Citizen Expectations of Pedestrian Walks: Sajjad Boulevard, Mashhad

Emphasizing on pedestrian accessibility is a recent trend in current urban planning. In many metropolitan areas, vehicular access is substituted by pedestrian walks. Nevertheless, these pedestrian walks have not met the same success in all metropolitan areas. Diverse factors contribute to the success of pedestrianization in metropolitan areas. This paper reports the results of a survey undertaken in pedestrian walks adjacent to Sajjad Boulevard, Mashhad. In this survey, different users responded to questions about the conditions of pedestrian walks. The results indicated that most walks functioned mainly as access roads with few other urban functions contributing to the pedestrian nature of the walk. The main users of pedestrian walks were the young population significantly outnumbering children and older age groups. The feeling of insecurity in particular for females also contributed to a decrease in effective use of the pedestrian walks. Nevertheless, there was a marked willingness on part of the citizens to cooperate with municipalities for improvement of the existing situation.