PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC PLANNING AND THE PERCEPTION OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT: A FRENCH EXAMPLE

Planning pedestrian traffic in the city involves a better understanding of pedestrians' behavior and their perception of the urban environment. Lynch's (1961) studies proposed A qualitative method. An alternative method, essentially quantitative, is proposed here: pedestrians surveyed are asked to locate on a paper some well-known landmarks (six in all). Distances between each pair of them are measured. The model allows (1) interpretation of the degree of agreement between mental maps, and (2) a study of the "mean" map. Perception seems to make space more symmetrical. Distortions can be explained by two effects: differences in transportation modes, and a particular knowledge of the neighborhood. The mental map recovered through multidimensional scaling is compared with the topographic one. It does not have the metric topology. /Author/TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Pion Limited

  207 Brondesburg Park
  London NW2 5JN,   England 
• Authors:
  • Marchand, B
• Publication Date: 1974

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 491-507
• Serial:
  • Environment and Planning
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Pion Limited

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Atmosphere; Environment; Errors; Highway planning; Human characteristics; Mode S; Pedestrians; Perception; Questionnaires; Topographic maps; Traffic; Urban areas; Visual perception
• Geographic Terms: France
• Old TRIS Terms: Pedestrian characteristics; Traffic planning; Urban atmospheres
• ITRD Terms: 2455: Environment; 6440: Error; 8036: France; 9147: Interview; 1733: Pedestrian; 2229: Perception; 313: Urban area
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00099145
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 18 1975 12:00AM