Pedestrian Environment Quality Assessment in Portuguese Medium-Sized Cities

The features of pedestrian spaces contribute to sustainable urban mobility and consequently to improve the quality of the built environment. A pedestrian space free of obstacles, with slight slopes, continuous, agreeable, attractive and safe, is definitely a space that invites to enjoyment and socialization. With the aim of improving the pedestrian circulation conditions, the present paper describes a set of approaches for assessing the quality of pedestrian environment and presents an adapted approach that can be used in medium-sized cities. Land use, pedestrian facilities and road/traffic attributes are the most common topics addressed in the pedestrian environment evaluation. These attributes can be expressed in scores and their spatial distribution can be represented using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), supporting the decision making process of pedestrian system improvement. For Portuguese medium-sized cities, the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI) was adapted and tested through a case study in Covilha city. The main steps of the methodology include the definition of relevant data, preparation of survey forms, training of data collection teams, data collection, database organization, PEQI calculation and GIS data visualization, management and maps production. The case study focused on the areas that have a significant pedestrian flow, either because of commercial, services and recreation activities, or because they are important links of the public transport system. As main findings, it was possible to conclude that the selected approach allows a great flexibility in the incorporation of new attributes and weights according to specific technical goals and scenarios (calibration).