Surveying the Pedestrian Environment in San Francisco

These days, the average American makes less than 10% of daily trips on foot. This lack of activity is leading to other problems. Between 1990 and 2002, the percentage of people walking to work dropped 25% while the percentage of Americans who are obese rose 70%. In addition to having a direct benefit on personal health, making the choice to walk instead of drive helps your wallet by saving you money on gas and the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

So why aren't people walking?

There are a variety of reasons people live more sedentary lifestyles these days. One reason may be that many areas are uninviting to pedestrians. Compared to the effort put into improving streets and streamlining car traffic, very little attention is paid to improving the pedestrian environment. Between the years 1998 and 2003, California spent $11,882,961,487 federal transportation dollars. Less than one percent of this was spent on pedestrian and bicycle projects.

What can be done?

The San Francisco Department of Public Health is working on several pedestrian based projects aimed at understanding how land use, transportation, and urban design factors influence pedestrian activity. In order to better understand the features that invite pedestrian activity and the barriers that discourage walking in San Francisco, we are developing a Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI).


Traffic:

- Number of Lanes

- Two Way Traffic

- Vehicle Speed

- Traffic Volume

Land Use:

- Public Art

- Restaurant/ Retail Use

Safety/Other:

- Presence of Buffer

- Tagging

- Litter

- Adequate Lighting

- Construction Sites

- Abandoned Buildings

- Presence of Signs

Intersection:

- Crosswalks

- Corner Radius

- Crossing Speed

- Countdown/ Scramble

- Traffic Calming Features

Sidewalks

- Width of Sidewalk

- Impediments in Sidewalk Surface

- Presence of Curb

- Driveway Cuts

- Pedestrian Volume

- Trees/ Planters & Gardens

- Public Seating


Click here to take the survey

Our next step in developing this survey is to come up with a point scale for each indicator in the index. We are soliciting the assistance of national experts to help us come up with point values. To develop an accurate scale, we are asking these experts to do two things:

1.) Examine the indicators and determine how important each of them is to pedestrian environmental quality. Some indicators may impact a pedestrian environment more than others. We are asking experts to rate each indicator on a scale ranging from “not important” to “essential.”

2.) Help determine the point value each indicator value should receive. There are values within each indicator. For example, the indicator “Number of Lanes” has the following values:

· Four or more lanes of traffic

· 3 lanes

· 2 lanes

· 1 lane

· No lanes

We are asking experts to assign values to each of these indicators on a scale of negative five (extremely detrimental to the pedestrian environment) to positive five (ideal for a pedestrian environment).

Once we receive the completed surveys, we will average the scores to create standards for a Pedestrian Environmental Quality Index (PEQI). We plan to use the PEQI to assess the pedestrian environment in San Francisco’s Eastern Neighborhoods and along the Mission corridor.