Identifying the Most Important Factors for Pedestrian Level of Service Measurement: Results from a Delphi Study in Brisbane, Australia

Pedestrian level-of-service (PLOS) is a common method for assessing the quality of pedestrian facilities. Identifying which factors relating to footpaths and their surrounding environment are most important is a major challenge for researchers and practitioners. Previous approaches and methods for factor selection have had numerous limitations, with many studies using expert judgement, often from a single researcher. This paper reports on a research effort that aims to overcome these problems by proposing a novel method for PLOS factor identification. The approach uses the outputs of a previous systematic quantitative literature review on PLOS factors as inputs to a Delphi study involving experts in Brisbane, Australia. In 2017, some 36 experts recruited from the professionals association PedBikeTrans participated in a questionnaire survey. Twenty of the same experts then participated in a follow-up ‘walkshop’ involving walking a dedicated route and a workshop to re-examine the possible set of PLOS factors. 33 factors affecting PLOS were eventually identified for inclusion. The results are limited only to commercial streets in city/activity centres in the Australian setting, but the approach and methods may open the pathway for much more robust PLOS measures to be developed for a range of facility types and across different urban contexts.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Raad, Nowar
  • Burke, Matthew
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: 11p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Delphi method; Evaluation and assessment; Level of service; Pedestrian areas; Pedestrians; Questionnaires
• Geographic Terms: Brisbane (Australia)
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01698205
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-05304
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM