Ricerc@Sapienza

Home-to-school routes are very sensitive areas: they represent, for children, a learning tool for their everyday activities, but if poorly designed, maintained and equipped they can expose them to traffic risks. Sidewalks’ inappropriate level of service and poor maintenance, especially, are main factors contributing to walking unsuitability, thus to poor comfort and safety levels for young pedestrians, and more in general for all the vulnerable non-motorized road users.

When planning pedestrian facilities, comfort is a major requirement. Pedestrians decide to walk where they feel comfortable, and when they do not, they just detour from their route towards more comfortable ones. Filthy, distressed or too narrow sidewalks induce pedestrians to walk on the carriageways and this becomes extremely unsafe on routes usually walked by senior pedestrians, due to their vulnerability.

Changes in weather patterns directly impact urban transport infrastructures. The increase in temperature and the ongoing precipitation changes should be handled and managed more frequently. In urban areas, most of the soil is impermeable and water hardly infiltrates into the subsoil. Permeable pavement is a technology that helps mitigate the effects of urban heat islands and surface impermeabilization. Porous concrete for pedestrian pavements ensures good structural, functional, and environmental performances.