Application of cluster analysis to determine the pattern of use of a street section

Introduction. Creation of a comfortable environment in Russian cities sets a task to reconstruct the street and road network and transform the street space from a transit zone into a public space. Such transition is impossible without taking into account the needs of all street space users and creating the appropriate infrastructure for them. The current regulatory framework does not take into account the heterogeneous nature of street use within one urban development category, which leads to absence of objective parameters for creation of such infrastructure on different sections of the street.Materials and methods. The authors used data from open sources, statistical and graphic data from municipal institutions, and data from field surveys. In order to determine the values of the parameters that determine the pattern of use of a street section, cluster analysis was applied separately for each user: pedestrians, individual mobility vehicles, and public transport.Results. Cluster analysis allowed to determine the set of factors that determine the pattern of use of a street section by pedestrians, individual mobility vehicles and public transport. Considering the pattern of use allowed to identify the scope of measures required for creation of infrastructure on each specific street section.Conclusions. The proposed methodology for determining the importance of a user on a street section allows to objectively assess the need to place certain elements in the cross-section of streets during reconstruction. The analysis of the urban planning conditions in which street sections are located, such as the position in the city plan, the presence and characteristics of the adjacent development, which forms the flow of traffic, pedestrians and means of individual mobility and determines the presence of centres of gravity or exclusively transit function of the section, will allow to formulate a set of design recommendations in the conditions of new construction.

classification of city streets, street space design, street space users, comfortable urban environment, cluster analysis