Who is the Most Pleased Pedestrian ?

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Who is the Most Pleased Pedestrian ?

• Liv Øvstedal
• SINTEF Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Roads and Transport
• www.sintef.no
• Liv.Ovstedal_at_sintef.no

• Eirin Olaussen Ryeng
• NTNU The Norwegian University of Science and
  Technology
• Department of Transport Engineering
• www.ntnu.no
• Eirin.Ryeng_at_bygg.ntnu.no

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PROMPTNew means to PROMote Pedestrian Traffic
in cities
Attractiveness

• VTT, Finland
• Universita degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
• IBV, Switzerland
• SINTEF, Norway
• Universite de Liege, Belgium
• Certu, France

Comfort
Intermodality
Safety

Accessibility
New means
Dissemination
Implementation
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1092 on-street Interviews

• European Pedestrians aged 8-90
• 22 interview sites in 16 cities
• City centres and suburban areas

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The European Pedestrian

• Regards
• Safety security as most important
• Comfort Air quality also as important
• Presence of other people as least important
• 88 appreciate walking (82 Switzerland -94
  Finland)
• 17 went for a walk (11 France -21 Italy)
• 42 walked all the way (8 Switzerland -59
  Italy)

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Comfort interviews
1 2 3 4 5
6 7

• Dimensions
• thermal
• visual
• acoustic
• tactile
• air quality
• ease to move
• security

? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Very uncomfortable
Very comfortable

• On a scale from 1 to 7
• How comfortable do you think it is to walk here
  just now?
• Is the pavement surface plain and nice to walk
  on?
• Do you find todays weather comfortable for
  walking?
• On a scale from 1 to 3
• How important is this for you?
• ? ? ?

1 2 3
Not important
Very important
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European Pedestrians

• All pedestrians 2 types, pedestrians seeking
• ease social pleasure security
• Male pedestrians 4 types, pedestrians seeking
• ease comfort social pleasure security
  nice traffic street environment

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Norwegian Pedestrian Typology1 Pedestrian
seeking air, space and light

• An elderly lady on an evening walk
• Important whether surroundings are open or
  narrow
• Give highest mean comfort score
• Found in Norway, Belgium, France, Italy and
  Switzerland.

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Norwegian Pedestrian Typology2 Pedestrian
seeking security

• A busy, middle-aged woman on a shopping trip
• She likes to walk
• Safety, noise, comfort and traffic conditions
  are important factors
• Found in Norway, Belgium and France.

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Norwegian Pedestrian Typology3 Pedestrian
seeking social pleasure

• An elderly person shopping in the downtown area
  during daytime
• Others, services, seating street surface are
  regarded important
• Found in Norway, France and Italy.

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Norwegian Pedestrian Typology4 Easy going
Pedestrian

• A younger person
• The weather and to find the way easily are
  important
• Give lowest mean comfort score
• Found in Norway and Switzerland.

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Main factors influencing comfort feeling

Appealing surroundings
Safe secure
Traffic conditions
Assessing weather
Comfort
Pavement conditions
Environment
Individual
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The Pleased Pedestrian

• enjoys walking
• is not in a hurry
• is going for a walk, walking a dog or bringing
  children
• in residential areas
• Minor differences between
• age groups
• gender
• countries

• Highest mean comfort score given in Parco in
  LAquila, Italy.

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Pedestrian feeling lower degree of comfort

• enjoys walking, but find it bothersome
• uses cane, rullator or wheelchair
• is not familiar with the area
• is in a hurry
• is on a trip to or from work or work-related trip

• Lowest mean comfort score given in Uptown
  Central Square, Eupen, Belgium.

• All factors affecting comfort were regarded as
  more important among elderly people

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Safe and secure

• most important !
• highest correlation with comfort
• street lighting is important
• Gender Men are
• less worried about walking when dark
• less confident in getting help when needed
• Pedestrian streets ? streets with car traffic
• presence of others more important in pedestrian
  streets
• when dark, pedestrians feel safer in streets with
  car traffic

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Conclusion

• When planning for pedestrians we need to take
  into consideration
• the different pedestrian types
• by providing
• universal design
• parallel solutions and pedestrian routes
• But above all
• A pleased pedestrian is a pedestrian feeling
• safe and secure !

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Dimensions describing the pedestrian environment

• Safety and security
• Feeling safe when walking at the site, confident
  in walking alone at the site both in daylight and
  darkness, not afraid of whom to meet
• Attractiveness
• Not too easy to get an overview, appealing
  surroundings, not unpleasant odours
• Traffic conditions
• Pleasant sound level, pleasant and exiting
  sounds, no bothersome car traffic, fresh air
• Social meeting places and pleasantness
• Easy to meet requirements for rest, food and
  toilet, enough places to sit down, protected from
  weather, smooth and nice pavement surface
• Move efficiently
• Minimal differences in altitude, not too windy,
  feel free to choose your own speed, not too much
  presence of vegetation, nature and water
• Physiological factors
• Not too high temperatures, not too
  hard/exhausting trip, not too dry air, not being
  blended of light
• Dressing
• Not too little clothing, not too thin shoes
• Space and light
• Not too narrow surroundings, not too dark
• Comfort
• Comfortable weather for walking, comfort feeling

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The importance of comfort factorsScale 1 3
(not important very important)
Belgium Finland France Italy Norway Switzerland
Safety/security Air Places to sit Meet requirements Comfort Light Orientation Pavement surface Traffic Safety/security Air Safety/security Air Orientation Traffic Light Places to sit Meet requirements Comfort Pavement surface Safety/security Comfort Air Light Pavement surface Orientation Meet requirements Safety/security Comfort Air Safety/security Air
Narrow/open Sounds Weather Other people Comfort Orientation Narrow/open Light Sound Pavement surface Meet requirements Weather Traffic Narrow/open Weather Sounds Other people Traffic Places to sit Weather Narrow/open Sounds Other people Orientation Traffic Weather Pavement surface Meet requirements Places to sit Sounds Light Traffic Light Orientation Comfort Weather Meet requirements Places to sit Sounds Pavement surface
Places to sit Other people Narrow/open Other people Narrow/open Other people
2,50 - 2,92
2,00 - 2,49

1,76 1,99
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What is comfort?

• Comfort is a positive emotional reaction to
  external surroundings, both physiological,
  physical, social and psychological
• Comfort is a cognitive comparison between actual
  objects or incidents and some point of reference
• The feeling and degree of comfort is dependent of
  the surroundings, the situations and the
  individual
• The feeling and degree of comfort is affected by
  the present emotional state, the expectations
  based on previous experience and the object of
  comparison

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Children say (6 and 11 years)

• This makes a walk pleasant
• other people
• no bothersome traffic
• nice smooth and dry surface
• nice weather
• and the benefits of fresh air and exercise when
  walking.
• They prefer
• none or little car traffic, wide sidewalks and
  walkways, safe pedestrian crossings
• sufficient street lighting
• Some children say that Not having to look out
  for cars make them comfortable when walking