Modeling pedestrian activity in cities with urban network analysis
Name
sevtsuk-kalvo-2024-modeling-pedestrian-activity-in-cities-with-urban-network-analysis.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.01 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
87605a1518afe4bf9bb96093a60380d7
Author(s)
Sevtsuk, Andres
Kalvo, Raul
Journal
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
Sevtsuk, A., & Kalvo, R. (2024). Modeling pedestrian activity in cities with urban network analysis. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The global climate-change crisis, along with public health and economic competitiveness challenges in cities around the world have underscored the need for analytic tools to examine the relationship between city design and sustainable mobility. Car-centered travel demand models and land-use-transportation interaction models have historically analyzed zone-to-zone trips along major roadways, largely omitting pedestrian and bicycle trips and creating a gap in the ability for planners and urban designers to systematically assess non-motorized outcomes of development interventions. We present the Urban Network Analysis tools to address this gap. UNA tools offer an accessibility-based framework for analyzing how built environments influence pedestrian travel in both existing and newly planned built environments. Developed as a free plugin for Rhinoceros 3D since 2015 and applied in several cities and research projects internationally, this paper describes the current Urban Network Analysis modeling framework and discusses the unique contributions the framework offers compared to existing pedestrian modeling approaches. Using Somerville, MA as case example, we demonstrate several commonly used functions for planners: examining pedestrian accessibility over networks; identifying critical walking routes to destinations; estimating foot-traffic on street segments; identifying frustration points for pedestrians; and evaluating how development changes may impact pedestrian activity in their vicinity. Such analyses can provide analytic evidence to pedestrian infrastructure planning and investment, and enable planners, designers, and policy makers to prioritize projects that increase sustainable mobility outcomes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083241261766
