Pedestrians’ experience in urban street environments exploring barrier effects of central streets in Gothenburg City
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
While barrier effects are commonly studied on large infrastructure elements through
street network analysis, perceptions of barrier effects occurring from central city
streets are rarely explored. Therefore, this master’s thesis adopts a methodology
based on a case study, where three central, busy streets in Gothenburg city are under
examination to understand the perception of barrier effects occurring from these
city streets. Since volume of motorised traffic is a commonly used factor indicating
barrier effects the case streets were primarily selected based on high and similar traffic
flows. Furthermore, the underlying premise of this study is that if the experience
of barrier effects differs between the streets, additional factors, other than traffic
flow, may influence the perception of these barriers. The experiences of a selection
of barrier effects and various attributes in the streetscape categorised as ’Transport
features and crossing facilities’ and ’Environmental features’, were collected through
a survey. The survey was administrated through a survey tool integrated with GIS,
known as Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS), which facilitated
data collection of geographic and non-geographic information. Associations
between the barrier effects and attributes were examined mainly through binomial
regression analyses to understand what features influence the perception of barrier
effects. In addition, qualitative data such as spatial data and free-text answers were
collected. For this data, methods of thematic analysis and spatial analysis were
employed to enhance the depth of the study. Additionally, the impact of age and
gender were analysed. The main outcome of this thesis is that barrier effects are
experienced on central city streets. The results also indicate that vehicular speed, the
distance between crossing facilities, the presence of obstacles, and pavement width
are key factors influencing the perception of barrier effects. Regarding the impact
of demographics, no conclusions could be drawn regarding age. Additionally, the
regression analysis models did not show a significant difference between genders,
contradicting previous assumptions in the literature about gender differences.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
barrier effects, pedestrian experience, city streets, perception, transport infrastructure, walking environment, impact of streetscape features, binomial logistic regression analysis, PPGIS