Application of New Pedestrian Level of Service Measures - sacog

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Application of New Pedestrian Level of Service Measures SACOG 1. Purpose and Goals of Project “Pedestrian level of service” is a technical term for a very basic, simple concept: how supportive of pedestrian travel is the infrastructure in a given area and how well do other modes of travel interact with pedestrian travel? Areas with good pedestrian level of service (LOS) provide safe and supportive infrastructure for pedestrians. Recently published research papers and technical guidance provide detailed descriptions of data collection and analysis approaches to calculate numeric assessments of pedestrian LOS. The project goals are to: 1) Assemble recently published reports and studies on assessing pedestrian environment, pedestrian LOS, and other measures of pedestrian accessibility; 2) Prepare tests of at least two assessment approaches in subareas within the SACOG region; 3) Compare the assessment approaches on the difficulty and level of effort to assemble the necessary data, and sensitivity to data inputs; and 4) Identify the most important pedestrian LOS variables, as evidenced by the results of SACOG’s analysis. This work will support several pedestrian planning initiatives. For SACOG, this project identifies candidate pedestrian LOS data collection items, which may merit concerted effort to assemble at the regional level. Comprehensive regional data on pedestrian accessibility and pedestrian environment would be useful in SACOG’s I‐PLACE 3 S software, and for SACOG’s travel demand forecasting programs. For local agencies, a comprehensive regional pedestrian environment data source would be a great starting point for more detailed, local assessments of pedestrian LOS. Issue Date: June 2011 4
Application of New Pedestrian Level of Service Measures SACOG 2. Terminology Before discussing the models SACOG selected to use in this analysis, it is important to define some of the terms being used in this report. Walking Infrastructure and Pedestrian Level of Service – “walking infrastructure” are physical elements on a street segment which serve pedestrians, or which affect the feeling of safety, security, convenience, or comfort of pedestrians using that street segment. Objective measures which define and quantify these feelings of pedestrians using a roadway segment are defined as “pedestrian level of service” measures. Level of service measures typically generate a numeric score that translates into a letter grade (A‐F). Pedestrian‐Oriented Land Use and Pedestrian Demand – Land uses, both the type and the mix of uses in a given area, strongly affect the level of demand for walking as a means of travel by residents of and visitors to an area. Some land uses are known to generate relatively high levels of walking: schools, civic institutions like museums and libraries, hospitals, and some shopping districts or malls. Other land uses generate low levels of pedestrian demand: agricultural uses, industrial uses, etc. Mixing of complementary uses (e.g. housing near to jobs centers, shopping near residential areas, etc.) in close proximity can increase the possibility of and demand for walking as a mode of travel. In some areas, where parking is provided offsite, or where transit stations are located, high levels of walking are generated by residents, workers or visitors getting to or from their primary mode of travel (e.g. walking from a public parking lot to a workplace or a restaurant, or from home to a transit station). Pedestrian Accessibility – Accessibility refers to the ability to access land uses via a specified mode of travel, accounting for the ease or difficulty of doing so by measures like travel time. Measures of accessibility must take account simultaneously of the opportunities for engaging in daily activities (work, school, shopping, personal business, etc.), and the ability to access these opportunities using the infrastructure and services provided for travel. Pedestrian accessibility must take account of the pedestrian infrastructure available for walking, as well as the likelihood of needing to walk generated by the land uses served by the pedestrian infrastructure. This complex relationship between infrastructure and land use is illustrated in Exhibit A. This report focuses on evaluation of the infrastructure for walking and measures of pedestrian LOS. In the literature review in the next section, staff reviewed many different pedestrian measures, including pedestrian accessibility and walkability models. However, the two models we ultimately chose to use for this report are both LOS models. The two methods were used not to “pick a winner” in terms of evaluation of pedestrian LOS, but to evaluate which factors and variables were important to both methods, and identify likely resources to undertake an effort to assemble regional data to support evaluation of pedestrian LOS in the future. Issue Date: June 2011 5
Page 1 and 2: Application of New Pedestrian Level
Page 3: Application of New Pedestrian Level
Page 7 and 8: 3. Literature Review of Existing An
Page 55 and 56:
Application of New Pedestrian Level
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
show all

Application of New Pedestrian Level of Service Measures - sacog

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?