Urban Planning
Mehdi Moeini; Bahareh Ebrahimpour
Abstract
Following the industrial revolution, the development of urbanization, and the expansion of cities, the oldest form of human movement, i.e. walking, was replaced with the use of automobiles. Therefore, the ease of traverse for pedestrians around cities is less significant now than a century ago. Today, ...
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Following the industrial revolution, the development of urbanization, and the expansion of cities, the oldest form of human movement, i.e. walking, was replaced with the use of automobiles. Therefore, the ease of traverse for pedestrians around cities is less significant now than a century ago. Today, there is a growing interest in enhancement of walking habits in urban areas in order to reduce pollution and other problems associated with motor transportation and to improve public health. Therefore, the issue of walking habits has been included on the agendas of many cities. Highlighting its significance, a large number of studies have been conducted around the world and in Iran over the past few decades to address the issue. The increasing trend in the past decade in the publication of high-quality articles addressing the topic of pedestrians demonstrates its importance and the expert concern for it in the field of urban planning and design. The present article aimed to investigate the issue of pedestrians quantitatively and qualitatively, analyzing and interpreting research published in Iran as high-quality articles and to avoid unnecessary replication in the field. It involved meta-synthesis, using encoding to analyze and interpret previous studies. Thisprovided a valuable opportunity for researchers to access an overview of the existing research activity, which could be very useful and effective in definition of research projects and adoption of new orientations on specific topics. The present paper resulted from an investigation of 80 high-quality articles focused on pedestrians, and sought to draft a vision on pedestrian research by studying the structures and contents of relevant high-quality Persian papers. The results of the research indicated that the volume of pedestrian research has been growing rapidly in the past two decades, with orientations toward walkability and footpaths. In most articles focused excessively on footpaths, however, promotion of walkability in cities to a basic level with the aim of improving quality and meeting the needs of citizens has been neglected. In fact, pedestrian research should be focused not only on expansion of footpaths but also on flexibility in promotion of the basic principles of walkability and, consequently, the desire to walk around cities, of which footpaths are only a part. The most important issues found through a review of the existing pedestrian studies include the unnecessary replication of the contents of pedestrian research, repetitive selection of case studies, application of inconsistent terminology, and lack of concern for particular target groups including children, women, and the disabled. The review also indicated that the majority of the studies had been conducted only at the micro-scale (sidewalk-street), and no mention was found of other types of space used for pedestrians, such as neighborhoods. Many articles have dealt with the issue of pedestrians in isolation, while pedestrian studies are part of the research on transportation systems, and need to be linked to investigations of other modes of transportation. Finally, the most common topics associated with the issue of pedestrians were extracted, including activity-behavior, vision and perspective, social issues, environmental qualities, safety and security, health, and tourism. Thus, future research will need to disregard repetitive topics and focus instead on other relevant, influential issues in the area.
khashyar kashanijou; hamed mohammadi; naeime salehi
Abstract
Industrial revolution, urban growth and population increase have greatly affected the area of cities and have caused a staggering increase in the number of automobiles and streets built to facilitate automobile movement. One of the most important problems in urban streets is pedestrian-vehicle ...
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Industrial revolution, urban growth and population increase have greatly affected the area of cities and have caused a staggering increase in the number of automobiles and streets built to facilitate automobile movement. One of the most important problems in urban streets is pedestrian-vehicle interaction at crossings which is a substantial concern for citizens. Installing footbridges has been supported by related organizations in Iran to solve this problem and increase walkability of the streets. In brief, walkability is the attraction level of places for pedestrians’ presence. Based on the opinion of many urban authorities, footbridge is one of the mobility facilities in crossing the streets. Bridges were used to cross the barriers since a long time ago. However, they were built for avoiding automobiles on the streets and their design were upgraded since about half a century ago. This applied research seeks to comparatively evaluate footbridges and pedestrian crossing in relation to walkability. For this purpose, Karim Khan-e-Zand Street in District 6 of Tehran, between Valiasr Square and Haft-e-Tir Square, was selected as the case study. It is a mechanized footbridge at the intersection with Hafez Street. An ordinary (non-mechanized) footbridge has been installed on it at the intersection of Kheradmand Street. The article is based on the analytical-descriptive method. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) is used to evaluate the findings. After studying the theoretical concepts of research through a documentary-library method, appropriate criteria for walkability assessment are weighted by the Delphi method and field data is collected through survey method using questionnaires distributed among 150 citizens. The obtained data was analyzed by Super Decision software package. Three options were considered for citizens to evaluate footbridges in terms of walkability of Karimkhan-e-Zand Street in Tehran: using non-mechanized footbridges, mechanized footbridges and pedestrian crossing. The findings show that security and safety, mobility, accessibility, and physical conditions are respectively more important than other criteria in selecting footbridges for crossing the street. Furthermore, the least important criteria are attraction and comfort of the path and its maintenance quality, respectively. Among the sub-indicators related to security and safety of paths, crime-related security and presence of others were selected as the most effective ones. The length of path is the most important factor while the slope and topography are the least important factors related to the physical condition of the path. Path lighting in night was selected as the most important sub-indicator related to facilities. Also, path continuity and ease of mobility can be referred to as the most important factors among sub-indicators of movement and accessibility. Finally, with regard to the walkability of streets, despite the opinion of urban managers, level crossing with a score of A=0.36 is more favorable than footbridges, and mechanized footbridge with a score of B=0.33 is more desirable than non-mechanized footbridges with a score of C=0.30. Therefore, it seems that a fundamental review is required in the current trend of development of footbridges in Iran.
