Assessment of uninterrupted pedestrian facility, case study of Al-Mutanabbi Street

¹ Civil Engineering Department, Al-Shaab University, Baghdad, Iraq
² Highway and Transportation Department, College of Engineering, Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq

^* Corresponding author: abeer_khudhur@uomustansiriyah.edu.iq

Abstract

Walking is a sustainable transportation mode as it is the most affordable way to reduce the environmental and social effects of the transportation system. Walking can be used for transportation and recreational purposes. To encourage walking, it is necessary to improve walkability and walking behavior. The main aim of this paper is to assess the walkability of Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad City, which is located in a cultural and historical area. The measure of effectiveness is the pedestrian level of service PLOS. In this paper, new indicators reflecting the perception of pedestrians have been included in the assessment method to overcome the limitation of the traditional method of PLOS determination. A questionnaire form was used to collect the data. The questions related to walkability are 21 questions grouped into seven groups. The responses of pedestrians were converted to scores to find the overall PLOS, which was C. However, the scores of some variables were low, reflecting the weakness in walking performance, such as the small spaces, low speed, and frequent conflicts with other pedestrians. The safety and security in the study area have the highest scores because no vehicles are allowed to pass the street. This PLOS method is more comprehensive than the traditional methods because it accounts for variables that other methodologies neglect.