Evaluation of pedestrian quality according to pedestrian indicators in old neighborhoods, Study sample: Gorgan's MikhcheGaran neighborhood

Document Type : Scientific Research

Authors

• MOHADESE esmaili ¹
• islam karami ²

¹ Masters student, Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Urbanism, Shahrood University of Technology (SUT), Shahrood, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Urbanism, Shahrood University of Technology (SUT), Shahrood, Iran.

Abstract

Highlights

Introduction

Today, with the rapid growth of smart cities, attention to human beings who own urban spaces has diminished and the most important human need, namely the comfort and convenience of people in the urban space has not been considered. The street is considered as one of the elements of urban space, Therefore, it is necessary for the city administration to take action in order to facilitate and facilitate pedestrians. Because neighborhood pedestrianism has a significant relationship with physical-spatial and perceptual-biological components. Therefore, the good quality of pedestrian centers can lead to longevity and vibrancy in a texture and it can revitalize the lives of residents. This study intends to investigate the effect of these components and the extent of pedestrian motivation in Gorgan's Mikhchegaran neighborhood and seeks to answer these questions:

1. What are the components of spatial qualities affecting the pedestrianization of urban neighborhoods?
2. 2. How is the realization of these components in the case study?
3. Through what architectural design strategies can the concept of pedestrianization be achieved?

- The results of a study entitled "Feasibility study of pedestrianism with a vitality approach in urban spaces" show the flow of social life on the sidewalk is a feature of vitality. As pedestrian movement increases the level of social interaction, increasing the quality of vitality indicators in this goal setting promotes pedestrianism.

- The results of a study entitled "Study of the effect of physical-spatial dimensions on pedestrianism in Tehran" show that sidewalks play an important role in the civic life of the community and can bring vitality to the central urban areas and encourage people to volunteer in the city.

- The results of a study entitled "Study of the effect of physical-spatial dimensions on pedestrian orientation in Tehran" show that there is a relationship between physical-spatial dimensions and pedestrian motivation also, the effect of physical and spatial dimensions on encouraging direct and positive walking.

- The results of a study entitled "The effect of neighborhood pedestrian ability on residential satisfaction" shows that with Planning and providing solutions to increase walking pleasure can also achieve higher levels of residential satisfaction in neighborhoods.

Pedestrian indicators to evaluate the quality of pedestrian according to these articles include the following: Access to daily and weekly services and needs, access to public transportation, parks and public spaces in the neighborhood, night lighting, vehicle entry control, safety of women and children, slope, width and floor suitable for walking, minimal use of dead ends, mixing ‌Using, the existence of public spaces and attracting the population, the existence of appropriate signs and names in all spaces and the existence of beautiful landscapes.

materials and methods

The nature of this research is descriptive-analytical and part of a quantitative method. Data collection tools are library, field studies and questionnaires and SPSS software is used to analyze the data. The research examines the relationships between pedestrian variables and using analyzes such as descriptive analysis, mean, correlation, regression and path analysis, examines the extent of relationships and the impact of independent variables (physical-spatial and perceptual-biological) on the dependent variable (neighborhood pedestrian quality). The target population of the study is 100 residents of Gorgan's Mikchehgaran neighborhood.

Findings and Discussion

Findings show that the correlation between perceptual-biological and physical-spatial indices with pedestrianism is 0.917 and 0.620, respectively, which indicates the high correlation of these two variables with pedestrianism. There is also a significant correlation with pedestrianism between all sub-indicators of comfort and safety, safety and security, aesthetics, social cohesion and environment.

Findings of regression test in the second level showed that the perceptual-biological component is the most effective. In a study, the most important identified factor is named as physical, social and environmental factor. Findings of regression test in the third level showed that among the physical-spatial components, providing comfort and convenience has a greater effect than providing safety and security, and among the perceptual-biological components, providing beauty and diversity has the greatest effect on pedestrianization. The results of the study regression indicate that the component of social activity with a beta of 249 / has the most impact and the component of safety and security with a beta of 138 / has the least impact on walking in Kerman. Other research results show that by observing principles such as structural completion of social activities, attention to physical elements, expansion of urban parks and the creation of public spaces such as cafes and restaurants, it promotes pedestrianism. The research confirms its hypotheses as follows: The correlation between physical cohesion and pedestrian space and car traffic management is positive and significant. Also, the correlation between environmental quality and vitality is positive and significant; In other words, by improving the quality of the environment, the rate of vitality also increases.

Conclusion

One of the cases of assessing the quality of residential environments can be examining pedestrians in the current situation of residential areas. In the present study, two components (physical-spatial and biological-perceptual) including 5 indicators (providing comfort and convenience, providing safety and security, creating social cohesion, providing beauty and diversity and environmental sustainability) were evaluated for the quality of sidewalks in the neighborhood And we came to the conclusion that the quality of sidewalks in the old neighborhoods is not very high and this finding requires that in the process of management and planning of urban neighborhoods to pay attention to the dimensions and criteria affecting the quality of sidewalks in the neighborhood. In examining the effect of each of the criteria on two dimensions, for the physical-spatial component, the comfort and convenience index and for the biological-perceptual component, the beauty and diversity index have the most impact.

Therefore, the following suggestions can be made to improve the quality of pedestrianization in new neighborhoods in the areas of comfort and convenience, and then in the field of aesthetics:

- Increasing the amount of access and permeability to different parts of the city

- Designing suitable urban facilities and suitable neighborhood furniture

- Using elements or designing beautiful identifying elements in public spaces

- Using various natural elements such as water streams, birds' sounds, etc. in beautifying the neighborhood

Therefore, in addition to paying attention to the formation of new neighborhoods based on urban plans, we must pay much attention to the physical environment of the old neighborhoods and the demands and needs of the residents of these neighborhoods.

Keywords

• Pedestrianism
• Mikhechegaran neighborhood
• Pedestrian characteristics
• Old neighborhoods

Main Subjects

• Urban Development