A toolkit to measure attributes that support or hinder pedestrian movement on pedestrian crossings

Over the past 15 years there has been a drive within the UK to rethink design to more appropriately meet the needs of a wide range of users, particularly disabled people. Additionally with changing demographics and an increasing ageing population there has been a move to broaden the concept of disabled access to that of inclusive design where design responds to the needs of the whole population. This paper reports on an EPSRC funded project which investigates the role of external environments particularly the street in supporting inclusive design. An innovative toolkit was developed to measure attributes of a pedestrian crossing which support or hinder pedestrian movement. This toolkit was complemented by on-site structured observation of pedestrian behaviour. This paper provides the overall methodological framework highlighting the ways in which the techniques were developed and used in the field, and suggests how these techniques would be modified and applied to other external environment contexts.