Evaluating the Quality of Existing Sidewalks from the Perspective of Citizens and Comparing them with Design Standards

The purpose of this paper is to compare existing status of sidewalks with design standards and also assessing the amount of residents’ satisfaction of existing sidewalks in the Goldasht Neighborhood, Shiraz, Iran and also compares their influences on the amount of residents’ walking. In order to achieve this purposes, we used the FHWA* sidewalk design standards (2005) and also San Diegos regional planning agency guidelines (2002). Furthermore, around 100 questionnaires completed by pedestrians and the questionnaires’ data were analyzed using Factor Analysis method. Findings show that there was no relationship between the amounts of sidewalk correspondence with standards and self-reported walking in each sidewalk. Also it was found that an inverse significant relationship exists between the amount of walking and the satisfaction of atmosphere and environmental conditions, green space, surface, and geometric characteristics of sidewalk. It means that increasing in walking cause the lower satisfaction in these factors. Furthermore, aged people are less satisfied with geometric characteristics of sidewalk, green space, safety and security.

Keywords:

Sidewalk , Pedestrian , Design Standards , Factor Analysis , Walking