The Measurement of Walkability in Villa-Type Neighborhoods: Using HPE’s Walkability Index. Case of Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

One of the main elements that make open spaces livable, friendly, and healthy is walkability. Walkability has attracted much attention from urban designers and architects in recent decades. Cities that did not take into consideration the walkability key principals during the planning process are now facing several urban issues such as the lack of safety, friendliness, and a sense of freedom for the public. Therefore, applying walkability in urban design has now become more crucial than ever before. Saudi Arabia, being an Islamic state, requires mosques in the neighborhood to be at the center of the residential blocks within the walkable distance that can be used five times a day for the prayers. Since the demolition of the city walls of old Jeddah, Jeddah City has become the second-largest city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and as a gate to the holy city of Makkah. With the rapid expansion, several issues related to pedestrianization have risen, such as the increase in the ratio of fatal car accidents along with some cases of residential violations. This has led the municipality to set up a strategy to determine the priority of amenities, infrastructure development, and advancement of the built environment of planned neighborhoods (Jeddah Magazine, 1st April 2016). Thus, responding to the needs for the development of planned neighborhoods, and the built environment, this study aims to 1) Make arrangements for the development of planned neighborhoods in Jeddah, 2) Clarify to what extent Al-Andalus district and Al-Naeem District villa-type neighborhoods are walkable in Jeddah City using Hall Planning & Engineering’s Inc. (HPE) Walkability Index, and 3) Identify the existing issues in villa-type neighborhoods and come up with a method so that such issues can be avoided in the prospective neighborhood planning.

The methodology of this study is 1) Survey villa-type neighborhoods combined with the chronological growth of Jeddah City. This survey was carried out by using data such as city land use map from the Jeddah Municipality, occupancy of each neighborhood from the General Authority for Statics, and other related studies. After achieving this, the author then sorted them into different categories (establishment date of each district). The districts selected for this research area) Al-Andalus District. as an old district. which was established in 1979, b) Al-Naeem District. as a new district. which was established in 2007. These sites were selected to represent the old villa-type neighborhood and a new villa-type neighborhood to be tested in this study. 2) Apply the measurement tool of HPE’s Walkability Index to these two districts. A pilot survey for 25 days during April 2019 was also carried out. The measurement consists of evaluating all factors of HPE’s walkability Index, such as vehicle's flow speed during non-peak hours (measured with a speed gun, using Pocket Radar Personal Speed Radar with an accuracy of +/- 1 MPH (+/- 2 KPH) ISIN: B003IM6YAM), width of pavement at each pedestrian crossing, availability of parking on-street, width of sidewalk, pedestrian connectivity, availability of different facilities and features for pedestrian features, street enclosure, use of available land, design of façade, and finally the availability of transit and/or bicycle features. 3) Analyze the results of the survey to identify the current issue of the built environment for each category. This study concluded that there is a remarkable correlation between the total score of HPE’s and the establishment date of each neighborhood and in each category of the neighborhoods. Based on the results, the walkability level in Al-Naeem District. is moderately walkable whereas in the Al-Andalus District. it has basic walkability. The results also show that the municipality must revise and develop the existing regulation and standards of the neighborhood development to enhance the principle of walkability by studying the factor of vehicle's flow speed, width of pavement, availability of parking on-street, width of sidewalk, pedestrian connectivity, presence and quality of pedestrian features, and enclosure of the street.