Pedestrians

Easy-to-Compute Index for Identifying Built Environments that Support Walking

Schneider, RJ
Rodriguez, DA
Young, HM
2006

The variety and spatial co-variation of built environment attributes associated with non-automobile travel have resulted in the estimation of composite scores or indices summarizing these attributes. This paper builds on prior practical and research applications of these environmental scores or indices by proposing and testing a built environment index (BEI) calculated at the traffic analysis zone and that relies predominantly on widely available data. By computing the BEI using three different analytical methods used in prior research (principal components analysis, cluster analysis...

Authorized Vehicles Only: Police, Parking, and Pedestrian Access in New York City

Moran, Marcel E
2023

Sidewalks and crosswalks serve little purpose for pedestrians if they are routinely obstructed by automobiles. In New York City, local journalists and transportation advocates have drawn attention to this occurring, particularly in certain settings. Specifically, there is consistent photographic evidence that streets surrounding New York Police Department (hereafter, NYPD) offices are replete with cars parked on the sidewalk and within crosswalks. Though clearly problematic for pedestrians and abutting residents and local businesses, this type of parking behavior has not been studied...

The Influence of Self-Efficacy and Perceived Safety in Neighborhood on Children’s Frequency of Walking to/from School

Shen
Sisiopiku, V
Rodriguez, DA
Combs, T
Godbole, M
Schwebel, DC
2015

Walking is among the common transportation methods utilized by children to commute between home and school. Previous research indicates children’s intrapsychic characteristics such as self-efficacy play an important role in their decision to walk to/from school. Few studies have addressed the role of parent self-efficacy in these decisions. Furthermore, environmental factors such as neighborhood safety have mixed effects on children’s decision to walk to/from school

Heightening Walking Above its Pedestrian Status: Walking and Travel Behavior in California

Blumenberg, Evelyn
2016

People walk a lot—to walk pets, to exercise and recreate, and to access public transit and local shops. Walk trips begin and end almost every journey, even trips made by automobile. Data from the current California Household Travel Survey (CHTS) show that walking occurs more than trips by both transit and bicycle, making it the second most common travel mode in California. Yet outside of select case studies in specific metropolitan areas, we know very little about walking behavior in California. An improved understanding of the determinants of walking will aid efforts to reduce driving and...

Giving Cycling the Green Light: An Overview of Transportation in Ireland and the Design of the National Cycle Network

Manton, Richard
2013

Similarly to the US, driving a car to work continues to gain ground in Ireland and the country is presented with major challenges in environment and health as a consequence. In safety, at least, Ireland has had some major successes. In 40 years, the number of fatalities has fallen from 640 to 162, a drop of 75%. Such improvements in road safety have been attributed to a combination of education, enforcement and engineering. Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have each fallen by 66% in 20 years, however, this could be attributed to the lower numbers of people walking and cycling....

Rail + Property Development: A Model of Sustainable Transit Finance and Urbanism

Cervero, Robert
Murakami, Jin
2008

Hong Kong has aggressively pursued transit value capture to finance railway infrastructure through its “Rail + Property” development program, or R+P. More than half of all revenues received by the MTR Corporation, the owner-operator of Hong Kong’s largest railway network, come from property development. A wide variety of R+P projects presently exist in Hong Kong. Most focus on housing development though all have some degree of commercial development. Recent generation R+P projects have placed a stronger premium on urban design and quality of pedestrian environments. This has generally paid...

Traffic Flow on Pedestrianized Streets

Daganzo, Carlos F.
Knoop, V. L.
2016

Giving pedestrians priority to cross a street enhances pedestrian life, especially if crosswalks are closely spaced. Explored here is the effect of this management decision on car traffic. Since queuing theory suggests that for a given pedestrian flux the closer the crosswalk spacing the lower the effect of pedestrians on cars, scenarios where pedestrians can cross anywhere should be best for both cars and pedestrians. This is the kind of pedestrianization studied. Analytic formulas are proposed for a pedestrianized street’s capacity, free-flow speed and macroscopic fundamental diagram. Of...

The Effect of Pedestrian Crossings on Traffic Flow

Knoop, V. L.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
2017

In urban areas and especially in inner cities, pedestrians crossing the road considerably influence the road traffic flow. For political (environmental) reasons, priority could be given to pedestrians. This paper studies to which extent crossing pedestrians influence the road traffic capacity. Several distances between pedestrian crossings are considered, and moreover, a non-constant intercrosswalk spacing is considered. The focus is on the distance between pedestrian crosswalks. Both effects are quantified. The results in this paper can be used to optimize the effects of giving...

The Effect of Crosswalks on Traffic Flow

Knoop,Victor L.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
2018

In urban areas and especially in inner cities, pedestrians crossing the road considerably influence the road traffic flow. For political reasons, priority could be given to pedestrians. A larger number of crossings reduces the pedestrian load per crossing and facilitates both the pedestrian flow and the car flow; the ultimate case is a “cross anywhere” scenario. Earlier work shows that the road capacity decreases with the square of the pedestrian crossing time, hence a short crossing time is desired. Crosswalks can ensure pedestrians cross orthogonally, and thus quickly, and can thereby...

A Comparison of GPS and Travel Diaries to Characterize Walking Behavior

Cho, G
Rodriguez, DA
Clifton, KJ
Evenson, K
2008

While travel diaries are widely used to investigate walking behavior, the emergence of portable GPS units provides an innovative approach to characterizing walking behavior. This study compares the number and duration of daily walking trips reported in travel diaries with data extracted from a portable GPS unit and identified as the same walking trips. The study had two phases: (1) We used 35 person-days of travel data to determine the best algorithm for identifying walking trips from GPS data. The best algorithm had high Pearson (0.89) and Spearman correlation (0.85).