THE INFLUENCE OF STREET’S ELEMENTS ON WALKABILITY: A CASE OF COLOMBO 07

The walking behaviour of pedestrians continuously depends on street design and its quality. In Asian countries, streets have evolved from traditional streets without interpreting the actual need and impact of street elements for walking behaviour. However, they act only as transportation links while limited to the name by itself. This research aimed to identify the street elements that influence walkability and to investigate the most influential factor for walkability in terms of “Link and Place” to promote walkability in the Sri Lankan context. This study was conducted using a mixed-method approach. The on-site observations were carried out through a photograph survey and rough sketches to observe the street elements. Later, findings were validated through the questionnaire survey regarding the seven principles of a walkable street. Then, data were analysed by using descriptive analysis and correlation analysis aided by SPSS software. The findings of the observation and questionnaire revealed that there are nine most common street elements of streets which influence walkability in the Sri Lankan context. Finally, the study agreed that both “Link and Place” functions are equally important for the walkability of pedestrians.

Street character and current practices influence

Rapid development has affected the elements of urban spaces adversely, particularly streets. These changes produce faceless cities with high dependency on vehicles for transportation to key ‘consumers’ aside from buildings that are not designed for the local environment and local needs. In urban design, concerns on character affect the sense of place. Thus, this paper assesses the crucial element of streets with respect to design and character in the urban setting, the subsequent issues, and the recommended solution. This study focuses on the scenarios that threaten today's street design. This work will discuss the advantages of traditional streets, which could be a potential solution to the issues mentioned earlier. Finally, a street design based on the traditional street model is proposed to fulfill the criteria necessitated by the local community.

The role of Street condition and forms on the amount of carbon emissions released from vehicles

In the last two decades, the percentage volume of carbon emissions has increased from 280 to more than 380 parts per million in the atmosphere, the problem is that it is still increasing daily in which it caused many environmental hazard that has been seen the last couple of years. The end of this century, It is expected that the uncontrolled amount of emissions emitted to the atmosphere will increase the surface temperature of plant earth by 3.4ºC. Worldwide, the percentage of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and its effect on air quality has been the main concern of scientist and researchers in the past decade. Egypt, is one of the biggest emitters that surfer from atmospheric pollution, almost 24% of the atmosphere pollutants in Egypt is from the transportation sector due to the heavy use of fossil fuels. Reducing the roads carbon emissions through streets design and form is the main scope of this research. This research intend to control the amount of carbon emission released in air by vehicles through controlling vehicles speed and motion which is effected by the street design and form. The presented research analysis the relation between carbon emissions and streets condition and forms, through measuring the amount of CO2 and CO emission produced in one of the Egyptian roads from different types of vehicles in road with three different conditions. El-Shuhada Street has been chosen to be the study area of this research. The researchers used Testo 315-3 to measure the Carbon emissions in the street and to identify the relation between CO2 emission and street condition and form. The results reveled that straight routes with vehicale speeds ranged between 80 to 100 kn/h produces less carbon emissions then straight routes with street bumps and vehicle speed ranged between 26 to 19 km/h. Moreover, curved routes emitted more emission than straight routes

Exploring the relationship between the urban built environment and elderly pedestrian mobility in South Asian cities

Cities in South Asia have traditionally been dominated by pedestrians for their daily trips. As the elderly population is increasing in the last two decades, the dynamics of designing appropriate walkways to serve elderly people are getting more attention from urban planning scholars and policymakers alike. However, few studies in planning in the context of southern cities have considered the significant issue of elderly mobility and walkability in cities in South Asia beyond the realm of large metropolitan cities. In this paper, we attempt to understand the challenges encountered by elderly pedestrians in existing street conditions and summarizes information that may be useful for enhancing elderly mobility. Using cases of Rourkela in India and Khulna city in Bangladesh, we have collected both primary and secondary information by conducting a structured questionnaire survey in both cities at a similar period. Further to this, we analyzed statistical models to understand relationships among built environment and mobility issues based on subjective evaluation (i.e., infrastructure, street design, lighting, overcrowding condition, and encroachment). Most of the elderly pedestrians surveyed in both cities demand improvement of micro-scale urban design features and planning guidelines that they assume are absent in the statutory planning documents. This study may be employed as a useful document for city-level planning taking into account elderly perception about the built environment and their mobility concerns in future policy and planning projects. Consequently, a more comprehensive study may be incorporated highlighting elderly pedestrian’s mobility within the formal/informal transportation planning system.

Built Environment Determinants of Pedestrian Activities and Their Consideration in Urban Street Design

Pedestrian facilities have been regarded in urban street design as “leftover spaces” for years, but, currently, there is a growing interest in walking and improving the quality of street environments. Designing pedestrian facilities presents the challenge of simultaneously accommodating (1) pedestrians who want to move safely and comfortably from point A to B (movement function); as well as (2) users who wish to rest, communicate, shop, eat, and enjoy life in a pleasant environment (place function). The aims of this study are to provide an overview of how the task of designing pedestrian facilities is addressed in international guidance material for urban street design, to compare this with scientific evidence on determinants of pedestrian activities, and to finally develop recommendations for advancing provisions for pedestrians. The results show that urban street design guidance is well advanced in measuring space requirements for known volumes of moving pedestrians, but less in planning pleasant street environments that encourage pedestrian movement and place activities. A stronger linkage to scientific evidence could improve guidance materials and better support urban street designers in their ambition to provide safe, comfortable and attractive street spaces that invite people to walk and to stay.

Street Design for Hedonistic Sustainability through AI and Human Co-Operative Evaluation

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on community development centered on the well-being and quality of life of citizens, while pursuing sustainability. This study proposes an AI and human co-operative evaluation (AIHCE) framework that facilitates communication design between designers and stakeholders based on human emotions and values and is an evaluation method for street space. AIHCE is an evaluation method based on image recognition technology that performs deep learning of the facial expressions of both people and the city; namely, it consists of a facial expression recognition model (FERM) and a street image evaluation model (SIEM). The former evaluates the street space based on the emotions and values of the pedestrian’s facial expression, and the latter evaluates the target street space from the prepared street space image. AIHCE is an integrated framework for these two models, enabling continuous and objective evaluation of space with simultaneous subjective emotional evaluation, showing the possibility of reflecting it in the design. It is expected to contribute to fostering people’s awareness that streets are public goods reflecting the basic functions of public spaces and the values and regional characteristics of residents, contributing to the improvement of the sustainability of the entire city.

Microscopic Traffic Simulation as a Decision Support System for Road Diet and Tactical Urbanism Strategies

Urban street networks in the United States have been primarily designed for automobile traffic with negligible considerations to non-motorized transportation users. Due to environmental issues and quality of life concerns, communities are reclaiming street spaces for active modes and slowing the speeds in their downtown. Moreover, tactical urbanism, i.e., the use of street space for innovative purposes other than moving automobile traffic, is becoming attractive due to reduced automobile travel demand and the need for outdoor activities in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides details of the modeling of an urban downtown network (in the City of San Jose) using microscopic traffic simulation. The model is then applied to evaluate the effectiveness of street design changes at varying demand scenarios. The microsimulation approach was chosen because it allows for the detailed modeling and visualization of the transportation networks, including movements of individual vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The street design change demonstrated here involves one-way to two-way street conversion, but the framework of network-wide impact evaluation may also be used for complete street conversions. The base conditions network was also tested under different travel demand reduction scenarios (10%, 20%, and 30%) to identify the corridors in the city network in which the tactical urbanism strategies (e.g., open-air dining) may be best accommodated. The study provides framework for the use of a microscopic model as part of a decision support system to evaluate and effectively implement complete streets/tactical urbanism strategies.

Walkability Perception in Asian Cities: A Comparative Study in Bangkok and Nagoya

Asian cities are unique, where people may need more than just walking; however, the walkability research in a local context has received less attention. This paper analyses the walking needs and the influential factors of walking behavior in Asian cities. A comparative analysis in Bangkok and Nagoya is presented, taking into account the characteristics of local street design and development. Street evaluation experiments of various streets are conducted through 360-degree videos. The factor analyses indicate that the walking needs in both cities can be considered in two levels, but the components of the needs are different. Being smooth and having no obstacles are common basic needs. Safety and security are regarded as basic needs in Nagoya, but as higher-level needs in Bangkok. Attractiveness of activity and walk pleasure are the common upper-level needs. Street elements such as width, green, traffic, parking, pollution exposure, and activity are found to be influential on the walking needs. The structural equation models indicate that higher-level needs have more of an influence than the lower-level needs for walking behavior in Bangkok and for shop walking in Nagoya, while the basic need has more influence on walking willingness for transit access. These findings call for practical attention for street design and development where local context and street functions must be carefully considered.