Streets, density, and the superblock: neighborhood planning units and street connectivity in Abu Dhabi

Khaled Alawadi, Ngoc Hong Nguyen, Eiman Alrubaei and Martin Scoppa

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 168-195

Abstract: This article studies the efficiency of street networks of Neighborhood Planning Units. Pedestrian Route Directness quantified the NPUs’ efficiency. The sample includes ten Abu Dhabi NPUs built during two periods: pre-1990 and post-1990. Two scenarios are assessed. First, as-built streets are evaluated based on the PRD test. Second, PRD values of NPUs with different plot densities are compared. Results show that plot density does not affect efficiency. A good network design produces high efficiency regardless of its plot density. The effects of streets on efficiency were further revealed by Betweenness. Combining PRD and Betweenness yields important principles of network design. This method can be applied to assess the connectivity of streets in different contexts. Future research should focus on: How do alleys contribute to the efficiency of NPUs? How do street configurations influence the behavior of movement? And how should NPUs be evaluated as local street systems with global implications?

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17549175.2021.1944281 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjouxx:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:168-195

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjou20

DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2021.1944281

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability is currently edited by Matthew Hardy and Emily Talen

More articles in Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().