Walkability

Under pedestrian friendliness refers to the quality of a place, to move, to walk there. In a wider sense it describes the character of a place and if or how well it is there possible to cover the paths of everyday life (work, shopping, leisure, etc. ) on foot.

Historical development

Before the 19th century, other means of transport were more widespread, almost all roads were covered on foot. Nevertheless, the cities were not necessarily pedestrian friendly at this time in the modern sense, especially because roads were often not fixed or refuse and waste water was disposed of on the streets, so the walking was uncomfortable. The urbanization of the 19th and early 20th century brought in Europe on the one hand to improve the pedestrian friendliness by paving roads and paths, the system of sewers for wastewater transport and the separation of traffic in sidewalks and roadways for various types of locomotion. On the other hand, some cities have been so great that there any way could no longer be covered on foot. The car mobilization and the associated sub-urbanization of the 20th century brought a large incision in the pedestrian friendliness, since it led to a spatial segregation of different vital functions. The town was separated from work and shopping and recreational activities also shifted away from home, so it was in some places impossible to travel the paths of everyday life on foot. Therefore, the proportion of foot traffic in the modal split decreased especially in the second half of the 20th century. The critical of the then propagated car-friendly city in the late 20th century led to a rethink in the planning culture, which are more aimed back on pedestrian friendliness. This has been illustrated by numerous pedestrian and other traffic calming measures, and the model of the city of short distances the system.

Regional differences

While the European city is more geared to pedestrian friendliness basically their morphology, pedestrian friendliness (English walkability ) in the United States, Canada and Australia difficult to implement, since the local towns are much spacious and developed in accordance with the motorization. Therefore, measures should be more pedestrian -friendliness there a major thematic challenges in urban planning and a core requirement of the followers of the New Urbanism and the New Pedestrianism.

Town planning

Considered Broadly, it is difficult to make a once relatively pedestrian- hostile city (such as Los Angeles ) more attractive for pedestrians because it is cumbersome to achieve a compression of the building structures, mixing of different spatial functions, resulting in a shortening of the way distances in retrospect. On a small scale, however, can often bring about by individual structural measures a selective improvement. Pedestrians are the most umwegsensibelsten road users, so in a logical and short routing is important, such as through the use of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings in the right place instead umwegiger and not accessible over or underpasses. Likewise, short distances between crossings on spatial barriers such as railway lines, main roads or rivers are necessary to increase the pedestrian friendliness in the area and prevent accidents by unintended crossings. Likewise, pedestrians always choose the shortest path, so this should also be taken up by planning to avoid the emergence of dirt tracks, through parks.