DEVELOPMENT OF LEVEL OF SERVICE CRITERIA FOR PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENTS

Abstract

Walking is the simplest and important mode of transport. Walking may be involved even for journeys where personalized vehicles are used. The various pedestrian facilities provide segregation of the pedestrian traffic from the vehicular flow, thereby increasing the perceived safety. The services delivered by these facilities needs to be evaluated for further improvement and for better design and construction of the future works. This can be effectively carried out through the evaluation of the offered level of service (LOS). But the level of service standards available was developed for the conditions in the western countries. So its applicability in the Indian condition may not give accurate results. In this study, twelve locations were considered from different cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Chennai and Coimbatore. The data collection was done using vediographic technique. The analysis was done on the basis of the land use and width so as to find their individual effect on LOS. The level of service criteria was established for Indian condition for three types of pedestrian facilities and flow rate of pedestrians was found to be the most important parameter. A model was developed for different pedestrian facilities incorporating factors like flow rate, sidewalk width and width of obstruction. The amount of variability in the prediction to establish LOS models was also established.