Abstract

A GIS-based Model for Pedestrian Accessibility Assessment and Improvements Prioritization
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Mengyuan Xu, Kerry Brooks

Access to crucial life needs services, such as grocery stores and gathering spaces, are vital for citizens' welfare and wellbeing. Lack of access to these facilities may lead to health problems as well as social isolation. Considering that a large proportion of the population are mobility-disadvantaged groups who do not drive, urban planners need to consider providing them with pedestrian access. However, large deficits of pedestrian infrastructure exist while lack of local funding means that investments aimed at mitigating accessibility must be prioritized.
In this study, with a detailed, metro-wide geo-spatial pedestrian network dataset, the proposed model is able to calculate services map of each life needs services destination and helps identify service deserts for pedestrians in study area. In addition, the model estimates both efficiency and equity implications for the identified deficiencies and thus facilitates the decision making process by prioritizing improvements to the sidewalk network.