Edirne Saraclar Street Pedestrian Comfort Analysis

Abstract

Pedestrian areas, one of the essential elements of urban spaces, constitute a platform that allows citizens and visitors to connect and socialise with different people. These areas, where the pedestrians carry out compulsory, optional and social activities, are physical, social and economic contributions to urban life and are places that animate urban life. Especially in the pedestrianised streets which are planned to protect the central functions of the city, to revive the economy, to improve the image of the city and to ensure that the walking functions of the pedestrians at the optimum level and to perform all other activities comfortably depend on the natural characteristics, the built environment, the design elements and function areas of these streets. In this context, it is aimed to present the pedestrian comfort analysis of the 1st stage pedestrian area of Saraclar street which is the first and most important pedestrianisation example of Edirne city. The pedestrian counts were measured at 5 points of Saraclar street at weekends and weekday morning (08.00-09.00), noon (12.00-13.00) and evening (17.00-18.00), and spatial distribution of pedestrians was calculated by Inverse distance weight (IDW) geostatistical interpolation method. In addition to these measurements which provide the analysis of walking comfort of the pedestrians in the study area, flow rate, density and speed of pedestrians were calculated to provide revealing of this analysis. This analysis has helped to determine pedestrian comfort level of the street according to Level of service (LOS) by the Highway capacity manual (HCM). In this context, the structural and plant materials and physical features of the street were evaluated and pedestrian comfort analysis was presented. As a result of the study, proposals were presented considering the characteristics of the pedestrianised areas in order to increase pedestrian comfort of Saraslar street.