What moves the pedestrian?

René Teeuwen

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René Teeuwen

October 3, 2011 by René Teeuwen   Comments (0)

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When do people choose to walk or cycle? Under which circumstances do they prefer their car? That was subject of a study by TNO researchers Maartje de Goede, Tineke Hof and Richard van der Horst. This study was part of the EU-project Pedestrian Quality Needs. ‘Both public health and the environment benefit from people ignoring the car’, says Maartje de Goede. ‘Public authorities are therefore eager to find out how they could stimulate walking.’

What facilities does the pedestrian need? What are his possibilities? Two leading questions in recent TNO research. ‘We set up an extensive literature study’, says Maartje de Goede. ‘We focused on four groups: senior citizens, children, disabled persons and healthy adults. We studied them crossing the street, a dangerous moment. We also studied the crossing place itself. Seniors often need more time to cross a street and are less steady. Their visual field may be limited and they frequently have trouble processing the abundance of information received when crossing the street. Children find it difficult to focus and have a low level of risk awareness.’
A high quality crossing place may help. ‘A good facility is above all unambiguous: everybody knows automatically what he or she has to do’, says De Goede. What crossing place fits best depends on the context. Sometimes it is a crossing place with lights, but it could also be a tunnel or a bridge. The speed and the amount of motorised traffic are important factors. A crossing place should be well perceptible and traffic lights should be green long enough, but not too long. ‘We expect that in the future traffic lights will be dynamically controlled, adapted to the individual pedestrian’, says De Goede. ‘If a person races across the street, the lights will be green for a shorter period than when a person in a wheel chair tries to reach the other side.’ Other aspects of the environment were also taken into account, such as quality of the pavement and safety.

The researchers also compared mobility patterns in the city and in the countryside. In the city the environment has more impact on people’s decision to cycle than in the countryside. When it comes to walking, the researchers found no difference. Finally TNO studied the relation between people’s safety perception and their decision to walk. The outcomes differ per group. Young females and senior citizens more often feel vulnerable than male adults. ‘Security measures such as good lights can promote the mobility and independence of these categories’, says De Goede. The research results, found within the EU project Pedestrian Quality Needs, have been bundled with those of researchers from nineteen other countries. ‘We hope that this manual further induces governments to consider how their decisions on infrastructure will affect the pedestrian’s and cyclist’s mobility. Also, they must stop designing for the average road user and start designing for all’, De Goede concludes.

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