Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas

Pedestrian scenarios refer to all types of transit, including unidirectional, bidirectional, and crossing actions. This study argues that pedestrian scenarios are critical normative factors that must be considered when implementing street changes in existent residential areas. It focuses on pedestri...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hisham Abusaada, Abeer Elshater
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-05-01
Series:Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/5/278
_version_ 1797598279796523008
author Hisham Abusaada
Abeer Elshater
author_facet Hisham Abusaada
Abeer Elshater
author_sort Hisham Abusaada
collection DOAJ
description Pedestrian scenarios refer to all types of transit, including unidirectional, bidirectional, and crossing actions. This study argues that pedestrian scenarios are critical normative factors that must be considered when implementing street changes in existent residential areas. It focuses on pedestrian safety and reliable access. Making improvements to urban streets without adhering to the assessment criteria for street design results in the presence of more cars on the road, which makes crossing streets unsafe. The aim here is to provide assessment criteria for street development projects. This study used three qualitative methods, starting with a scoping review to define the urban street improvement assessment criteria. A spatial analysis was conducted using geographical maps and site visits to determine how specific residential areas have changed. Then, a storytelling analysis method, based on episodic narrative interviews with an anonymous sample of 21 residents, workers, and visitors, was imposed. The results yielded pedestrians’ stories about how street improvements affected pedestrian scenarios on two streets in the Ard el Golf residential area in Cairo, Egypt. The results showed that unplanned changes in urban streets’ socio-spatial configurations affected residents’ preferences for pedestrian safety and their reliable access to services on either side of the street. Our results reveal that practitioners can develop these assessment criteria for pedestrian preferences through storytelling techniques. The concluding remarks outline a set of criteria for assessing improvement projects of urban streets. The added value here is that practitioners can learn from users’ storytelling, and thus avoid street risks when undertaking improvement projects on other urban streets and cities.
first_indexed 2024-03-11T03:19:09Z
format Article
id doaj.art-24b0035ef155436ea770f7518933056c
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2076-0760
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-11T03:19:09Z
publishDate 2023-05-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Social Sciences
spelling doaj.art-24b0035ef155436ea770f7518933056c2023-11-18T03:17:19ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602023-05-0112527810.3390/socsci12050278Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential AreasHisham Abusaada0Abeer Elshater1Department of Architecture, Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), Cairo 12311, EgyptDepartment of Urban Design and Planning, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, EgyptPedestrian scenarios refer to all types of transit, including unidirectional, bidirectional, and crossing actions. This study argues that pedestrian scenarios are critical normative factors that must be considered when implementing street changes in existent residential areas. It focuses on pedestrian safety and reliable access. Making improvements to urban streets without adhering to the assessment criteria for street design results in the presence of more cars on the road, which makes crossing streets unsafe. The aim here is to provide assessment criteria for street development projects. This study used three qualitative methods, starting with a scoping review to define the urban street improvement assessment criteria. A spatial analysis was conducted using geographical maps and site visits to determine how specific residential areas have changed. Then, a storytelling analysis method, based on episodic narrative interviews with an anonymous sample of 21 residents, workers, and visitors, was imposed. The results yielded pedestrians’ stories about how street improvements affected pedestrian scenarios on two streets in the Ard el Golf residential area in Cairo, Egypt. The results showed that unplanned changes in urban streets’ socio-spatial configurations affected residents’ preferences for pedestrian safety and their reliable access to services on either side of the street. Our results reveal that practitioners can develop these assessment criteria for pedestrian preferences through storytelling techniques. The concluding remarks outline a set of criteria for assessing improvement projects of urban streets. The added value here is that practitioners can learn from users’ storytelling, and thus avoid street risks when undertaking improvement projects on other urban streets and cities.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/5/278everyday lifeEgyptepisodic narrative interviewspedestrian safetystreet design
spellingShingle Hisham Abusaada
Abeer Elshater
Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
Social Sciences
everyday life
Egypt
episodic narrative interviews
pedestrian safety
street design
title Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
title_full Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
title_fullStr Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
title_full_unstemmed Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
title_short Cairenes’ Storytelling: Pedestrian Scenarios as a Normative Factor When Enforcing Street Changes in Residential Areas
title_sort cairenes storytelling pedestrian scenarios as a normative factor when enforcing street changes in residential areas
topic everyday life
Egypt
episodic narrative interviews
pedestrian safety
street design
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/5/278
work_keys_str_mv AT hishamabusaada cairenesstorytellingpedestrianscenariosasanormativefactorwhenenforcingstreetchangesinresidentialareas
AT abeerelshater cairenesstorytellingpedestrianscenariosasanormativefactorwhenenforcingstreetchangesinresidentialareas