Analysis of Pedestrian Free Flow Walking Speed in a Least Developing Country: A Factorial Design Study

摘要

The direct use of foreign design codes and unavailability of well-recognized local parameters for pedestrian facilities has been a concern in least developing countries. In this study, a study on pedestrian movements on sidewalks in the capital city of Dhaka, Bangladesh has been done to determine the free flow walking speed and to identify the effect of contributing factors. Basic data on walking speeds and the chosen factors were collected from 1,440 pedestrians by a photographic procedure of video recording. A Factorial Design with Mixed Levels was used. Results show that the free flow walking speed is greatly affected by the pedestrian age, gender and the 'walkability' of the facility. In addition, male speed is less hampered by the carrying of baggage than female speed. In general, Bangladeshi pedestrians are slower than those of Western countries, but are faster or alike compared to some Asian counterparts. Such finding does not validate the sustainability of the adoption of foreign design and parameters for pedestrian facilities in Bangladesh. The results of this analysis can be used as a guideline for developing design codes for local pedestrian facilities.