Assessing the walking conditions in pedestrian networks: The case of the city center in Larissa, Greece

Abstract

Reconsidering the conventional approach of transport planning, transport stake-holders have recently began to shift their focus from the private car towards sustainable transport systems, among which walking is included. Planning and design of walking infrastructure is a complex process as pedestrian movements are affected by a variety of parameters. The paper aims at the investigation of the pedestrians’ perception regarding the parameters which are considered significant for an effective pedestrian network. Towards this purpose, a comprehensive analysis of the walking conditions in a Greek medium-sized city is conducted through an extensive questionnaire survey (including a sample of over 1000 valid questionnaires) on selected sidewalks and walkways in the city centre of Larissa, Greece.

Full text

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2819
ASSESSING THE WALKING CONDITIONS IN
PEDESTRIAN NETWORKS: THE CASE OF
THE CITY CENTER IN LARISSA, GREECE
Anastasios Tsakalidis1, Alexandros Sdoukopoulos1, and Nikolaos Gavanas2,*
1Transport Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, Department of
Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2Department of Infrastructure Engineering, School of Technological Applications,
Technological Educational Institution of Larissa, 41110 Larissa, Greece
Presented at the 4th International Conference on Environmental Management,
Engineering, Planning and Economics (CEMEPE), June 24 to 28, 2013, Mykonos, Greece
ABSTRACT
Reconsidering the conventional approach of transport
planning, transport stake-holders have recently begun to
shift their focus from the private car towards sustainable
transport systems, among which walking is included. Plan-
ning and design of walking infrastructure is a complex pro-
cess as pedestrian movements are affected by a variety of
parameters. The present research aims at the investigation
of the pedestrians’ perception regarding the parameters
which are considered significant for an effective pedestrian
network. Towards this purpose, a comprehensive analysis of
the walking conditions in a Greek medium-sized city was
conducted through an extensive questionnaire survey
(including a sample of over 1000 valid questionnaires) on
selected sidewalks and walkways in the city center of
Larissa, Greece.
KEYWORDS: Questionnaire survey, Larissa city, pedestrian
infrastructure, walking conditions
1. INTRODUCTION
The conventional approach of transport planning fo-
cuses on the provision of additional road infrastructure in
order to deal with the increasing mobility demand. Never-
theless, this approach proved to be inefficient, since high
levels of congestion continue to be observed while induced
traffic enhances the degradation of the built and natural
environment and the quality of life [1]. On the other hand,
the contemporary planning approach shifts the focus on the
promotion of multimodality, in the context of which
walking plays a key role [2]. According to a recent study,
the share of walking in the distribution of trips per mode
* Corresponding author
varies from 21% to 25% in the European countries with
tradition in integrated transport planning, such as Austria,
Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Swe-
den and the United Kingdom [3].
Walking is the primary mode of human transportation
and the way that each trip begins and ends [4, 5]. As op-
posed to motorized modes, it does not produce any kind
pollution or require fuel consumption, while certified skills,
e.g. driving license, are not necessary. Moreover, walking
is clearly the most economical way to travel, since there are
no running and parking costs, taxation or any other form
of payment. It is a common physical and recreational activity
with documented benefits for personal health and social
interaction, enhancing the socialization of individuals and
helping to restore the relationship between the citizen and
the public space through the stimuli received from the
adjacent sidewalk environment. Furthermore, the pedes-
trian infrastructure occupies only a small percentage of
the urban space with minimum construction and mainte-
nance costs in comparison to motorized infrastructure. Thus,
walking can be considered as the most sustainable mode of
urban transportation in terms of economic, social and
environmental impacts [4, 6-8].
Despite the significant advantages of walking, in most
countries only a small share of trips is conducted on foot.
Depending on the case, the main reasons for the degrada-
tion of walking in contemporary cities are the lack of
continuity and accessibility for all to the pedestrian net-
work and the low operating characteristics such as inade-
quate width and manufacturing defects. In addition, the
existence of obstacles within the pedestrian corridors due to
elements of urban furniture hampers their movement [9].
The motorized traffic features, such as the speed of the
vehicle in the lane next to the sidewalk, the traffic noise
and pollution, relate to the feeling of comfort and security
that pedestrians feel while moving. The lack of trees that
provide shade and protection from the weather and also

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2820
adorn the urban landscape, combined with indifferent ar-
chitectural building facades, reduce the interest and desire
of people for walking. Furthermore, the absence of pedes-
trian crossings at regular intervals increases walking dis-
tances and often causes confusion about choosing the
appropriate route. Inadequate lighting, resulting in the
existence of dark spots, significantly reduces the feeling
of pedestrian safety and is one of the major causes that
prevent walking during night hours [9].
On the other hand, the limited time available for trav-
el prevents people from moving on foot, as the result of
the well established perception that motorized transport is
less time consuming. Another predominating perception
in some developing countries is that pedestrians hold a
lower social position than car drivers while car occupancy
is linked to the concept of economic welfare. These phe-
nomena coupled with the large scale development of road
infrastructure and land use zoning observed in many cit-
ies, such as in North America, contribute to the rapid
increase in distances traveled, favoring private car use.
According to the above, it is common for stakeholders
to focus on the evaluation and enhancement of motorized
urban networks rather than pedestrian ones. Thus, there is a
relatively small portion of the international research expe-
rience directed towards the examination of the factors that
affect the quality of the walking environment (walkabil-
ity), in comparison to the corresponding research referring
to motorized transportation [10].
Considering the numerous factors that affect the
walking conditions, the assessment of the level of service
of sidewalks and walkways is a complex process. Since
the pedestrian experience entails more than just a com-
muting function, it is significant for transport planners to
be able to identify the features that define walkability [7].
In this context, the current research focuses on the identi-
fication of the pedestrian perception on these features and
the analysis of the walking conditions in a medium-sized
city of Greece, through an extensive questionnaire survey
on representative sidewalks and walkways in the city
center of Larissa.
2. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
In order to investigate the parameters that the pedes-
trians consider significant for the effective operation of
walking networks, a methodological approach was im-
plemented including three stages: a) Identification of the
main pedestrian segments, b) Collection of data and c)
Processing of data.
The identification of the segments that are representa-
tive of the main sidewalks and walkways of the Larissa
city centre was conducted using the road map of Larissa
and a series of on-site observations. Thus, the study area
covers the main pedestrian infrastructure of the city centre
(Figure 1). An extensive questionnaire survey was im-
plemented during the second stage for the collection of
primary data. The questionnaire comprised four parts: a)
“Socio-demographic characteristics” so as to provide
anonymous information on the respondent, i.e. sex, work-
ing condition, age, driver’s license, car occupancy, b)
“Trip characteristics” in order to describe the daily travel
habits of the respondent, i.e. frequency of use of public
and active transport modes in daily transport, average
duration of walking at a daily basis, objectives of walking
trips and main reasons for walking, c) “Pedestrian condi-
tions” by using a stated preference survey for ranking the
most crucial features that affect the walking conditions
FIGURE 1 - Presentation of the study area (Source: [13], own elaboration)

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2821
and the attractiveness of the examined pedestrian infra-
structure based on the advantages of walking, the design
principles of pedestrian infrastructure and the dominant
perceptions regarding active and motorized transportation
and d) “Suggested improvements”, where the respondent
is asked to propose up to six from a predefined set of
improvements, which are based on the aforementioned
design principles, i.e. increase of pavement width, better
maintenance, removal of obstacles, restoration of continu-
ity, proximity to public bus stops, easier access for vul-
nerable users, effective separation from roadways, control
of illegal parking on pavements and crossings, better
cleaning of pedestrian ways, more trees and vegetation
and better lighting infrastructure.
The survey was conducted on site during two periods
(in autumn 2011 and spring 2012) according to the Trav-
eler Intercept Survey method. The specific method was
adopted aiming to capture the traveler’s response while
making a real trip. In order to overcome the drawback of
this method, which refers to biased results due to the fact
that people do not like to be interrupted during their trip
[11], a relatively large sample of questionnaires was col-
lected, i.e. a sample of 1600 questionnaires out of which
1017 were valid. The format of the questionnaire was based
on the corresponding questionnaire used for the case study
of Thessaloniki on the development of a model for the
estimation of pedestrian level of service [12]. The ques-
tionnaire survey was conducted by the students of the De-
partment of Infrastructure Engineering of the Technologi-
cal Educational Institution of Larissa as part of a teamwork
project in the context of the course: “Traffic Engineer-
ing/Railways” in the academic period 2011-2012. During
the data processing stage, the valid questionnaires were
indexed, forming a common database. The statistical analy-
sis of the sample was followed by the management and
analysis of the results.
3. MAIN RESULTS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
SURVEY ON THE PEDESTRIAN NETWORK
OF THE LARISSA CITY CENTRE
This section refers to the discussion of the results of the
questionnaire survey, which are organized into four parts.
3.1 Socio-demographic characteristics
The population of the survey comprises 50.25% women
and 49.75% men, a ratio which is similar to the correspond-
ing national ratio [14]. Approximately 60.00% of the re-
spondents are up to the age of 30 years old while the
33.00% are adults between the ages of 31 and 60. More
than half of the survey’s sample (52.70%) work either in a
full-time or part-time occupation. In spite of the fact that
the 65.58% of the respondents have a driving license, the
percentage of car ownership does not exceed the 46.02%.
3.2 Trip characteristics
A significant share (65.78%) of the survey respond-
ents state that they use walking as a means of daily
transport while almost half of them (48.97%) use the public
bus daily or weekly. On the opposite, 34.51% of the partic-
ipants in the survey never use cycling for their trips as a
result of the inadequate bicycle network and the lack of
“cycling culture”. In Figure 2 there is a presentation of the
FIGURE 2 - Frequency of use per transport mode for private car owners and non-owners

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2822
31.78%
70.09%
82.24%
30.73%
65.85%
82.44%
30.24%
64.11% 76.21%
100%
26.28%
60.77%
76.46%
17.77%
55.84%
76.65%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 < 30 min 30 min -60 min 1 h - 2 h > 2 h
Co mb ined t rip
Recreation
Shopping
Commuting
Physical exercise
FIGURE 3 - Cumulative frequency chart of daily walking trip duration in relation to trip purpose
frequency of use of each transport mode in relation to car
ownership. According to the Figure, a little more than one
quarter of private car owners use the bus and just above
21% the bicycle for daily or frequent trips, while a little
less than 85% choose walking, either exclusively or com-
bined with other modes. In the case of the respondents
that do not own a car, walking represents more than 95%
of their choice for daily or frequent trips.
According to the questionnaire survey, the 40.71% of
pedestrians conduct commuting trips. Trips for shopping,
recreation and physical exercise present similar shares (in
the range of 15.00 – 19.00%). Walking with the purpose
of accessing a public transport stop or a private car corre-
sponds to the 8.16%. A significant share of daily walking
trips (42.87% of the sample) has a duration that ranges
from 30 – 60 min. In Figure 3 there is a presentation of a
cumulative frequency chart concerning the total walking
duration per day according to the pedestrian’s trip pur-
pose. More than a quarter of daily trips for commuting
and approximately one third of daily trips for recreation,
shopping or combined transport are concluded in less than
30 min. In the same time period, less than 18% of daily
walking trips for physical exercise are accomplished.
Furthermore, it takes from one to two h to complete more
than 82% of the total daily pedestrian trips for combined
transport or recreation and over 76% of the daily trips
with the purpose of shopping, commuting or exercise.
There are two main reasons for the respondents’
choice of walking as a means of transport: a) Physical
exercise (31.17%) and b) money saving (27.53%). As it is
described in Figure 4, money saving comprises a strong
motivation for younger and older pedestrians. However,
FIGURE 4 - Main reasons for selecting walking as a transport mode according to age class

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2823
the main reason for walking in the case of people over 61
years old is physical exercise. It should be also highlight-
ed that a significant share of respondents in the age class
of 31 – 60 years old declare that the main reason for
choosing walking is the lack of parking spaces, which is a
common fact in the central areas of cities in Greece.
3.3 Pedestrians’ perception on factors affecting walking trips
In this part of the survey, the participants were asked
to rank in a scale from 1 (most significant) to 3 (less sig-
nificant) the following factors in terms of their importance
in a walking trip (Figure 5): a) Quality of infrastructure,
b) Mobility and access to land uses and c) Proximity to
road traffic.
The survey also indicated that narrow and poor main-
tained infrastructure is considered to have the most nega-
tive effect on the comfort level of a pedestrian trip. On the
contrary, it should be pointed out that more than 40% of
the respondents believe that the presence of vegetation is
the least important feature (Figure 6).
FIGURE 5 - Ranking of main factors that affect walking trips
processed with Mode function
The respondents also ranked the mobility features that
may discourage them from using the sidewalk or walkway
(Figure 7). It is worth mentioning that approximately 25%
of them state that the most significant negative factor in
29.01%
16.13%
9.44%
28.91%
10.13%
6.40%
17.50%
19.77%
18.68%
21.23%
13.17%
9.64%
12.19%
19.18%
18.78%
19.08%
20.84%
10.22%
13.67%
13.17%
17.79%
16.62%
21.83%
16.92%
12.09%
16.41%
21.24%
8.85%
24.39%
16.71%
15.54%
15.34%
14.06%
5.31%
9.64%
40.11%
Narrow pedestrian
inf rastructure
Low free height due
to obstacles
Absense of guide
f or b lind s
Poor maintaned
pedestrian
inf rastructure
Absense of curb
ramps
Absense of trees and
plants
1
(
More im
p
ortant
)
2 3 4 5 6
(
Less im
p
ortant
)
FIGURE 6 - Infrastructure features with negative impact on pedestrian comfort
25.07%
19.27%
21.53%
14.16%
11.11%
8.85%
18.09%
16.52%
22.52%
21.63%
14.36%
6.88%
15.24%
19.96%
18.00%
18.39%
16.13%
12.29%
13.38%
15.25%
18.97%
22.12%
18.10%
12.19%
12.58%
17.99%
11.02%
15.14%
29.40%
13.86%
15.63%
11.01%
7.97%
8.56%
10.91%
45.92%
Heavy pedestrian
volumes
Sense of in security
du e t o lo w light in g
Often maneuvres to
avoid obstacles
Often maneuvres to
avoid vertica l
movements
Formation of a
queue in bus stops /
intersectios
Absense of public
transport / b icy cle
infrastructure
1 (More important) 23456 (Less important)
FIGURE 7 - Mobility features that discourage the use of sidewalks and walkways

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2824
their decision making to use a specific infrastructure is the
existence of high pedestrian flows and saturation. On the
other hand, the lack of immediate access to the bus and
bicycle network comprises the least important feature for
over 45% of the sample.
3.4 Suggested improvements
In the final part of the survey, the participants were
asked to briefly describe up to six suggestions which,
according to their opinion, will improve the overall quali-
ty of service in the city’s pedestrian network. Among a
variety of suggestions, the most common ones involve the
repair and regular maintenance of the network and the
removal of all (permanent or not) obstacles that obstruct
pedestrian movements, which accounted for the 55.65%
and 47.59% of the total suggestions respectively. Other
suggestions refer to the implementation of a strict policy
against illegal parking (40.70%), the widening of narrow
sidewalks (38.84%), the restoration of infrastructure for
disabled pedestrians (37.17%) and the adequate illumina-
tion during the night (33.62%).
4. DISCUSSION
Worldwide, the relevant state-of-the-art suggests as
most crucial features of walkability the adequate width of
the sidewalk (minimum 1 m), the existence of obstacles,
such as illegally parked vehicles, along the pedestrian
routes, the efficient separation from the roadway, the speed
of nearby motorized vehicles and the use of pedestrian
infrastructure by cyclists [15-18]. The results of the present
research partially coincide with the aforementioned fea-
tures. More specifically, the research indicates the first
two features as highly important while the poor mainte-
nance of the infrastructure, the lighting conditions and the
congested pedestrian segments were also highlighted. The
research also highlights that walking constitutes a critical
element of Larissa’s transport system regarding the daily
trips to work as well as to other activities such as shop-
ping and recreation. According to the respondents’ perspec-
tive, the main reason for selecting the specific mode is the
low cost followed by the need for physical exercise espe-
cially for older age classes. These major socio-economic
benefits which derive from walking should be set as priori-
ties by the local stakeholders in order to cope with the
aforementioned prohibitive features.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Walking is progressively gaining significance in sus-
tainable urban mobility, either as a mode of small and
medium distance door-to-door trips or as a major part of
the multimodal transport system. The main obstacles in
this process derive from the society’s perceptions regard-
ing the efficiency and prestige of private motorized
transport as opposed to public and active transport and the
inadequacy and low quality of pedestrian infrastructure,
which rarely comprises the core of urban transport plan-
ning. In this context, the first step towards the promotion
of walking is the identification and analysis of the precise
elements that attract or discourage people from using the
pedestrian network. Then, the findings can be exploited
effectively in the context of integrated transport planning.
The current methodological approach for assessing walk-
ability, although focused on the city Larissa, could be
easily adapted to the specific characteristics of other me-
dium-sized Greek cities while it is compatible to the main
principles for contemporary pedestrian networks.
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
REFERENCES
[1] Byrd J., Sisiopiku V. (2006) Comparison of Level of Service
methodologies for pedestrian sidewalks. Proceedings of the
85th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board. Pa-
per No. 06-0898. Washington D.C.
[2] Dixon L. B. (1996) Bicycle and pedestrian level-of-service per-
formance measures and standards for congestion manage-
ment systems. Transportation Research Record: Journal of
the Transportation Research Board, 1538(1), 1-9.
[3] Buehler R., Pucher J. (2012) Walking and Cycling in Western
Europe and the United States: Trends, Policies and Lessons.
TR News, No. 280, 2012, pp 34 – 42.
[4] LSA Associates Inc. (2003) Kansas City Walkability Plan. City
of Kansas City, Missouri. City Planning & Development De-
partment. Online Document. Accessed October 10, 2012.
http://www.kcmo.org/idc/groups/cityplanningdevelopmentdi
v/documents/cityplanninganddevelopment/walkability.pdf.
[5] Krambeck H. (2006) The global walkability index. PhD thesis,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts.
[6] Jaskiewicz, F. (2003) Pedestrian Level of Service Based on
Trip Quality. Urban Street Symposium. Transportation Re-
search Board. Online Document. Accessed April 2, 2013.
http://www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%
201/Ec019_g1.pdf.
[7] Saelens B. E., Handy S. L. (2008) Built environment correlates
of walking: A review. Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, 40(7 Suppl.), 550–566.
[8] Walsh R. (2012) NCHRP Synthesis 436: Local Policies and
Practices That Support Safe Pedestrian Environments: A
Synthesis of Highway Practice. National Cooperative High-
way Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-05.
[9] N.Z. Transport Agency. (2009) Pedestrian planning and de-
sign guide, N.Z. Transport Agency, Wellington.
[10] Landis B. W., Vattikuti V. R., Ottenberg R. M, McLeod D.
S., Gutterplan M. (2001) Modeling the roadside environment:
A pedestrian level of service. Transportation Research Rec-
ord: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1773(1),
82-88.
[11] Dowling, R., Reinke, D., Flannery, A., Ryus, P., Vandehey,
M., Petritsch, T., Landis, B., Rouphail, N., Bonneson, J.
(2008) Multimodal Level of Service Analysis for Urban
Streets. Transportation Research Board. National Coopera-
tive Highway Research Program Report 616. Transportation
Research Board. Online Document. Accessed April 1, 2013.
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_616.pdf

© by PSP Volume 23 – No 11a. 2014 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
2825
[12] Christopoulou P. (2012) Development of a methodology for
the assessment of the pedestrian level of service in the
framework of multimodal transport. PhD thesis, Faculty of
Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Aristotle Universi-
ty, Thessaloniki.
[13] Bing Maps. Accessed March 19, 2013.
http://www.bing.com/maps/.
[14] Hellenic Statistical Authority (2011) Announcement of inter-
im results of the 2011 Population Census. (In Greek). Main
Page EL.STAT. 22 July 2011 Press Release. Hellenic Statisti-
cal Authority. Online Document. Accessed March 19, 2013.
http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/BUCKET/
General/A1602_SAM01_DT_DC_00_2011_01_F_GR.pdf.
[15] Gallin N. (2001) Quantifying pedestrian friendliness –
Guidelines for assessing pedestrian Level of Service, Austral-
ia: Walking the 21st Century Conference, Perth, Western
Australia.
[16] Mozer D. (1997) Calculating Multi-Mode Levels-of-Service.
International Bicycle Fund.
[17] Muraleetharan T., Adachi T., Hagiwara T., Kagaya S., Ka-
wamura S. (2004) Method to determine overall Level-of-
Service of pedestrians on sidewalks and crosswalks based on
total utility value. Proceedings of the 83rd Annual Meeting of
Transportation Research Board, Paper No. 04-4422, Wash-
ington D.C.
[18] Transportation Research Board (2000) Highway Capacity
Manual 2000. National Research Council, Washington D.C.
Received: November 11, 2013
Revised: May 15, 2014; May 30, 2014
Accepted: June 18, 2014
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
N. Gavanas
Department of Infrastructure Engineering
School of Technological Applications
Technological Educational Institution of Larissa
41110 Larissa
GREECE
Phone: +302310994160
E-mail: nicosgavanas@gmail.com
ngavanas@civil.auth.gr
FEB/ Vol 23/ No 11a/ 2014 – pages 2819 - 2825