Improving Pedestrian Accessibility and Quality of Life

In the UK walking has been in decline for many years, but is still an important mode accounting for around 25% of all trips in 2002 (DfT, 2003). Walking has perhaps been partly overlooked by those responsible for urban areas because of its very ubiquity and the fact that it is seen as a benign mode of transport. By its very nature walking is something which virtually everyone does and which is self evidently an important mode, but which causes few problems to others and is relatively inexpensive to cater for. These advantages can sometimes lead to walking being overlooked as the more “obvious” modes, in terms of impacts and person kilometres travelled, are catered for. Hillman and Whalley (1979), concluded that: “in both transport policy and practice, it [walking] has been overlooked or, at the least, has been inadequately recognised.” However, even after this report, there was little explicit National Government recognition that walking required consideration beyond simply providing facilities. The dominant consideration was safety, which led to a segregationist design philosophy. As the pedestrian was usually seen as the less important road user, this often meant that pedestrian convenience was sacrificed in order to remove the vulnerable pedestrian from the danger. The most extreme form of this approach was pedestrian subways and footbridges, but this philosophy also underlies the use of guardrails, pelican and other light controlled crossings. This paper contains firstly an overview of the main pedestrian problems and the factors that influence both the decision to walk and routes taken derived from literature search. The second part of the paper examines results from a series of studies looking at methods for valuing different aspects of the pedestrian environment.