Aesthetic of Street Environment and the link to pedestrian activity poster

The idea behind qualitative approach is to purposefully select participant or

sites. Study sites have been selected purposefully which assumed will best

help researcher understand the problem and answer the research question.

The works will involve Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and interviews.

Participants will be invited to a discussion session in selected room or

places and talk about their environment aesthetics. Some pictures and

videos of street activity and street environment will be provided,

Participants will comments and explain their preferences and perceptions.

Their perception towards different circumstance are hoped to be

demonstrated by comparison of beauty and broken environment.

In addition to discussion and interview, researcher will also observe

different types of urban area which portray a range of street environments

and also participate in informants journey or sojourning, meanwhile also

trying to gather their perception of street and aesthetics of environment.

This methods is chosen to avoid researchers fixated on the particular

concept or theory and information can be dug up from the participants or

informants.

To allow this research to be carried out in a limited time but complex data

collection procedures some sites has been selected, they are University of

Leeds and It’s surrounding (LS2 and LS6), includes A660 routes

Woodhouse Lane – Headingly (Otley Road). The selection of site leads by

facts that Leeds city council has recently announced the result of Action Day

Program which clearly indicated street environmental problems such as

graffiti and litter. There are six cases reported which they will start

proceedings for around noise nuisance, rubbish and drainage issues. The

Key informant to this research will be students who voluntary join this

research and the Inner North West Area Committee of Leeds City.

R e s e a r c h B a c k g r o u n d

1.  Aesthetics is the study of beauty and taste. This is a very wide

area of research. However, the presence of building, spaces,

colour, street furniture (i.e. bench, fence, post, lamp, etc.), trees

and flowers will be the main observation objects.

2.  Street Environment : this will includes traffic flow, pollution,

junctions, vegetations, shops, parking places, safety, and

housing area.

3.  Street Activity : includes walking, shopping, meals, sojourning,

bicycling, sport and other activities

n the last decade issue of walking as part of sustainability policy has

grown strongly among the governments and the transportation

researchers. European Cooperation in Science and Technology has

recently published the Pedestrian Quality Needs (PQN) Project Result. It

concludes a comprehensive vision on ways to improve walking and

sojourning conditions. Nevertheless, PQN scientific approach is an ideal

but not yet practise. There are still question marks. The main issue will

be how to proceed from knowledge to implementation? (COST, 2010).

Newly UK Travel Survey has proven the decline of walking mode in the last 15 years.

A660 Otley Road, Leeds

Scope of Research

I

Q uest ions 1.  What are factors influence people’s perception of current aesthetic of

street environment?

2.  How do people decide to use walking or sojourning on street or

public places?

3.  What is the link of street activity to perceptions of street

environment aesthetic?

Methodology esearch will be conducted in a qualitative approach. Silverman

(2010), Strauss (2001) and Creswell (2002) agreed that qualitative

approach is a qualitative research process, which tries to understand

human problem, based on complete holistic picture formed with

words, detailed views of informants, and its natural background.

This research is very suitable with qualitative approach. It is not just

because of its ontology, epistemology and axiology assumption, but

also influenced by researcher’s experience and knowledge which walk

daily through Leeds City street, especially around Leeds University.

Lancy (1993), Smith (1987) dan Tesch (1990) in Creswell (2002) stated

that qualitative research is a powerful tools to explore the

characteristics, discover the patterns, understand contextual and acts,

and convey the freedom of mind. Based on these paradigm, a

qualitative approach will be appropriate in this study.

It has become harder to persuade people to use walking as mode in their journey.

Proofing that walk will increase the quality of life as well as contribute to transport

goal is arguably.

Average Number Of Trips By Selected Private Transport Modes Index: Great Britain, 1995 To 2009

Source: DfT, 2010

Data Collection Procedures

R

1.  To identify factors influence people perception of current

aesthetic of street environment

2.  To understand people decision to use walking or sojourning on

street or public places

3.  To analyse the link of street activity to people’s perceptions of

street environment aesthetic

R e s e a r c h Objec t ives

Significance and Implications

References

The significance of this research are :

1.  The importance of an understanding of city development and

street design which provide community life improvement

2.  Provide more complete picture about road user perception to the

reader and interested parties

Thus, the implications of this research are :

1.  Development of science and knowledge of designing street

which reflex the highest function of human needs and sense.

2.  Contribute to awareness and policy making of university

surrounding areas and city street improvement.

3.  Offer a data and information availability to be used by local

authorities and practitioner for further development and research

Aswin Siregar Dr. Miles Tight (Supervisor)

Department for Transport, 2007, Manual for Street, available

athttp://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/manforstreets

Department for Transport, National Travel Survey 2009, available

at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/nts/

Rob Methorst, Hector Monterde, Ralf Risser, Daniel Sauter, Miles

Tight and Jim Walker, 2010, Pedestrian Quality Needs (PQN) Final

Report, WALK21, Cheltenham, UK

Transport Committee, 2010, Walk This Way Making : walking

easier and safer in London, Greater London Authority

John W Creswell, 2009, Research Design : Qualitative, Quantitative,

and Mixed Methods Approaches (Third Edition), SAGE

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