Perceptions of Pedestrians and Shopkeepers in European Medium-Sized Cities: Study of Guimarães, Portugal

Abstract

Planning pedestrian environments requires assumptions about how pedestrians will respond to characteristics of the walking environment in city centers. European city centers, especially medieval ones, have been more and more pedestrianized in the last two decades. Two major groups, shopkeepers and pedestrians profit from this enlargement of public space. The perception of shopkeepers is to attract more buyers from walkways and from adjacent places in the city centers. At the same time, the perception of pedestrians is to walk on pleasant and peaceful way without confronting other pedestrians in a chaotic situation. This paper considers the perceptions of shopkeepers and pedestrians in a medium-sized Portuguese city center using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model. A field survey was conducted in January 2010 to summarize different perceptions of using sidewalks and to know the responses of shopkeepers and pedestrians. Both were interviewed during the field survey. Results show that there are several interesting issues, such as short-term parking on walkways to buy goods from the adjacent shops or illegal encroachment of sidewalks because of goods or propaganda displayed to attract more buyers to the shops. These issues need to be considered for planning a better walkway environment in the Guimarães city center that has a long tradition of walking since medieval times.