Q-PLOS, developing an alternative walking index. A method based on urban design quality

Abstract

The Level of Service (LOS) is a measure to evaluate the degree of accommodation of different transport modes in a given infrastructure (road, railway, street, etc.). While the last decades have seen a growing interest regarding the use of level of service for managing and planning private and public transport infrastructures, shortcomings appear when it is used in the context of pedestrian mobility (i.e. the complexity of pedestrian mobility in terms of behaviour and the consideration of urban design factors associated with pedestrianisation). This paper aims to gain insight into the abovementioned issues by developing an alternative walking index, the Quality of Pedestrian Level of Service (Q-PLOS) method. This novel method is based on the quality of urban design for pedestrian and its relationship with walking needs. The city of Granada (Spain) provided the empirical focus. The paper found that the Q-PLOS was a more accurate measurement of pedestrian mobility characteristics. This was based on the relevance of specific factors linked to urban design together with public preferences about them. Finally, the obtained high-detailed outputs provide a platform to increment the effectiveness of level of service specifically for pedestrians that want to access to a public transport stop.