"Some essential indicators related to pedestrians’ basic requirements" in: Martincigh L. e Tonelli C., “The walking environment design: indicators and measures”

This chapter, after a brief introduction (written by Martincigh and Tonelli together) that puts the issue in the broader context of functionality needs, gives some indications on how to face the design of the walking environment. The first section of this chapter (written by Martincigh) deals with some essential indicators devised both for evaluating the current urban situation and for guiding choices to be made in the design of a pedestrian environment, meeting users’ needs and expectations as much as possible. After that explanation of the role of the indicators and the reason why it is worthwhile to make use of them, it is reported how the indicators for the walking environment can be connected to the Common European Indicators related to urban sustainability, and in particular to sustainable mobility. The core of this part of the essay concerns the choice of the specific aspects such indicators have to govern and the description of the proposed ones, that points out briefly only their most important features, as the definition and the meaning, the main goal and the reference values for the assessment. Five indicators have been chosen because these seem to be the most appropriate to the matter at hand; they are related to the basic requirements/performances of accessibility, safety and use. As an example of the catalogue that was developed in other research studies, the form related to one of them is reported. In the second section (written by Tonelli), the chapter deals with some measures devised for improving the walking environment as regards the accessibility and comfort requirements: the former has been chosen since it is the basic condition for enabling pedestrians to use the urban spaces, the latter has been chosen since it represents an ever-increasing exigency, consequent to urban pollution problems and to climatic changes. Also in this case, only some of the available technical measures are outlined: as regards accessibility, they are related to some of the indicators previously described. It explains then the importance of space’s accessibility for performing the various activities and of comfort strategies for improving the walking environment, mentioning which are the most important measures to implement. Moreover it describes briefly each measure, pointing out its main aim, some technical specifications and a comment on its efficacy. This section closes with some notes on the main characteristics of the materials used for the construction, always referring to accessibility and comfort requirements.