Pedestrian-vehicular conflict in the Kandy heritage city

Abstract

This research examines the causal factors of pedestrian-vehicular conflict to determine the possible planning and design interventions. The study investigates the current situation in the Kandy Heritage City of Sri Lanka, which is a World Heritage Site highly regarded by locals and international tourists. At present, this town is distressed by automobile dominancy related issues, including traffic congestion, poor walkability and air pollution. Thus, this research intends to explore the spatial representation of causal factors and their association with the pedestrian-movement pattern.

This research highlights the challenge of handling the context specific and non-accidents-based data sources to explore the pedestrian-vehicular conflict. Accordingly, the data drawn from content analysis of photographs which captured along the streets are spatially analysed in QGIS platform to visualise the causal factors. Furthermore, space syntax analysis derived spatial integration, which predicts the pedestrian movement pattern. The association of these two conditions are spatially visualised and validated by statistical analysis and pedestrians’ perception survey.

In terms of the research findings, seven causal factors (i.e. loading and unloading, constrained/no sidewalks, on-street parking, intersection type, undefined pedestrian domain, land use and people on carriageway) are identified particularly to the Kandy Heritage City. Secondly, the spatial analysis indicates that the pedestrian movement and the causal spots/locations are concentrated in the Kandy City Centre. Lastly, the correlation analysis confirmed that the causal factors have an association with pedestrian movement pattern and pedestrians’ perception survey confirmed the most influential causal factors that lead pedestrian-vehicular conflict. The abovementioned findings provide an impartial, applied and precise background to formulate planning and design solutions.