Pedestrianization

Walking has always been the most natural, the oldest, and the most essential form of transportation and is still major form of moving, hence, it plays a vital rule in urban transportation. In fact, walking is the most important tool for seeing, being seen, observing city wide daily and social activities, discovering the values and hidden attractions in urban environment, and therefore, feeling of liveliness and being needed amongst citizens. Throughout the last three decades, due to increasing urban problems such as; environmental pollution, traffic and transportation issues, lower pedestrians’ safety against moving vehicles, jeopardizing the spiritual existence of valuable historical sites, lower visual quality of urban environments, and less social interactions. Which has created a worldwide momentum against the moving vehicles domination and diminishing of the pedestrianism. Consequently, pedestrianism and its necessities, which were ignored and forgotten urban issues, once again became one of the fundamental concerns in planning and development in urban design. This movement is called “Pedestrianism Movement”. In this research, after a discussion about the theory of pedestrianism and providing a literature review of the works done by the researchers, the acceptance criteria and characterizations of a walkable environment and the major contributing factors in strengthening or weakening of the pedestrian system will be discussed. Finally, results of several case studies in potential streets in Tehran are presented and recommendations will be provided to create a walkable environment and to accomplish the pedestrianism objectives.