Incorporating social space into pedestrian planning

Walking is undergoing a resurgence in transportation planning as a means to manage demand for single-occupant vehicles, improve public health and environmental outcomes, and recreate the vibrant human-scale communities which characterized urban life in North America until the mid-twentieth century. Pedestrian planning currently prioritizes land use and infrastructural interventions empirically proven to increase the choice to walk: dense forms which connect residents to amenities; street and intersection designs protecting pedestrians from other modes; environmental designs conducive to crime prevention; and aesthetic and functional features which offer comfort to passersby. While these features reliably predict travel behaviour for society as a whole, they fall short in explaining the propensity to walk among groups whose travel behaviour is shaped by socioeconomic constraints rather than environmental attractiveness. This epistemological gap coincides with higher rates of pedestrian injury and death among physically- and socioeconomically-disadvantaged groups across Canada. Greater attention to pedestrians' unique experiences in appraisal and decision-making could inform more effective interventions, yet improving planning practice hinges on better understanding planners' attitudes toward public consultation, municipalities' approaches toward strategic planning, and most importantly, the non-built spatial factors shaping pedestrians' behaviour and perceptions. This dissertation strives to improve pedestrian planning procedures and outcomes through four objectives: 1. To demonstrate how social space impacts pedestrians' behaviour and perceptions, and as such the ontological underpinnings of what constitutes a walkable space; 2. To illustrate how qualitative geographic information science can bring social space into walkability assessment; 3. To examine variations in professional values among transportation planners and their personal and institutional circumstances, and; 4. To assess the prevalence of social policies among strategic pedestrian plans, revealing inclusionary practices at a national scale.Findings indicate that social space impacts pedestrians' engagement with amenities and streets and, as such, that social space should be incorporated into pedestrian planning to maximize the number of opportunities that can be satisfactorily and voluntarily reached on foot by all members of society. Chapter 3 demonstrates how social distances affect pedestrians in the environmentally- and socially-heterogeneous neighbourhood of Parc-Extension, Montreal, ultimately informing a socialized walkability framework which builds upon existing frameworks informed by built characteristics. Chapter 4 illustrates how geographic information science can grapple with social spaces as perceived by residents. Chapter 5 turns toward the attitudes of transportation planners as they negotiate their professional expertise with public insights, revealing multiple types of planners whose respective views associate with institutional and training differences. Chapter 6 steps back to look at strategic pedestrian planning among Canadian municipalities, finding lacklustre public and stakeholder consultation and the neglect of certain socially-excluded groups within plan policies. Chapter 7 concludes this work by noting its contributions to knowledge and practice, as well as additional research necessary to validate and more effectively operationalize its conclusions for planning practice.

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