A review of factors which influence pedestrian use of the streets: Task 1 report for an EPSRC funded project on measuring pedestrian accessibility

INTRODUCTION

This document was written to report the results from Task 1 of the Measuring Pedestrian Accessibility project funded through the EPSRC Future Integrated Transport programme. The project is being carried out by staff at the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Pedestrians Association and City of York Council.

The overall aim of this project is to identify ways to encourage and enable more people to make more journeys on foot. The specific objectives are to:

• quantify attitudes and perceptions held towards walking and the barriers to walking;

• study the feasibility of developing a tool that can be used to evaluate pedestrian routes;

• undertake validation of the tool.

The achievement of these objectives will represent a thorough investigation into the two sides of providing for walking - the physical environment for pedestrians and people's attitudes to walking.

Task 1 of the project is an extended literature review and survey of experts to identify an initial list of features that are thought to influence pedestrian use of the streets.

The paper that follows is split into a number of sections which look at the different characteristics of pedestrians, factors which affect route choice, factors which affect mode choice, problems faced by pedestrians on our streets and a short review of recent Government (local and national) policy which has influenced pedestrian provision.