Measuring heterogeneity in pedestrians’ perceived importance towards crossing facilities: An experience in Roorkee

Although several studies in the past discussed the effects of socio-demographic and trip characteristics on users’ preferences towards crossing facilities in urban areas, they were mostly confined to metro cities or million-plus cities. Adequate investigation has not been performed for the same in the small-sized cities where pedestrian activities are expected to be more frequent because of the higher share of shorter and walkable trip lengths. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the heterogeneity in the perceived importance of crossing facility attributes among different pedestrian groups based on gender, age group, and walking preference. The study was conducted in a small-sized city, Roorkee, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. A face-to-face questionnaire survey of 554 pedestrians was conducted to collect their perceived importance towards 12 crossing facility attributes under study using a 5-point Likert-type ordinal scale. Collected data was analyzed using the non-parametric tests to measure the heterogeneity in the perceived importance of crossing facility attributes among aforementioned pedestrian groups. Subsequently, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method was used to derive relative importance scores of attributes found statistically significant in heterogeneity tests for different pedestrian groups. The findings of the present study reveal that perceived importance towards crossing facility attributes is heterogeneous based on the pedestrians’ age group and walking preferences; however, it remains unaffected by gender. These findings would help policymakers, planners, and government authorities frame improvement strategies for the existing crossing facilities in the city.