Church Street First: Assessing the Impact of Pedestrianising an Urban Street in terms of Quality of Life
Church Street in Bengaluru was closed for vehicular traffic every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to midnight for four months from 7th November 2020 till 28th February 2021, under the CAS initiative. The idea was to demonstrate the benefits of pedestrianizing a busy street.
The Quality of Life (QoL) assessment of pedestrianizing Church Street was done using quantitative and qualitative indicators covering the three main pillars of sustainability: environment, social, and economy.
Overall improvement in air quality
A clear improvement in air quality was recorded on pedestrianized weekends, in terms of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, which were within limits set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for most of the weekends. Likewise, the Air Quality Index (AQI) assessed using the CPCB formula were within satisfactory and a good limit for most weekends. Hence, an overall improvement in air quality was observed due to the pedestrianization of an urban street (this is an important result with respect to promoting low emission zones in the city).
The survey responses show that 83% of visitors and 81% of shop owners were satisfied with improved air quality after pedestrianization. Higher satisfaction level with air quality after closure of streets for traffic indicates that the public is aware that reducing the usage of motorized vehicles improves air quality. About 94% of the pedestrians agreed that improvement in air quality due to road closure for traffic contributes to a better QoL.
Increase in sustainable transport mode share
Pedestrianization had led to a 7% reduction in the mode share of personal modes and an equivalent 7% increase in the mode share of sustainable transport modes among the visitors while comparing with their mode choices before pedestrianization (good strategy to promote sustainable modes). Similarly, a 15% decrease in the mode share of personal modes and an 11% increase in the mode share of sustainable transport modes were observed among shop owners after pedestrianization. On-street parking issues are reduced because pedestrianization and road capacity is used to the fullest by the road users.
Around 96% of the visitors agreed that there is easy access to metro service. Well-connected metro service to Church Street had resulted in a 162% increase in the number of metro users at Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Road metro station on pedestrianized weekends between November 2020 and February 2021 (very useful takeaway in the context of Transit Oriented Development in the city).
Increase in customer footfall for businesses and shops
In total, samples from 115 establishments in Church Street have been collected via face-to-face interviews. There are 16% shops older than two decades, and 19% establishments are more than a decade older, which reflects the heritage of Church Street. Shopworkers stated that the percentage of customers who visited the shop increased on the weekend compared to a weekday.
More than 50% of restaurant owners and gift retailers of Church Street concurred that pedestrianization prompted an increase in customer footfall, revenue, and overall positive effect on business. About 92% increase in the average daily pedestrian footfall was observed between November 2020 and February 2021 (good for businesses). The pedestrian count has increased by 117% during the peak duration of November 2020 to February 2021. The raised footfall demonstrates the public awareness and enthusiasm to experience pedestrianized Church Street. Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS) falls under category ‘A,’ i.e., pedestrians can move freely without interruptions for most pedestrianized weekends, indicating that the street has an ideal pedestrian condition.
Positive experience for pedestrians and visitors
Six hundred fifty-six complete samples were collected by interviewing visitors of Church Street, of which 52% were male and 48% were female, which matches the gender ratio of the Bengaluru population according to the 2011 census report. Thus, the collected samples and the assessment is gender inclusive.
Nearly 97% of visitors and 84% of shop owners interviewed expressed that they were happy with the overall service quality of the street after pedestrianization. About 88% of the visitors showed satisfaction with ramp facilities for physically disadvantaged & elderly in Church Street, thus showing inclusive street design. The survey results highlight that on many aspects of service quality, the perception among visitors and shop owners had improved substantially, merely because of pedestrianization. Indeed, even without making any changes in street infrastructure, the insight after pedestrianization is truly good.
Moreover, there was a 98% agreement that a pedestrian-only environment improved QoL, with key contributory factors being safe pedestrian mobility, enhanced social interactions, suitable for all age groups, increased Physical Activity, and better health benefits due to walking and bicycling (also important result to create socially vibrant spaces in neighbourhood and busy areas of city). Pedestrianizing an urban street positively impacts QoL by enhancing physical, mental, social, and economic well-being.
The sentiment analysis on comments and captions on Instagram showed evidence of positive sentiments, as 78% of social media statements on this initiative were optimistic. The predominant pull factors for the visitors were to spend quality time with their friends and families, enjoy the free walking environment on a pedestrian-only street, and a sense of fulfilment of contributing to the clean air street initiative. The dominant push factors were various entertainment activities, outdoor dining experiences, and freedom to carry out recreational activities on a vehicle-free street. Further, the visitors’ higher level of agreement on revisit and advocacy intentions shows the successful acceptance of such pedestrianized streets.
Thus, based on the analysis, several benefits because of pedestrianization are equitably distributed among the key stakeholders including visitors and establishments in Church Street.
Top 3 learnings from this pilot:
- Further, 96% and 50% of the visitors and shop owners recommended extending the current implementation of pedestrianization of Church Street during weekends beyond the testbed period.
- Overall positive sentiments were observed towards pedestrianization among all stakeholders with respect to improvement in QoL.
- The study also elucidates the awareness among the public on the benefits of vehicle-free streets including improvement in air quality, safety, etc.; thus, alleviating the scope to expand pedestrianization to other pedestrian-friendly streets in the city.
