Assessing the Value of Sidewalk Safety Attributes Affecting Individual's Walking Mode Choices Using a Choice Experiment Method in Amirabad Neighbourhood

Due to an increase in the urban population, metropolitan cities like Tehran, the capital of Iran, have encountered an uncontrolled vertical development and urban sprawl. The automobileoriented approach has become an initial result of urban growth, which has a tremendous effect on health benefits and a significant decline in the physical activity of urban residents. Pedestrians are a segment of urban residents that are disproportionately vulnerable to a dramatic shift that has happened in both the physical and environmental aspects of urban areas. Consequently, such changes have had a negative influence on the walking mode choice and a decline in pedestrian safety in very conflicted zones, like pedestrian sidewalks. Most sidewalks have not been designed based on pedestrian priority and preferences which discourages residents from walking as a mode of travel. Broken walkways, narrow widths, and motor-vehicles parked illegally on sidewalks are some of the constraints for all urban residents. Therefore, an improvement of urban sidewalk features requires a thorough understanding of the perception of pedestrian safety as well as attributes that contribute in developing safe sidewalks in the city of Tehran. This research aims to identify and measure the physical and operational attributes of safe sidewalks affecting resident’s preference for constructing a pleasant sidewalk. Data is partially collected from a focus group study in the proposed study area to determine residents’ perceptions regarding the main attributes of sidewalk’s safety. In this study, Choice Experiment (CE) methodology has been implemented to examine and measure residents’ preferences for sidewalk safety attributes. To quantify the environmental and physical values and their importances, the study was performed on 95 sample population. They were recruited for a CE study in which they had to choose between a number of sidewalks that differed in terms of lighting, width, curb and bollards (metal barriers), evenness and city cost for a square meter. The result from the CE study has shown that the average resident preferred a sidewalk with an adequate lighting and brightness. Sidewalk width and sidewalk leveling were the second and third priorities of Amirabad residents.