Impact of Pedestrian Malls on Transportation Activities

About the report:

Pedestrian malls - streets that have been dedicated to pedestrian use only - are a popular urban renewal tactic for stimulating economic growth in deteriorating central business districts by attracting commercial retail business. Because of benefits they bring to the downtown road system, pedestrian malls have been included as a means of route diversion in many lists of transportation system management tactics. Because there has been little documentation of the effects of pedestrian malls on transportation activities, the study reported here was undertaken. Officials of selected cities in other states, all of which have pedestrian malls, and merchants and shoppers on three malls in Virginia were surveyed to measure changes resulting from the construction of malls and identify specific problems relating to transportation in the areas of the malls. It was found that the construction of pedestrian malls had provided an impetus for improvements to the downtown transportation system. Problems with goods delivery were found to have increased, but most merchants had been able to adjust delivery operations to alleviate the problems. It was believed that access for users of the mall could be improved, but the methodology utilized in the study was unable to quantify the degree to which methods of improvement had been effective.

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