Pedestrian Areas and Routes

Summary

People need to walk. Walking is the mode that is always used as part of any journey whether they are car based trips or otherwise. Hence provision of pedestrian routes should be of importance to planners. However, the quality of pedestrians’ experience can vary significantly. The impact of this experience may determine their future decisions to either walk or choose another mode of transport.

Practitioners need to understand how to improve the management of the interrelation between public space, transport network and social, legal and political context in order to influence pedestrian behaviour and to provide safe and attractive pedestrian areas. Creating good urban spaces requires knowledge of the walking characteristics and pedestrians’ needs, abilities and desires.

This includes ensuring that provisions are made in the design for target groups with special needs: disabled people, elderly and children. The proportion of senior citizens will increase in the coming years. Due to the overall qualitative change of the modern society lifestyle, more and more senior citizens want to remain active and to be involved in social and other type of events which increase their demands on mobility. Planners and policy makers have to take this into consideration. Furthermore, children are not familiar with traffic rules and are simply not able to cope with complex traffic situations.  This turns them into a very vulnerable group of pedestrians.

To accommodate pedestrians’ needs, route planning must be combined with place making. The quality of the street scene is particularly important for pedestrians and is associated with higher walking levels. Providing walking is never enough: walking warrants open spaces that inspire and encourage communication. Integration is a particularly key to the overall success of pedestrianisation strategies. The Pedestrianisation Policy should also be directed by a Town Centre Management Vision (IHT, 1997) which sets forth the objectives of the strategy and complemented by alternative measures to enhance its effectiveness without compromising economic growth.

In the case of pedestrian routes, there should be amenities easily accessible on foot so that pedestrians are encouraged to utilise them. Experience to date also suggests that pedestrianisation schemes are often opposed initially by retailers and businesses. Hence it is vital that their support is gathered at the earliest opportunity. Sandahl and Lindh (1995) point out that an increase in retail turnover is common when pedestrianisation is combined with good design and sufficient parking facilities. They provide evidence to demonstrate that town centre pedestrianisation and improved accessibility contribute to increasing rent potential and location attractiveness.