Quantifying performance of sheltered link-way facility in Singapore using human-centric indicators

Pedestrian link-ways are important street facility for first-/last-mile mobility. This study compared pedestrians’ walking experiences on sheltered/unsheltered link-ways by collecting their perceived walking time/distance. It is found that, first, pedestrians (51 along sheltered and 49 along unsheltered link-ways) generally walk at a faster pace along unsheltered link-ways as compared to sheltered link-way. Second, participants are found to more likely over-perceive walking times and distances (with odds of three to one) along unsheltered link-way than sheltered link-way, and with more extreme deviations on unsheltered link-ways. Third, sheltered link-ways accrued better Level of Service (LOS) ratings on factors such as weather protection, distance, accessibility/user-friendliness, comfort, safety and level of crowdedness. The study demonstrates value-add application of cognitive bias approach for examining the walking experience, and provides human-centric indicators to justify the provision of shelters to the link-way for the benefits of pedestrian users.