The Safer Cities Approach focuses on capacity building of local authorities to prevent crime and inse-curity in urban areas and at the same time build a culture of crime prevention (Tanzania National Strategy on Urban Crime Prevention, 2008). The approach focuses on three areas of intervention: saf-er design, planning and management of public spaces to encourage intsaf-eraction of people, social crime and violence prevention and, institutional enforcement to ensure justice (www.unhabitat.org/safercities). The approach recognizes that public safety is a common good that requires joint effort of different stakeholders including government, municipalities and the community (UN Habitat, 2007). Municipalities are required to develop strategies and how to ensure citizen are safe in urban areas (ibid). A joint effort of the municipalities and other actors is required to implement the strategies developed aimed at addressing insecurity and crime in urban areas.
Addressing crime and insecurity are part of a good governance system. This requires consultations and inclusion of citizen in the decision making process (UN, 2007). The overall goal for the approach is to have sustainable urbanisation which is supported by good governance, urban planning and management and social inclusiveness. This considers three components of social, environmental and economic dimensions (Tanzania National Strategy on Urban Crime Prevention, 2008).
The three components of safer cities approach are crucial with regard to walkability in a neighbour-hood. Urban planning and design will affect the manner in which neighbourhoods are designed to ac-commodate accessibility and safety needs of a pedestrian. Properties designed to face streets are safer than those shadowing them (Newman, 1996). The designs must include social aspects like facilities for the physically challenged and social interactions. Additionally, the community should also be in-cluded in the process. When it comes to good governance, the planning process should be transparent and participatory. This ensures that pedestrian needs are holistically considered.
The pertinent questions arising from the elements of safer cities that the study sought to answer in-clude: how are the safer cities components being implemented in the study areas to improve pedestri-an accessibility pedestri-and safety needs? What is the capacity of local authorities to mpedestri-anage pedestripedestri-an safe-ty?
Aggregating from theoretical and conceptual debate, walkability is influenced by five key variables , namely; land use patterns (i.e. proximity to services, land use mix and density), design features (i.e.
street patterns, orientation of buildings, setbacks, building height-width ratio and parking) and transport system (i.e. traffic separation, traffic calming measures, pedestrian infrastructure), individual behaviour (i.e. income, gender and age), institutional and legal provisions (i.e. policies and laws, regulations, planning standards, by laws and norms) and attractiveness and convenience of the walk-ing environment (street lights, public toilets, dust bins, shade tries). The relationship of factors is summarized in conceptual framework presented in Figure 4.3.
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Figure 4. 3: Conceptual framework for improving walkability in rapidly urbanising cities
Walking purposes Hierarchy of walking needs Factors influencing walking
77 Description of the conceptual framework (Figure 4.3)
Figure 4.2 is the conceptual framework that guided this study. This framework was developed to guide the investigation of the research questions stated in section 1.5. As explained earlier, in this study, walkability was conceptualized as the extent through which the characteristics of the built envi-ronment and land use may or may not be conducive to residents in the area while walking for either leisure, exercise or recreation, to access services, or to travel to work (Lesile et al., 2007:91). As can be noted from Figure 4.2, the framework is thus divided into three parts, namely: Walking purposes on the left hand side, hierarchy of walking needs at the centre of the framework, and factors influenc-ing people to walk on the right hand side. At the bottom, implementation of the urban design con-cepts, planning standards and relevant policies are considered as inputs towards improving walkability in cities of developing countries. A brief description of each part is given below:
Walking purposes: The literature has revealed that walking is demanded for two main purposes: First purpose is to reach a destination (i..e. walking for transport or utilitarian purposes) such as going to school, work, shopping, grocery store, parks, meeting friends, etc. Second, is walking for leisure or recreational purposes. This pillar was considered of great importance so as to understand the walking purposes in cities of developing countries. Is it for leisure/recreational or for reaching a destination?
Hierarchy of walking needs: The derivation of this hierarchy was inspired by the work of Southworth (2005: 148) whereby connectivity of path network, linkage with other modes, fine grained and varied land use patterns, safety, quality of path and path context including street designs and visual interest of the built environment constitutes the attributes of a walkable network. The essence of deriving the hierarchy of walking needs is to establish a relationship that can help to appreciate why does one choose to walk along a certain route when it is sunny, but this other route when it is raining, or com-pletely stop from walking the time when he/she manages to own a car after which he/she resorts to drive instead of walking. Therefore, the variables of the hierarchy of walking needs presented in Fig-ure 4.3 helped the researcher to captFig-ure the perspectives of pedestrians on the walking environment.
To develop the triangle of hierarchy of walking needs, the study assumed that walking is demanded in four different tiers (see Figure 4.3).
The first level of walking and which is the base and fundamentally required is connectivity, as people need to stay connected. This means that the basic need to travel is first influenced by the continui-ty/connectivity of the route (i.e. without barriers in between). As discussed in Chapter One, walking in cities of developed countries is considered in terms of providing mobility for the poorest residents who normally walk to reach various destinations as they cannot afford public transport (UN-Habitat, 2013b: viii). The literature shows that, in many cities of developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan African cities, dis-connectivity of pedestrian routes is a genuine problem. As motorization increase, pedestrians in cities of developing countries are often neglected in infrastructure provision.
Due to the fact that walking provides mobility for the poorest residents, pedestrians in cities of devel-oping countries often detour to overcome any barriers unless they are really overwhelming. Pedestri-ans in cities of developing countries are traced going through low lying areas which are sometimes impassable during rainy days. Unlike developing cities, in developed cities, a lack of connectivity will not cause pedestrians to detour or overcome barriers via walking, instead they give up and hop straight into their cars or taxis to gain ‘accessibility’ which is the third tier of the walking needs and which is discussed in the next sections. This is because people in developed cities (high-income tries) have an alternative choice other than walking, a situation that is contrary to developing coun-tries. Therefore, it was necessary to assess the perspectives of pedestrians in relation to connectivity of pedestrian network.
The second level is about the safety and security of the walking route. Having satisfied that there is a connected path to walk on, the next one can start worrying about the threat of vehicles or other danger
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along a particular walking route. This implies that safety is a second level to the first connectivity tier, that is to say, without being connected, safety is not an issue. This second tier of safety and secu-rity is inspired by the literature regarding walking in cities of developing countries where the key im-provement measures involve traffic segregation, pedestrian crossings and other traffic calming measures so as to enhance the pedestrian safety. In cities of developing countries street muggings, pick pocketing and other form of crime influence the desire to whether walk or not. For developed cities, pedestrians can also be victims of crime issues and bad driving habits, and hence pedestrian safety and security are always important variables to be considered. Through this tier, the study aimed to investigate how people in cities of developing countries perceive the safety and security of the walking environment.
The third level is accessibility: that is the ease of getting to destinations and to the other modes and for mobility impaired to use. This tier of accessibility is of great significance to the vulnerable groups (i.e.
children, the elderly and the people with disabilities) who simply do not have a choice to switch from walking. This third level is derived from the fact that having improved the connectivity, safety and security of walking routes, people’s expectations and mobility increase and hence are likely to de-mand getting to various land uses destinations or connect to other transit nodes quicker and easier.
Furthermore, the accessibility level is also associated with the accessibility for the mobility-impaired and the demand for better quality walkways. This tier implies that cities of developing countries should not end by just connecting pedestrians to a certain not, pedestrians will not be happy. They will tend to demand these connections to be accessible and usable by all, short and direct with least physi-cal and mental effort to use. From the literature, it was argued that people are willing to walk when destinations are reached within 5 to 10 minutes or 400 to 800 metres distance. Therefore, this study assessed how people perceive the access to public facilities (i.e. schools, commercial, health, reli-gious, public transit and recreational facilities) including disability infrastructure.
The final level of the hierarchy of walking needs is the convenience and attractiveness of the walking routes where comfort and aesthetics of the walking environment come in to derive the best walking experience. While many cities of developing countries are taking time and resources to beautify the streetscapes and landscaping, little is known about what cities of developing countries do to make the walking routes attractive and inviting. Although this tier seems abstract since it is psychologically and contextual too, the researcher is of the opinion that enjoyment and comfort of the walking routes have the ability to influence the accessibility to various destinations both positively and negatively. The author is of the opinion that given any urban walking environment where connectivity, safety and se-curity needs are fulfilled, still convenience, attractiveness, and enjoyment of the route are the key fac-tors that can influence walking behaviour with a reasonable level of accessibility needs being met.
Factors influencing walking
The literature shows that walking is influenced by the built environment (land use patterns, design features and transport system) and individual behaviour (demographic and social economic character-ists, attitudes, perceptions and lifestyle). Details on the individual behaviour and the built environment are discussed in chapter two and four respectively.
At the bottom of the framework, urban design concepts, planning standards, policy measures are con-sidered as inputs towards improving walkability in cities of developing countries. This is simply be-cause; the built environment in most cases is a result of policy maker’s decisions and planning stand-ards. Much of what results from the built environment relates to the community behaviour and atti-tudes and finally can be influenced by the initiatives and regulation.
This conceptual framework influenced the methodological design and approach so at answer the re-search questions and variables of the study. The next chapter is a rere-search design and methodology where the variables presented in Figure 4.3 were reflected to guide the study.
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