Researches on connections between street design characteristics and pedestrian behaviour

Abstract

As the modernization of cities together with the increasing popularity of automobiles, streets are gradually losing the primordial function as space for public gathering, being occupied by motorized transportation. It has been more than 50 years since Jane Jacobs (1961) called for more emphasize on streets, many scholars (Gehl, J. 2000, 2006, 2006, 2010; Jacobs, A.B. 1993; Whyte, W. 1980) have been carrying on researches on liveability and vitality of urban streets, exploring the associations between built environment characters and active walking. While urban planning practitioners can hardly formulate applicable policies and design guidelines for designing lively streets from qualitative descriptions of street design qualities. Based on the latest built environment audit tools, the author tries to explore the connections between street design characteristics (SDC) and pedestrian behaviour (PB) by abstracting and representing the street design qualities. 50 street segments in two high-dense neighbourhoods in Hong Kong were studied in terms of network link density, network betweenness, density of business/service, permeability etc. Activity behaviour including walking, shopping, window shopping, chatting, sitting, jogging and walking pets etc. were mapped by the author through walk-by observation. Through statistical analysis, network accessibility, footpath width are found to be fundamental to street walkability, density of business/service, degree of personalization and permeability show significant associations with pedestrian interactions and sociality in streets. Some recommendations and the “Hierarchy of SDCs” are formulated at the end of this dissertation.