Factors influencing Pedestrian Speed in Level of Service (LOS) of pedestrian facilities

Walking is the major mode of transportation for the pedestrians in their daily life. To provide the pedestrians with good infrastructure facilities we need to know the requirement for it. The requirement can be found only after the evaluation of existing facilities and its impact on pedestrian flow. There are different methods for evaluating Level of Service (LOS) for pedestrian facilities which is given in Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) and Indian Roads Congress (IRC). In this study it was found that different LOS can be obtained for different parameters as discussed in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), that has to be questioned which led to a detailed study of one of the parameters, Pedestrian Speed. There are different factors that influence the pedestrians speed. The factors identified for the study are age group, gender, size of the group and trip purpose of the pedestrians. Through the survey, the primary data are collected based on the factors influencing the pedestrian speed. After analysis it was found that, Pedestrian Speed varies with respect to Age Group, Gender, Group Size and Trip Purpose of the pedestrians. At the end of the study a new chart for evaluating pedestrian LOS based on Pedestrian Speed was formulated and validated.