MEASURING WALKABILITY

Today in world of rapid urbanization, the motorized traffic is seen to be ruling the roads in the majority of the cities across the globe. In this process ‘pedestrian’, a primary user of the road and the ‘walking’, as a prime mode of pedestrian mobility has disappeared from the vocabulary of the local bodies. The roads have lost the meaning of ‘Streets as Interactive Place’ and do not address the basic needs of the ‘Pedestrian’. The pedestrians are facing the sidewalk issues such as pedestrians’ needs such as safety, security, comfort etc. and lack quantitative and qualitative evaluation of prevailing sidewalk scenario. The intention of this book is to develop and illustrate ‘Sidewalk Walkability Evaluation Model’ which will contribute in qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the existing sidewalk environment in urban areas of any city from pedestrians’ satisfaction needs, expressed in terms of Quantitative and Qualitative Sidewalk Walkability Indices. This model will be also effective to analyze and compare different design input scenarios for planning, design and operation of sidewalk elements and help in conducting sensitivity analysis of the sidewalk environment.