Assessment of the Walkability of Urban Arterials: Case of Istanbul Bagdat Avenue

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Dündar S., Yardım M. S., Zengin E. M., Hüner E. E., Şentürk Berktaş E.

ACE 2020-21 14th International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering, İstanbul, Türkiye, 06 Eylül 2021, cilt.1, ss.1316-1323

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
  • Cilt numarası: 1
  • Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1316-1323
  • Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Walking is the most economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable journey type. Despite being the starting and ending type of all journeys, walking is often overlooked in models of transportation planning. Reducing the negative effects of motor vehicles of highway transportation such as environmental pollution caused by motor vehicle traffic and traffic accidents is possible by increasing the share of environmentally friendly and sustainable transportation types, especially the walking. Walkability which describes how good the walking conditions in a region is one of the issues that have attracted the attention of researchers recently. Different methods that consider different factors have been developed to evaluate the walkability of a micro or meso scale regions.

Within the scope of this study, the walkability of Bagdat Avenue, an important shopping and recreation area of the Anatolian Side of Istanbul, was evaluated using the Hall Planning & Engineering (HPE) method. Bagdat Avenue is primarily divided into homogeneous sections, starting from the Bostancı Marmaray station, where pedestrian movements begin, until Kızıltoprak traffic lights, where the traffic starts to operate in both directions. Then walkability values of each sub-section were measured using field observations and measurements.

Bagdat Avenue, which is an important arterial of Kadıköy District, has good values in terms of walkability, especially since its residents usually have high income levels.  However, it is possible to further increase the walkability of some sections with various improvements.

Assessment of walkability is an important step towards improving the walking conditions of urban areas. Improved walking conditions will cause benefits such as increasing the share of walking on the journeys and indirectly reducing the negative effects of motor vehicle traffic such as environmental pollution and accidents, as well as providing positive effects for public health.

Keywords: Walkability, Urban Planning, Transportation Planning,Transportation Engineering.