for placing different features like promotional boards, seats, parking meters, lighting columns. It is quite important since it creates a psychological buffer between between the pedestrians and the motorised vehicles.
3. through route – the area where pedestrians normally choose to travel;
4. frontage zone – the area containing fences, walls, “window shoppers, overhanging vegetation. It is an area where pedestrians normally choose not to use.

It is important to distinguish between the total width and the width of the zone likely to be used by pedestrians considering the above-mentioned zones.

Design of Crossing Facilities:

Safety is important for the pedestrian when crossing roads. When designing or improving the pedestrian facilities to cross roads, four main reasons must lie at the bottom of this decision:

• Level of service - the number of crossings;
• Safety;
• Specific access provision, for a specific target group;
• Integration – as part of an integrated management plan for the area.

Crossing facilities generally divide into three categories:

• Physical aids – These type of interventions reduce the crossing distance and the amount of traffic the pedestrian has to negotiate with at each stage. The crossing distance can be reduced through kerb extensions, medians and pedestrian islands.
• Time separated/priority control - Pedestrian priority and signal control should only be considered after providing the best combination of physical aids for the site. Adding the control will provide benefits to pedestrians, but will typically result in a greater total delay to motor vehicle occupants than the total time saved by pedestrians.
• Spatially separated facilities - Although spatially separated facilities can eliminate conflict with vehicles for pedestrians who use the facility, and minimise crossing delay, they can increase pedestrians’ travel time due to the requirement to change level or other detours.

Design for Disabilities:

Good design that assists pedestrians can go a long way to satisfying the needs of those with disabilities. However, when special needs are met (such as providing for the visually impaired) the general population benefits as well. For the visually impaired, people in wheelchairs, and for the elderly, the location of street furniture can be an obstacle to walking. However the provision of benches, rest areas and shelters is appreciated by all. To encourage use by disabled persons, such routes should also be sufficiently wide for wheelchairs.  IHT (1986, 1989, 2000) are useful references for this design aspect.

Safe routes to school:
Journeys to school are of key safety importance. Making pedestrian routes to school safer can also help increase the number of walking trips.

The main issue is to encouraging more walking and cycling to school, less car travel and a reduction in congestion near the school gate. All school-based programmes aim to improve safety and remove institutional, physical and attitudinal barriers to walking (and cycling) to and from school.

They typically involve improving and/or installing:

• road crossing facilities / vehicle speed-reduction devices / pedestrian and cycle paths / road markings / signs to warn drivers of the presence of children / lighting / traffic management measures.

Other Elements of Design:

Landscaping can create an attractive visual environment and a ‘buffer’ between the footpath and the roadway. It creates the appearance of a narrower road and can encourage drivers to travel more slowly. It adds value to the aesthetics of the walking environment but it must be placed carefully since high shrubs and trees might also obscure from view (of drivers) the presence of vulnerable road users such as children (O’Flaherty, 1997; IHT, 1997). However, strategically located trees and greenery can be used instead of bollards to act as a marking for the entrance to the pedestrian area. 

Surfaces - All surfaces on which pedestrians walk should be firm, stable and slip resistant even when wet. High quality and distinctive environments, achieved by installing different footpath surfaces, are of increasing importance. Vision impaired pedestrians often use differences in texture, contrast and colour as a way-finding prompt, so material standardisation and consistency are important.

Street furniture - The footpath is the main location for street furniture. Some furniture is designed as a benefit for pedestrians and enhance the walking environment, while other furniture is provided mainly for other road users. Furniture can create a visually interesting environment for pedestrians and encourage greater use of the street as a public space.

Pedestrians and Public Transport

Walking is irrevocably connected to all public transport journeys, therefore, providing good pedestrian access is an essential requirement for public transport to become a realistic alternative to car travel. This involves providing good quality pedestrian links to, and good pedestrian facilities at stops, stations and interchanges. It involves accessible, safe and comfortable transport stops.

A few principles for pedestrian access to public transport need to be established: location of public transport stops/stations, location and form of pedestrian crossings to maximise the convenience of arriving quickly at bus stops, adequate and comfortable waiting space in PT stops.

Walking cannot be promoted independently from Public Transport. Residents who use public transport tend to walk more than those who use other transport modes.

Pedestrian signage

A planned and cohesive strategy for pedestrian signage should be implemented.
Signage strategies should be based on locating signs at the ‘decision points’ on the pedestrian network. Signs should only be installed where they fulfill a need based on pedestrians’ expectations, like outside the roadway owing to pedestrian route flexibility and diversity.

Lighting

Lighting has several purposes for pedestrians:

• illuminates potential hazards so pedestrians can avoid them;
• enables pedestrians to read signs and orient themselves;
• affects feelings of personal security and comfort;
• enables drivers to see pedestrians and thereby improves their safety;
• can enhance the walking environment;
• makes the pedestrian network continuously available, not just during daylight hours;
• can encourage pedestrians to use some routes rather than others.

Street lighting is not always adequate for pedestrians on footpaths within road reserves - walking conditions can change and the initial scheme may have been inadequate.