01332895

Component

Shared space is a new street design concept that is based on the idea of cars and pedestrians sharing the same single surface, as opposed to conventional street design, which was based on segregation. Having previously looked at the factors affecting the willingness of pedestrians to share the space with vehicles, this paper tackles the issue from the drivers’ perspective, thus attempting to identify which factors influence the willingness of drivers to share the space with pedestrians. Using an innovative web-based stated-preference survey, a set of responses was collected from drivers, who were presented with different combinations of seven binary factors forming scenarios. The seven factors were: vehicular traffic (high-low), pedestrian density (high-low), presence of children and elderly (many-few), shared space size (big-small), level of lighting (bright-dark), vehicle size (big-small) and provision of street furniture (yes-no). A regression analysis has been carried out by fitting two logit models, which included not only the scenario-specific factors but also a number of respondent-related attributes, such as age, gender and driving frequency. The results suggest that the presence of many pedestrians, and in particular children and elderly, makes drivers feel uneasy and hence unwilling to share the street space. Good lighting, on the other hand, can increase their willingness to share. A further conclusion is that male drivers and those with previous experience with shared space are more willing to share when compared to their counterparts. The paper describes the survey method and results in full.

01329018

11-0690

English

14p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures; Photos; References (18) ; Tables (4)

Automobile drivers; Highway design; Pedestrian density; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrian traffic; Travel surveys

Shared roadways; Willingness

Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-0690

PRP, TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 5:32PM