Portland Papers
Assessing the Environmental Quality of Walking
Steps Towards a Person-Centered Level of Service | Joern Kroll
Summary: This paper examines current methodologies of assessing levels of service (LOS) for pedestrians (Highway Capacity Manual, Sprinkle Consulting Inc. methodology). It analyzes their strengths and weaknesses, and suggests ways to arrive at a more satisfactory service level analysis of pedestrian circulation space. Current methodologies are modeled too closely after vehicular LOS, resulting in inadequate or contradictory assessments (e.g., good LOS in an inhospitable walking environment). This essay also examines concepts outside of traditional LOS methodologies to arrive at building blocks for a person-centered methodology that more adequately reflects the entire walking experience. The paper is thus an attempt to include perceptual and subjective factors in the assessment of the environmental quality of walking. Such subjective factors are understood as commonly shared social and cultural dimensions of the environment. A person-centered LOS assessment is a critical tool for evaluating existing and designing future pedestrian spaces. ... More
Attractiveness for pedestrians
a most fickle aspect of urban quality | Lucia Martincigh
Summary: The revival of walking, as an alternative transport mode for the short trips, can indeed become one of the main tools for rebalancing mobility, and the application of the prescriptive instrument of the Environmental Island can foster it, setting innovative intermediate spaces apt to offer the pedestrians an urban environment better in quality. The way of signifying urban quality as the requirements/performances meeting has been already systematized as a code, at building level, in the ex novo design. The same approach can be used also at urban level and in the rehabilitation design field; obviously in operating this transposition it is necessary to redefine the exact domain of every requirement class, with reference to the specific field of interest. Some of these aspects (safety, accessibility, comfort, attractiveness, intermodality and implementation processes) have been investigated, using a holistic approach, in the European research PROMPT (New means to PROmote Pedestrian Traffic in cities); the research, coordinated by Kari Rauhala (VTT - FI) is funded by the E.C. within the Fifth Framework (Key Action The city of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage). The role they play in the urban upgrading of residential districts has been studied in a national research, funded by the Italian Ministery of University and Research: The quality of the intermediate spaces for the vulnerable users. The systematization of the measures for the design of safe pedestrian networks, of which the author is responsible. This paper presents some considerations and first results concerning both the application of this design methodology and the analyses carried out in the Working Package 4 of PROMPT, devoted to Attractiveness, of which the author is leader. ... More
Beyond public health
benefits of walking on childrens social development | Rodney Tolley
Summary: The Staffordshire Walking Bus Partnership commissioned an evaluation of a walking bus scheme from CAST (Centre for Alternative and Sustainable Transport) in May 1999. The children themselves were asked to participate, with pictures and discussion groups. The pictures were analysed to ascertain how the content of pictures differed by mode of travel i.e. car, walking, walking bus. What were the key images that children were focussing on? What does this tell us about childrens experiences? In the pictures of children that were driven to school, for most the car tended to dominate the whole image. This suggests somewhat of an isolating experience: contact with the environment or other person is very limited. On the other hand, virtually all of the images in the drawings of walkers contained people, usually in groups and invariably smiling. The impression is of a much more social activity. In the pictures of walkers there was a much greater sense of spatial and environmental awareness. The pictures of children on the walking bus had features in common with the drawings by the walkers but the pictures were distinctive in the real sense they projected of a happy and jolly social experience. The evaluation of Pirehill First School demonstrated a substantial shift in attitudes towards the walking bus scheme and it also pointed to improvements in physical health. Most interesting of all, the results provide very strong evidence of improvements now and in the future in childrens social development. In particular this relates to social contacts, independence and road sense. In general those walking showed a much greater awareness of the environment around them, were better able to map the progression of the journey and their images tended to project a much more social experience. ... More
City and Countryside Connected
Space for the Walker | Jan Erik Burger in collaboration with Theo de Bruin
Summary: Walking has a long tradition. For centuries walking was the only form of transport. Nevertheless in those days walking was also a form of pastime: in cities and villages people strolled. Walking was a social activity, aimed at contact with others. This function still exists. Many European cities have their boulevards, like the Ramblas in Barcelona or specially designed walking parks. Examples in the Netherlands are the Volkspark in Enschede, The former bolwerks (ramparts) in Haarlem or the famous Amsterdam Vondelpark. ... More
Economic Value of Walkability
Todd Alexander Litman - Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Summary: This paper describes ways to quantify the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including accessibility, transportation cost savings, public health, reduced external transportation costs, more efficient land use, community livability, economic development, and support for equity objectives. Current transportation planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive analysis techniques, described in this paper, are likely to justify increased public support for walking and other nonmotorized modes of travel. This paper summarizes a longer paper with the same title available at the Victoria Transport Policy Institute website (www.vtpi.org). ... More
Not found exactly what you were looking for?
Try a keyword search or define by subject using the Walk 21 Paper Search.