Assessing Walkability of Planned and Historical Streetscape of Urban Dhaka

Abstract

Urban mobility is one of the pressing challenges
Dhaka City facing today. Existing car based mobility network
has already proven ineffective and thus leads to congestion,
inequity and unhealthy urban environment. Even though largest
portion of city population travels by walk, pedestrian mobility
has been severely compromised especially in newly planned
residential areas. Streets here are planned considering
automobile as a primary mode of transport; a comfortable
setting of walkable streets is almost nonexistent. However, the
historic core of the city is an exception where streets are seen
dominated by the pedestrian. The paper presents a comparative
study of the walkability between planned (Bashundhara R/A)
and historic (Shakhari bazar) urban area while taking into
account the importance of active mobility for a healthy urban
development.
The study starts with reviewing theoretical
constructs of ‘pedestrian-friendly community development’ while
looking into case studies and urban standards in order to
synthesize ‘walkability’ matrices. Multiple tools are used to
measure walkability of the street. Maps are studied to analyze the
physical context of selected urban area, scientific tools are used to
collect site specific microclimatic data, observation and
questionnaire surveys are conducted to understand user’s
response. The aim is to formulate a checklist of walkable
streetscape in the context of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study
identifies the physical (height width ratio, vegetation, water
features, orientation) and functional attributes (location of
amenities, infrastructure, safety) of street fabric has strong
impact on improving walkability.