Walkability evaluation sourounding university campus

The pedestrian space should encourage walking and offer safety and comfort for all people. One of the most widely used modes of transportation to access a university campus is on foot. To identify the degree of safety and comfort offered by the infrastructure intended for pedestrians around three university campuses in Marilia (SP), to develop their daily activities such as study, research, work and medical care, performance indicators were used, developed by Cerna (2014), and a walkability index, developed by Pires et al. (2017), based on the method proposed by Cerna. The results show that among the evaluated themes, the indicators related to Traffic light, sidewalks, passenger shelters (bus stop), bus stops and sidewalks had the worst scores. These results point to the effectiveness of the method and thus, they can contribute so that managers and owners of buildings around these university campuses can improve the quality of the access infrastructure to the respective universities.

Research on Night Light Comfort of Pedestrian Space in Urban Park

The outdoor light environment significantly affects aspects of public psychological and physiological health. This study conducted experiments to quantify the effects of the light environment on visitor light comfort in urban park pedestrian space. Nine sets of lighting conditions with different average horizontal illuminance (2 lx, 6 lx, 10 lx) and colour temperatures (5600 K, 4300 K, 3000 K) were established virtual reality scenarios. Subjective light comfort was evaluated, and electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured on 18 subjects to comprehensively study the effects of different light environments on human light comfort. The results of the comprehensive evaluation showed that colour temperature had a very significant impact on subjective light comfort, with warm light being generally more favourable than cool light in enhancing human subjective light comfort. The results of the EEG analysis show that the average horizontal illuminance is an important factor in the level of physiological fatigue, and that physiological fatigue can be maintained in a superior state at an appropriate level of illuminance. Based on the results of both subjective and objective factors, a comprehensive analysis was carried out to propose a range of average horizontal illuminance (4.08 lx, 6.99 lx) and a range of colour temperature (3126 K, 4498 K) for the comprehensive light comfort zone in urban park pedestrian space.

Diagnóstico de diseño y uso del espacio vial peatonal: aportes desde el paisaje para la ciudad de La Plata, Argentina

In the context of increasingly more complex urban scenarios, the infrastructure of the city's road spaces is still almost exclusively dedicated to cars. The city of La Plata is no exception, also presenting an interesting contrast between its planned urban areas and those that have grown due to urban sprawl. The concept of pedestrian space is understood starting from the different functions it fulfills, not only insofar as a transport infrastructure, but also as public and strategic spaces that shape the urban landscape. Thus, this article proposes, on one hand, the generation of primary information and, on the other, the construction of a diagnosis about the design and use of the pedestrian space. For this, a survey of the current state of the pedestrian space, its dimensions, morphological characteristics, and landscape elements, is carried out. Although there is an adequate amount of space reserved for pedestrian use, it is confirmed that in many sectors it is still not accessible or pleasant for citizens, due to its poor condition or complete lack of upkeep.

Identification of Factors Affecting Pedestrian Satisfaction toward Land Use and Street Type

Walking is an essential sustainable mode of transportation. Encouraging to increase walking trips can bring various social and economic benefits to our society. Since the policy paradigm has been shifting from car-oriented to pedestrian-oriented, interest in securing pedestrian rights and improving walking environments is increasing significantly. This study aims to examine factors affecting pedestrian satisfaction according to land use and street type. A pedestrian satisfaction survey was conducted in an industrial city with a mid-size population in the city of Changwon, South Korea. Based on the survey data from 500 respondents, factors affecting pedestrian satisfaction were analyzed by land use (commercial or residential areas) and street type (non-separated or separated sidewalks). The analysis results, using binary and ordered logit models, showed that the less illegal parking, the more pedestrian space, pedestrian guidance facility, and green space, the higher the pedestrian satisfaction. Factors positively affecting the satisfaction of pedestrian paths according to land use were physical environmental variables, such as the separated sidewalk variable. In commercial areas, pedestrian guidance facilities and street cleanliness were included as major influencing factors, implying differences in land use influencing factors. A common factor affecting the satisfaction of separated or non-separated sidewalk cases was also identified as the sufficiency of walking space. Therefore, the most urgent policy measure for improving pedestrian satisfaction for the city was to install a sidewalk or expand the pedestrian space. In the pedestrian-vehicle separation models, green space and cleanliness were included as significant variables, and in the non-separated models, variables of pedestrian guidance facilities and sidewalk conditions were included.

Prediction of Driver’s Center of Gravity Position on a Stand-Up Type PMV Considering Intentions

In recent years, Personal Mobility Vehicles (PMVs) have been attracting attention as a new means of transportation. They are environmentally friendly without exhausting harmful gases. These vehicle bodies are relatively smaller than cars, so they have a high affinity for pedestrian space. However, depending on the specifications of the vehicle, driver’s behaviors have great effect on the vehicle movement because the weight of the vehicle is comparatively low. In addition, applying the automatic driving on PMV will be one of the next steps to make use of PMVs. It is important to understand the dynamic behavior of drivers not only during their intentional driving but also during the automatic driving. In this study, we focused on stand-up type PMVs. We measured driver’s center of gravity and several forces on a standing PMV. From the measurements, we looked at the correlation coefficient, and used multiple regression analysis to derive the prediction equations of driver’s center of gravity position on stand-up type PMVs. These results can be applied to simulate the dynamic motion of the PMV and a driver.

Systematic Literature Review of Walkability and the Built Environment

Walking is the most sustainable form of transportation. It is the socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. However, transportation technology has caused the desertion of the pedestrian space due to excessively motorized transport. Consequently, the pedestrian environment has degraded. In many cities, the abandonment of the pedestrian space has created a socially unfriendly environment. Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walk. In measuring walkability, several criteria are considered, which include inter alia, the quality of pedestrian facilities, roadway conditions, land use patterns, community support, security and comfort for walking. Findings from studies are mixed; some stated that improving the built environment does not encourage people to walk more; however, there are other studies that indicated otherwise. The aim of this paper is to review the built environment characteristics that promote walking. A literature review of studies that focused on walking, walkability, the built environment, pedestrian and urban design was conducted. This study has searched the electronic databases that intertwined with the Web of Science database. The choice was made due to the comprehensiveness of quality academic studies indexed in the database, thus providing reliable sources of body of work. The database integrates numerous sub-databases such as Web of Science Core Collection, Derwent Innovations Index, KCI Korean Journal Database, Russian Science Citation Index and SciELO Citation Index. The data are then thematically coded. The fields of urban planning, urban design, geography, transportation, sociology, and other related areas were included in the research. The result of this review offers evidence to the criteria that promote walking. The review found that three criteria are somewhat constant in promoting walking, namely, population and building density, land use and land use mixes, and safety. In short, by making an area perceived as safe with the presence of land use mixes and density are the best combination to create a walkable environment.

A Controversial History of Pedestrian Space Lighting in Moscow

The paper explores history of pedestrian area and pedestrian street lighting development in Moscow. It also explores comprehensively typical problems of lighting design for such spaces on a wide variety of instances. The paper concludes list of systematic insufficiencies in urban ameliorating design and urban lighting.

From Community to Public Familiarity: Neighborhood, Sociability, and Belonging in the Neoliberal City

Current urban neoliberalism processes have shaped and changed contemporary cities, including the local scale’s built environment and social relations. This article aims to study how such transformations affect local sociability by analyzing the effects of neighborhoods’ morphology and socio-demographic characteristics on different forms of interactions and how they affect the sense of belonging. Taking the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile, as a case study, we gathered secondary data on urban morphology and surveyed ten neighborhoods to measure sociability patterns. The results obtained from multilevel logistic regression models show that time living in the neighborhood and public pedestrian space is the most critical factor affecting neighborhood sociability. Moreover, instead of local ties, public familiarity is the form of sociability with the most substantial effects on a sense of belonging. We conclude that recent neighborhoods, formed by neoliberal urbanization, tend to discourage neighborhood sociability and a sense of belonging.

Pedestrian Avoidance Method of Autonomous Personal Mobility Vehicles Considering Passenger Comfort

During the autonomous locomotion of personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) in pedestrian space, it is necessary to avoid collisions with pedestrians walking nearby. The avoidance paths of the PMVs are affected by the behavior of the pedestrians, which may also affect passenger comfort. In this study, a local path planning method considering passenger comfort is proposed to design comfortable pedestrian avoidance strategies during autonomous locomotion of PMVs in pedestrian space. First, pedestrian behaviors that affect passenger comfort are investigated by evaluating the comfort in pedestrian avoidance scenarios with different avoidance methods and pedestrian behavior. Next, requirements for a pedestrian avoidance method considering comfort are set based on the behaviors affecting passenger comfort. Finally, a novel path planning method satisfying the requirements is proposed. It is confirmed that the proposed method can generate comfortable paths in pedestrian space, and the validity of the proposed method is examined by a subject experiment.