Pedestrianization in Historic Districts in terms of Traffic, Urban Development, and Economic Perspective of Sustainable City

Abstract

Nowadays, new urban development strategies emphasize on pedestrian construction where pedestrian zones must meet the standard requirements in order to improve citizen mobility. Urban economies, social justice, and sustainable transportation may be impacted by pedestrianization. Certainly, pedestrianization and walkability can significantly reduce traffic congestion in historic and downtown districts. Concerning historical urban attitudes and relevant potentials, this paper proposes reconstructions to build better pedestrian areas in historic places where private car traffic and public transport lanes are also considered in pathway construction. As a case study, a historic area in the Iranian city of Kerman has been studied due to its unique cultural and climatic conditions. Consequently, all guidelines and regulations for changes to potential streets of historical districts into pedestrian zones have been carefully reviewed followed by defining scenarios of walkability and non-walkability (turning historic passageways into new roadways) of streets as well as improving traffic conditions. In addition to investigating variables including costs, traffic enhancement, and urban development priorities, the analysis has been done by performing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The results indicated that non-walkability-based scenarios (passage and roadway widening) could merely reduce delays while incurring significant expenses and the highest destruction of historic districts. Nevertheless, the analysis carried out using three criteria showed that walkability and the development of public transportation could provide the most reliable solutions (the highest point) to secure sustainable transportation.

Keywords

• pedestrianization
• walkability
• urban development
• sustainable transportation
• sustainable city