Qualitative evaluation of comfort needs in urban walkways in major activity centers

The objective of this paper is to offer a method for the qualitative evaluation of comfort levels offered along walkways in major activity centers. Walkways facilitate movement of people. (For this paper a sidewalk includes any type of dedicated passage for pedestrian oriented activities.) Healthy street circulation systems should offer choices for the movement of people, particularly for walking and bicycling modes. A comfortable pedestrian circulation system within the street network is the focus of this paper. Major activity centers are defined here as largely frequented urban areas with higher density, mixed-use developments. A comfortable environment makes a journey by foot pleasant and enjoyable. What are the attributes of comfort in a pedestrian circulation system? This paper develops an evaluation method by conducting qualitative explorations and drawing on existing literature along with examples of comfortable pedestrian spaces in the US and in Europe. Although there are other issues that are equally important for pedestrians, such as safety, security, and convenience, only the key attributes of comfort are used to qualitatively grade the physical, physiological, and psychological comfort levels of walkways. This method involves two evaluation components: (1) Service Levels give standards for the overall desirable and undesirable comfort conditions at the macro level; and (2) Quality Levels look at finer details of comfort of pedestrians at the micro level.