Designing Streets for Physical Activity
Measures to make it more pleasant to walk along streets can also calm traffic, making the pedestrian experience both more enjoyable and safer.
Measures to make it more pleasant to walk along streets can also calm traffic, making the pedestrian experience both more enjoyable and safer.
Residential units at floor level add to street appeal.
Ideas from malls and mainstreets have much in common.
Both Talen and Craw et al. recently have completed research related to the design of optimal urban spaces. While Craw and her colleagues have investigated issues related to the graffiti afflicting many areas, Talen has looked more holistically at developing measures for well-designed urban spaces.
Researchers in Melbourne, Australia, have determined the distribution of native and exotic birds differed in four general types of urban habitats.
Many studies have been done on pedestrian motivations, values, and constraints. A recent article concisely summarizes much of the research, and uses it to support a design framework for walkable cities and neighborhoods.
Some traffic warning signs are not effective. Two recent journal articles profile signage that does not produce the desired behaviors by drivers.
Transportation and health experts continue to tout the benefits of walking for exercise and for neighborhood errands. One recent review examines eighteen separate studies on walking to determine common factors in the environment that might help or hinder walking, while another lays out guidelines to help quantify what makes a street or walkway comfortable for pedestrians—laying the groundwork for an assessment tool. Originally published in Issue 4, 2004.
Measures to protect pedestrian safety sometimes seem counter-intuitive. What interventions are effective, and what can we do to reconcile the difference between what is safer, and what we think is safer? Originally published in Issue 3, 2004.
Designing streets for pedestrians requires consideration of a basic concern—safety. Yet, many safety installations, such as raised islands, installed sidewalks, and pedestrian overpasses can be expensive to design and install. Can lower-cost interventions be effective?