Prioritising Pedestrian's Needs Around Transit Stations Through Walkability Assessment: A walk audit tool approach

Enhancing the walking environment around metro stations is essential for the success of the metro service. The objective of the study is to develop an easy and comfortable method to measure the walkability around metro stations using an audit tool developed and provide recommendations for its improvement with prioritizing the needs of pedestrians. The study explores the microscale built environment factors affecting walkability around metro stations. Twenty factors were selected and clustered in four groups: mobility, comfort, safety, and security. Fifteen catchment areas of Delhi metro stations, India were inspected by walkability audit, and objective scores were computed for each selected attribute. Further, importance score of each attribute was derived from questionnaire survey. Importance performance analysis was performed to identify the areas which require improvement. At the end, by estimating and comparing the walkability scores for different metro stations, conclusions and recommendations were made to enhance the walkability and walk-accessibility to metro stations. The proposed approach is simple and it accounts the metro users’ perception which is missing in previous approaches. This approach would be helpful for planners and policymakers to improve walkability around stations, thereby creating a transportation network more sustainable.