3D Lidar Technology – a new approach to understanding urban space for pedestrians
Why is it important to measure sidewalks and public space?
Sidewalks are the foundation of walkable, inclusive, and sustainable cities. Yet they remain one of the most overlooked elements in urban data. Inadequate, inaccessible, or missing sidewalks prevent millions of people worldwide from walking safely and independently, particularly children, older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers. At IFP, we believe that walking is a right, not a privilege, and that starts with infrastructure that recognises the needs of all pedestrians.
Despite their fundamental role in enabling walking, most municipalities possess very limited knowledge about their sidewalks. In many cities around the world, there is no comprehensive, up-to-date, or standardised data on the width, condition, continuity, or accessibility of pedestrian pathways. Sidewalks are often omitted from street inventories, neglected in GIS databases, and remain invisible in most mobility plans or infrastructure budgets. Local governments may know more about the flow of cars than about the basic walkability of a neighbourhood.
This lack of data has direct consequences: it makes it harder to plan equitable public space improvements, to enforce accessibility regulations, or to prioritise investments based on need. Without reliable information, policies meant to support walking—such as national walking strategies, Vision Zero frameworks, or Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans—risk being symbolic rather than operational. At IFP, we believe that to change this, we must first make sidewalks visible through data that is precise, participatory, and justice-driven.
Introducing Our 3D LiDAR Sidewalk Scanner
To address this data gap, we have developed a mobile, low-cost, and community-friendly 3D LiDAR sidewalk scanner. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a technology that uses laser pulses to capture the shape and surface of urban environments with high precision. Our system can be mounted on a bicycle, wheelchair, stroller, or hand-cart, making it accessible and adaptable for different settings. The scanner produces dense 3D point clouds that automatically detect:
Sidewalk width and continuity
Slopes and crossfalls
Surface conditions
Barriers and obstacles
Kerb heights and ramps
Tree coverage and shade
The SidewalkScanner technology is still in development and evolving rapidly within two of the Horizon Europe projects we are currently involved in – REALLOCATE and Just Streets – where we have already been able to pilot in cities like Bologna, Utrecht, Zagreb, Budapest, Lyon, Heidelberg, Gothenburg or Riga . Our current focus is on spatial features (width, slope, continuity), but we are progressively incorporating surface quality analysis and AI-based object detection, from street furniture to obstacles, parked vehicles and vegetation. Our approach produces not only raw measurements but also visualisations and cuts from still images, allowing planners and communities to easily interpret results and advocate for action.
What the scanner enables
This technology opens new possibilities for inclusive urban design, climate resilience, and mobility justice:
Pedestrian equity audits: identify areas that fail accessibility standards for wheelchair users, visually impaired pedestrians, or others with specific needs.
Mapping informal and underserved areas: generate data in areas neglected by traditional planning tools, including informal settlements, and peripheral urban zones.
Monitoring Public Works: evaluate whether newly implemented public works have improved walking conditions.
Climate adaptation: capture data on shaded corridors, tree canopy and surface materials for heat mitigation planning.
Street-level network mapping: provide foundational data for pedestrian network maps where none exist.
Pre/Post infrastructure monitoring: assess the before-and-after impact of roadworks, sidewalk expansions, public space and accessibility upgrades with high-resolution scans.
Quality management for walking: support cities in establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for walkability, linking scan data to SUMP targets, accessibility benchmarks, and national walking strategies.
Provide insights into design possibilities and visualisations that can be integrated into citizen participation methodologies.
A tool designed for justice
Our scanner is not merely a technological innovation, it is a strategic tool for advancing social and spatial justice in urban environments. It has been developed specifically to serve the needs of pedestrian advocates, community-based organisations, and coalitions working to reclaim public space. At its core, the tool is designed to support participatory approaches, integrating seamlessly with methods such as community-led mapping, mobility diaries, and walk-along interviews. We believe that those who walk the city every day are the true experts of its streets, and our scanner helps translate their lived experiences into actionable data. Importantly, the system is built to be open and replicable: where possible, we rely on open-source software and work closely with local partners to ensure they can adapt or build their own versions. Above all, our approach is equity-focused, we prioritise deployments in areas where pedestrian needs are most often overlooked, misrepresented, or excluded from conventional planning processes. In doing so, we aim to make visible what has long been ignored and to give voice to those rarely heard in the making of urban space.
For cities, citizens and coalitions
The 3D LiDAR Sidewalk Scanner has been designed as a versatile tool that serves a broad range of users committed to creating more walkable, inclusive, and liveable urban environments. Local authorities and municipal departments can use the scanner to improve their understanding of pedestrian infrastructure, prioritise investments, monitor the quality of public works, and ensure compliance with accessibility regulations. The data it generates enables evidence-based planning and supports the development of robust Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and pedestrian policies.
At the same time, the tool is equally valuable for researchers, urban geographers, and data specialists who seek to explore the spatial and social dynamics of walking environments. It provides granular, high-resolution data that can be used to study accessibility gaps, inequalities in infrastructure provision, or the effects of urban form on mobility choices.
Crucially, the scanner empowers neighbourhood associations, disability rights advocates, and community organisers by giving them a powerful means to document, visualise, and communicate the conditions of their streets. It enables local coalitions to build stronger claims for action, grounded in clear and compelling evidence. Finally, planners, architects, and urban engineers can use this tool to inform more human-centred design, integrating pedestrian needs into every phase of street and public space development. By serving these diverse actors, the SidewalkScanner strengthens collective efforts to reshape cities around the rights and realities of those who walk.
Getting serious about the walking experience to maximize public transport investments
Article by Charlotte Hauri – 09 December 2024
Looking more closely at the fundamental qualities of pedestrian access to public transport, recent research has clarified some of the more subjective factors of walkability that comprise the walking experience. It has been shown that the walking experience significantly impacts riders’ overall public transport experience and influences their decision to use public transport or not. People have been shown to be willing to walk almost twice to public transport as far in pedestrian-oriented environments – substantially increasing potential public transport ridership (i).
Connecting the walking experience with walking behaviour
While perceptions and sensory experiences are subjective, there are helpful frameworks from which to base evaluations. Ewing and Handy provide a framework that illustrates how the physical environment and human perception influence walkability and our walking behaviours (ii).
Perceptions of time while walking
Our perception of time influences our decision to use public transport or not – if we think it will take too long to walk to public transport, we may opt for another mode of transport altogether. Influenced by the physical environment and individual sense of safety and comfort, perceived walking times can be difficult to measure. But a couple of key things we do know are:
People are just not very good at estimating the distance or time to walk somewhere, and we have the tendency to overestimate (iii).
Short stimulating activities are shown to leave us with bigger memory impressions than long and boring activities (iv).
Hillnhütter found that the perceived time spent walking through a pedestrian-oriented area with shops and buildings with interesting facades result in 26% longer accepted walking distances than along a boring street lined with large scale buildings with closed façades and few pedestrians (v).
To make such findings actionable in public transport planning, our UPPER colleague, UITP and Walk21 highlight a few strategies in theirrecent policy brief to reduce perceived walking times:
Prioritize people walking in street design
Review crossings to limit the barrier effect of car traffic
Increase possibilities to access shops and services
Identify preferable walking routes and effective footpath networks that are direct and convenient (vi)
How do you identify and promote preferable walking routes? There are several traditional and digital strategies, namely:
Wayfinding – Serving as point-of-decision cues, wayfinding signs can change walking behaviors by:
Providing directions to a destination
Clarifying how long it takes to walk there (vii)
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms – MaaS platforms, like Google Maps or those developed by public transport authorities, can be used for individuals travel planning purposes or by a public transport authority. To promote pedestrian access, MaaS platforms should:
Put walking at the top of the hierarchy and exploit nudging messaging (viii)
Include individualized user profiles to gather user data and, in turn, tailor messaging (ix)
Human emotions while walking
To develop definitions to measure the physical environment and to test for significant associations with walking behaviors, Ewing and Handy found that physical characteristics of the street environment impact people’s perception of walking. For example:
Noise negatively impacts perceptions of walking
Windows on first floor façades positively impacts perceptions of walking (x)
By investigating head movements to show stimuli in different physical environments, Hillnhütter found that socially active pedestrian areas with shop windows can raise stimulation levels by about 70 – 90%, compared to surrounds with large-scale buildings, monotonous façades, and wide streets (xi). By plotting such findings onto a circumplex model (below), he offers a clear illustration of the way in which physical environments influence the emotions of people walking, as well as the experience they have walking (xii).
While our reactions and experiences while walking are not uniform, this model is telling. Findings from other studies, like Golan et al., which explore women’s subjective pedestrian experiences, are not dissimilar either. Golan et al. conclude:
Fear of crime was the top consideration for women when deciding to walk
Street and sidewalk cleanliness and traffic volumes were the most influential factors after perceived security
Streets and building designs should encourage “eyes on the street” and minimize the number of deserted spaces
Traffic calming, including a better separation between cyclists and pedestrians; removing large off-street parking lots; and adding greenery and shrubbery to urban streets and sidewalks could enhance walkability for women (xiii)
While we highlighted more subjective—but also strong emotional—factors here that affect people’s perceptions of walking to and from public transport, infrastructure also plays an important role. Are you surprised by what you see in in Hillnhütter’s model or by the factors that impact women’s walkability? We aren’t.
The evidence is clear: To maximize our investments in public transport, we must also focus on walkability – we must design streets that make people feel safe, secure, and comfortable walking. Only after we get serious about the walking experience, and our policies and investment decisions reflect that, will we be able to realize the potential of public transport.
All footnotes below
Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 38 – 39. Ewing and Handy, “Measuring the unmeasurable: Urban design qualities related to walkability,” 67. Ralph et al., “Is it really too far to walk? Overestimating walk time and distance reduces walking,” 533. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 65. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 171. Walk21. “Integrating Walking + Public Transport,” 7. Ralph et al., “Is it really too far to walk? Overestimating walk time and distance reduces walking,” 533. Madigral et al., “Pedestrian mobility in Mobility as a Service (MaaS): sustainable value potential and policy implications in the Paris region case,” 11. Pangbourne et al., “Persuasion profiles to promote pedestrianism: Effective targeting of active travel messages,” 311. Ewing and Handy, “Measuring the unmeasurable: Urban design qualities related to walkability,” 67. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 182. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 175. [1] Golan et al., “Gendered walkability: Building a daytime walkability index for women,” 523.
What puts a pep in the step: Fundamental qualities of pedestrian access to public transport
Article by Charlotte Hauri – 27 November 2024
With more than 80% of the population in most European cities having access to public transport within walking distance (i), improving access to public transport makes a lot of things better:
Increased public transport ridership
Improved congestion and reduce carbon emissions
Promotion of economic activity
Increased personal freedoms and improve quality of life (ii)
Access to public transport starts with pedestrian access, and the reasons for embracing it in public transport planning are clear: People have been shown to be willing to walk up to seventy percent (70%) farther in pedestrian-oriented environments. In other words, walking-friendly environments can triple the size of public transport catchment areas – in theory, tripling potential public transport ridership (iii). But what defines a walking-friendly environment?
Quality criteria of pedestrian access to public transport
Drawing from international literature, Jehle et al. (2022) developed a helpful quality criterion that informs people’s decision whether to walk to access transport or not (iv). These six overarching qualities can be used by public transport planners to evaluate fundamental pedestrian access to public transport and inform policy and investment priorities.
Comfort – How comfortable is to walk depends largely on quality of the footpath. This especially important for people with limited mobility, as well as people pushing strollers, luggage, or carts. When evaluating the quality of footpaths, consider:
Footpath surface – Footpaths should be even and smooth.
Barriers – Footpaths should be without potholes or cracks. (Spoiler: Underpasses and overpasses are barriers. Keep reading to learn why.)
Footpath width – The appropriate width for a footpath depends on its use and context. Wider average footpath widths are key to increasing the attractiveness of a walking route (v).
Security – How safe someone feels while walking can immediately impact someone’s decision whether to use public transport. For example, when a woman is planning her day ahead and she knows she must attend a social function after work that goes past dark, she may choose to drive to work that day instead of using public transport, because she feels it is unsafe to walk home in the dark. This is just one example. Perceptions of security are impacted by:
Liveliness of streets – This goes back to the concept “eyes on the street,” coined by Jane Jacobs, referring to the daily activities taking place on the street that increase social cohesion and, along with it, perceived security.
Cleanliness and appearance – Sidewalk cleanliness and visual interest along a street (interesting shop windows, street cafés, etc.) have been shown to impact walking (vi).
Lighting – Well-lit areas contribute to perceptions of security.
Visibility of footpaths – Low visibility, such as from underpasses, overpasses, and dense vegetation decrease perceived security.
Directness – The actual distance someone must walk to public transport contributes to directness. While the directness of walking to public transport was discussed earlier, some other things to consider are presence of:
Large thoroughfares – Heavily trafficked streets create “barrier effects,” which can reduce walking distances by 10 percent with one crossing to 20 percent with two (vii).
Fences
Railway tracks, etc.
Simplicity – How easy is it to walk. This quality can be impacted by:
Delays at traffic lights – Crossing one busy street at traffic lights or informally has been found to lengthen the duration of a 2.5-minute walk to a public transport stop on average by 10 to 11 percent (viii).
Signposting – Consistent signposting can reinforce the decision to walk by clarifying walking distances.
Lines of sight – Lines of sight toward well-known buildings can improve orientation.
Think an underpass under a large thoroughfare will help people walking? Not so fast! Pedestrian underpasses and overpasses hardly support pedestrian accessibility. In fact, they introduce a new barrier to walking: Stairs or ramps.
How so? Stairs and ramps:
Increase the energy expenditure during the walk
Create new accessibility issues for people using walking aids or wheelchairs or pushing strollers
While underpasses and overpasses are commonly referred to as pedestrian infrastructure, they are often only imposters. When their primary function is to allow motorized traffic to flow freely without the interruption of signalized pedestrian crossings, they are automobile infrastructure. Underpasses and overpasses are only legitimate pedestrian infrastructure when, for example, they are used in places where their height difference reduces the height difference that the person walking would otherwise need to overcome (ix).
People walking are keen to notice the imposters – that’s why underpasses and overpasses are just simply disliked. They are so disliked that England-based research found that the average person is willing to walk an additional 2.4 and 5.3 minutes to avoid using footbridges and underpasses (x). Adding five minutes to a walking trip? Public opinion is cle
All footnotes below
Poelman et al., “How many people can you reach by public transport, bicycle or on foot in European cities? Measuring urban accessibility for low-carbon modes,” 6. Walker, “Basics: Access, Or the Wall Around Your Life.” Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 38 – 39. Jehle et al., “Connecting people and places: Analysis of perceived pedestrian accessibility to railway stations by Bavarian case studies,” 4 – 6. Guo, “Does the pedestrian environment affect the utility of walking? A case of path choice in downtown Boston,” 349. Golan et al., “Gendered walkability: Building a daytime walkability index for women,” 512. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 172. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 181.
Giving catchment areas a reality check: Incorporating walkability into transport planning
Article by Charlotte Hauri – 11 November 2024
Catchment areas have long been fundamental to public transport planning and evaluation, with a circular catchment area—or straight-line buffer approach—being the simplest. The assumption has been that people are willing to walk between 400 and 800 meters to reach a transit stopi. By relying on a 400-meter radius around a public transport stop, however, it assumes that there is equal walking access throughout the radius, and the level of detail does not always consider factors that affect access to the public transport stopii. Unsurprisingly, this method quickly falls short of reality – catchment areas need a reality check.
Using analysis tools and data
Circular catchment areas, calculated using the straight-line approach, have been shown to consistently overestimate population access to public transport stops and, thus, the walkability of the urban environment and the physical abilities of the person walking along the wayiii. Instead, analysis tools and data can be used to better capture the complex context of the urban environment and better represent pedestrian access to transport stops:
OpenStreetMap datasets can be used as it offers representation of walking and bicyclingv
Isochrone maps can be used to correct walking distances by considering walking timesvi
Incorporating the pedestrian environment
To incorporate the pedestrian environment, catchment areas can be refined by incorporating the physical environment. To start, incorporate key walkability information, such as:
Existing footpath networks
Detour information
Existing footpath networks
By incorporating existing footpath networks into catchment area analyses, public transport planners can better calculate real walking distances to transport stopsvii. David Vale, for example, uses 83 transport stations in the Lisbon metropolitan areas to show how pedestrian access compare 700-meter circular catchment areas.
To calculate pedestrian access—or “pedestrian shed”—Vale used OpenStreetMap data and ArcGIS Network Analyst 10.2. Existing footpath networks were calculated for each site by:
Removing non-pedestrian segments (highways, etc.)
Crossing-referencing Google Earth satellite imagery for accuracy
Pedestrian shed ratios of the 700-meter radii were calculated using ArcGIS Network Analyst 10.2. The resulting pedestrian sheds illustrate how much the physical environment impacts pedestrian accessibility to public transport and how insufficient theoretic catchment areas can beviii.
Detour information
Willingness to walk has been shown to sharply decline for trips longer than 400 meters. As such, more direct routes with smaller detour factors can increase willingness to walk to public transportx. By incorporating walking detour information—which represents the time difference between walking a straight-line path and the actual distance someone must walk—into public transport planning, initial walking distances can be correctedxi. Detour factors can be calculated by dividing the actual distance by the straight-line distancexii. As a rule of thumb, detour factors should be as low as possible. Generally, between 1.0 to 1.25 is considered acceptablexiii.
Isochrone maps also can be used to answer the question, “How far can someone walk to this transport stop in x amount of time?”xiv. While ArcGIS tools can be used to produce isochrone mapsxv, private companies, like EPB Schweiz AG, have developed pedestrian isochrone maps, making them much more accessiblexvi. These maps consider the physical context—such as topography and pedestrian short cuts through parks—to more accurately show walking times.
Additional considerations
Beyond the physical environment, there are other variables that significantly impact pedestrian access. Physical ability, safety and security, as well as weather, for instance, all impact public transport access and should be considered in public transport planning as wellxvii.
Physical abilities
Walking times to public transport stops has as much to do with the physical environment as it does with the physical abilities of a person walking. Alves et al. summarize estimated walking speeds found in various studies, which shows a range of estimated walking speeds across age groups:
<30 years of age: 1.34 m/s
>65 years of age: 0.60 – 1.00 m/sxviii
For public transport to be accessible, walking speeds—and ranging human physical abilities—must be closely considered.
Safety and security
Whether it is exposure to theft, harassment, unsafe driving behaviors, unsafe waiting areas, or fear of not knowing how to use the transport system, people consider such potential hazards when choosing to use public transportxix. When considering safety and security and pedestrian access to public transport stops in planning, Jehle et al. provides helpful criteria:
Security
Liveliness of streets
Cleanliness and appearance
Lighting
Visibility of footpaths
Safety
Availability of footpaths
Driver behaviors
Joint footpath use by cyclists and pedestrians
Pedestrian visibilityxx
Weather
While weather may not always be shown to influence the decision to walk to public transport, it undoubtedly impacts the experience of walking of walking to public transportxxi. Physical design choices can counter weather and improve walking experiences despite itxxii. Walk21’s top recommendation for achieving and integration of walking in public transport is to provide infrastructure to protect against weather conditionsxxiii. The placement of such infrastructure should be a planning consideration to improve the experience of walking to public transport.
All footnotes below
Canepa, “Bursting the bubble: Determining the transit-oriented development’s walkable limits” 28. Andersen and Landex, “Catchment areas for public transport,” 183. Horner and Murray, “Spatial representation and scale impacts in transit service assessment,” 794. Andersen and Landex, “Catchment areas for public transport,” 183. Gil, “Building a multimodal urban network model using OpenStreetMap data for the analysis of sustainable accessibility,” 235. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 25. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 25. Vale, “Transit-oriented development, integration of land use and transport, and pedestrian accessibility: Combining node-place model with pedestrian shed ratio to evaluate and classify station areas in Lisbon,” 73. Vale, “Transit-oriented development, integration of land use and transport, and pedestrian accessibility: Combining node-place model with pedestrian shed ratio to evaluate and classify station areas in Lisbon,” 76. Meeder, “Detour factors in pedestrian networks,” 2. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 25. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 23. Berg, “Gestaltung von Zugängen zu den Haltestellen von Bahnhöfen,” 62. Dovey et al., “Isochrone mapping of urban transport: car-dependency, mode-choice and design research,” 402. O’Sullivan et al., “Using desktop GIS for the investigation of accessibility by public transport: an isochrone approach,” 85. Heuel, “Pedestrian Isochrone Maps.” Dovey et al., “Isochrone mapping of urban transport: car-dependency, mode-choice and design research,” 411. Alves et al., “Walkability index for elderly health: A proposal,” 4. Friman et al., “Public transport quality, safety, and perceived accessibility,” 2. Jehle et al., “Connecting people and places: Analysis of perceived pedestrian accessibility to railway stations by Bavarian case studies,” 4. Hillnhütter, “Pedestrian access to public transport,” 12. de Montigny et al., “The effects of weather on walking rates in nine cities,” 837. [1] Walk21. “Integrating Walking + Public Transport,” 7.
IFP-research is a partner in the JUST STREETS consortium.
JUST STREETS is an international Horizon Europe project focusing on (re)developing streets that are sustainable, safe, and inclusive for all citizens. Scheduled from January 2024 to June 2027, it aims to link inclusive streets with supporting climate neutrality goals.
The project focuses on (re)developing streets shaped by active mobility that are both: sustainable and inclusive for all citizens. Realising this shift from streets for the exclusive use by cars towards street space for more active modes of mobility will be led by prioritizing the needs and visions of social groups often under-represented in urban planning. This includes particularly women, migrants, the elderly, children, LGBTQI+ individuals, and people with disabilities.
32 international partners collaborate to empower 12 cities in transforming existing streets into just, equal, and human-centered spaces for active mobility – subsequently sharing critical implementation learnings with interested cities from across Europe. JUST STREETS is not only about change; it is about a transformative and systemic shift in perspective when planning and designing public space in cities.
REALLOCATE: Reclaiming Street Space for People-Centred Mobility
REALLOCATE is a Horizon Europe project that addresses one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary urban mobility: the reallocation of street space away from car-dominated uses towards more sustainable, inclusive and efficient forms of movement. At its core, the project seeks to transform how cities prioritise space, enabling walking, cycling and public transport to become the default modes for everyday mobility.
Across diverse urban contexts, REALLOCATE develops and tests strategies that support cities in shifting from vehicle-oriented planning paradigms to people-centred mobility systems. This transition is not only a matter of infrastructure, but also of governance, behaviour, and the cultural norms that shape how streets are designed and used.
Why street space reallocation matters
Urban streets are among the most contested public resources. Despite walking being the most universal form of mobility globally, pedestrians continue to receive a disproportionately small share of space, investment and policy attention. This imbalance has profound implications for safety, accessibility, public health and climate resilience.
REALLOCATE responds to this structural inequity by advancing approaches that:
Reduce the dominance of motorised vehicles in urban environments
Improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users
Support climate goals through modal shift and reduced emissions
Enhance the liveability and social function of public space
Evidence from cities around the world demonstrates that reallocating space can lead to measurable improvements in air quality, road safety, and local economic activity, while fostering more inclusive and vibrant urban environments.
IFP’s role: strengthening the pedestrian perspective
Within REALLOCATE, the IFP brings a distinct and necessary focus on walking as a fundamental mode of mobility and a basic urban right. IFP contributes both methodological innovation and advocacy expertise, ensuring that pedestrian needs are not treated as secondary, but as central to the design and evaluation of urban mobility systems.
Key contributions include:
Evidence-based tools for pedestrian environments: IFP develops and applies tools such as the SidewalkScanner, a 3D LiDAR-based methodology that produces detailed, measurable representations of pedestrian infrastructure. These data allow for precise assessments of sidewalk width, surface quality, accessibility barriers and spatial allocation, supporting more informed decision-making.
Participatory methods and lived experience: recognising that quantitative data alone cannot capture the full complexity of walking, IFP integrates participatory approaches such as walk audits, walk-along interviews and mobility diaries. These methods foreground the experiences of diverse users, including children, older adults and people with disabilities, contributing to more inclusive and context-sensitive interventions.
Policy and advocacy for systemic change: beyond technical tools, IFP works to translate project findings into policy recommendations that address structural barriers to walking. This includes advocating for dedicated funding for pedestrian infrastructure, the integration of walking into transport planning, and the adoption of road danger reduction principles.
From pilots to systemic transformation
REALLOCATE operates through pilot actions in multiple European cities, where innovative interventions are tested in real-world conditions. These pilots explore a range of measures, including:
Reallocation of road space to wider sidewalks and pedestrian zones
Traffic calming and speed reduction strategies
Integration of walking with public transport systems
Temporary and permanent street redesigns
Cities such as Utrecht, Warsaw, Lyon, Barcelona, Zagreb, Heidelberg, Tampere, Gothenburg, Budapest and Bologna provide diverse contexts in which these approaches are adapted and evaluated. The project places strong emphasis on scalability and transferability, ensuring that lessons learned can inform policies and practices beyond the pilot locations.
Towards a new urban mobility paradigm
REALLOCATE ultimately contributes to a broader paradigm shift in how mobility is understood and governed. Rather than treating walking as residual or supplementary, the project positions it as the foundation of equitable, resilient and efficient urban systems.
By combining technological innovation, participatory approaches and policy advocacy, REALLOCATE demonstrates that reallocating street space is not merely a technical adjustment, but a transformative process with far-reaching social, environmental and economic benefits.
Unleasing the Potential of Public Transport in Europe
UPPER aims at spearheading a Public Transport revolution that will strengthen the role of PT as the flagship of sustainability and innovation of mobility in cities, leading the transition towards a zero emission mobility which will become the cornerstone of climate neutrality by 2030, in line with the goal of Cities Mission and the priorities of the Green Deal. UPPER will put the Public Transport at the centre of the mobility ecosystem and will implement a combination of 84 push and pull measures, acting on the 5 innovation axes that condition user’s choices: mindset and culture, urban mobility planning, mobility services ecosystem, road network management and democratic governance.
These measures will act in 4 different timescales (from shorter to longer-term): communication, operations, infrastructure and urban fabric. The UPPER measures will be supported by the UPPER Toolkit (U-TWIN, U-SIM, U-NEED, U-GOV, U-KNOW, U-TRANSFER and U-SUMP), 7 IT tools combining social and technological innovation that will be communication, operations, infrastructure and urban fabric. demonstrated within the measures in the 5+5 UPPER living labs and twinning sites, with the overall target of increasing the use of public transport by >30% and the user satisfaction by >25%, leaving nobody behind in the process.
This integrated and holistic approach will ease the cooperation among authorities and operators, offer a physical and digital environment to test the measures, update the existing SUMPs, optimise the PT offer in line with user needs and patterns, involve the users in the overall mobility decision chain, trigger the behavioural change in favour of Public Transport and achieve an attractive, efficient, reliable, safe, inclusive and affordable Public Transport system in line with the concept of Mobility as a Right (MaaR).
IFP-research (IFP-r) is the dedicated research and project implementation branch of the International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP). Established as a Brussels-based non-profit association (vzw/asbl, reg. no. 0789832002), it serves as the knowledge centre through which IFP engages in international collaborative research, innovation programmes and technical partnerships.
IFP-r represents and advances the mission of IFP within research consortia and institutional frameworks, ensuring that pedestrian perspectives are embedded in transport, urban planning, public health and climate agendas.
IFP-r produces and mobilises independent, policy-relevant knowledge to advance pedestrian safety, accessibility and mobility justice worldwide. Its work is guided by three core commitments:
Strengthening evidence that supports pedestrian rights and safe public space
Integrating intersectional, gender-responsive and care-oriented perspectives
Translating research into practical policy and planning solutions
Walking is the most universal form of mobility, yet it remains structurally underrepresented in transport research and investment. IFP-r works to correct this imbalance by positioning pedestrians at the centre of urban transformation.
Research areas
IFP-research contributes to international research agendas across interconnected thematic fields:
Pedestrian safety and Road Danger Reduction: systemic approaches to reducing pedestrian fatalities and injuries, including vehicle speed management, street design reform and regulatory change.
Street space reallocation and multimodal integration: analysis of how public space is distributed between transport modes and how streets can be redesigned to prioritise people over vehicles.
Inclusive and feminist urbanism: research on mobility of care, gender-responsive planning, accessibility and the spatial implications of inequality. Walking is a core infrastructure of the caring city.
Proximity planning and liveable neighbourhoods: exploration of 15-minute city principles, children’s urban perception, car-free environments and neighbourhood-level transformation.
Accessibility and universal design: assessment of barriers affecting persons with disabilities, older people and diverse bodies in the built environment.
Data, digital tools and spatial analysis: development and application of tools such as multimodal street scanning, walk audits, near-miss documentation and participatory mapping.
Public health and climate resilience: understanding walking as a determinant of physical and mental health, social cohesion and low-carbon urban systems.
Methodological approach
IFP-r integrates quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods to produce grounded and actionable evidence.
Our methodological toolbox includes:
Multimodal street scanning and infrastructure assessment
Walk audits and structured field observation
Near-miss and conflict mapping
Walk-along interviews and perception studies
Comparative policy analysis
Participatory co-design processes
GIS-based spatial analysis
Indicator development and benchmarking
By combining technical data with lived experience, IFP-research ensures that knowledge reflects both measurable conditions and everyday realities.
International collaboration
IFP-research coordinates and participates in European and international research and innovation projects, including Horizon Europe and other collaborative programmes.
Through the broader IFP network, it draws upon expertise from member organisations across Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. This global network enables:
Access to local knowledge in diverse socio-spatial contexts
Comparative research across governance systems
Peer learning between cities and civil society actors
Integration of grassroots experience into academic frameworks
IFP-research builds upon IFP’s longstanding history as a project partner in earlier European research initiatives, consolidating institutional memory and expanding international engagement.
Policy and institutional relevance
The work of IFP-r contributes to broader international frameworks, including:
Road safety and Vision Zero strategies
Sustainable Development Goals (notably SDGs 3, 10 and 11)
UN Decade Sustainable Transport
Climate mitigation and adaptation agendas
Public health promotion
Gender equality in urban development
Local, regional, national and international pedestrian plans and strategies
Research outputs are designed to inform concrete policy processes at different levels of government.
Partnerships
IFP-r collaborates with:
Universities and research institutes
Municipalities and metropolitan authorities
Civil society organisations
Development banks and international institutions
Multidisciplinary consortia
We contribute as:
Research partner in funded programmes
Technical advisor on pedestrian and multimodal assessment
Methodology developer
Consultant on pedestrian interventions and redevelopment of public space
Pilot implementation partner
Capacity-building provider
Organisations interested in collaboration are invited to contact us to explore partnership opportunities.
Governance and structure
IFP-r operates as an independent non-profit entity under Belgian law while advancing the strategic objectives of the International Federation of Pedestrians. It ensures transparency, accountability and compliance with funding frameworks, while maintaining intellectual integrity and policy independence.
Towards a global knowledge platform on walking
Through sustained collaboration, methodological innovation and policy engagement, IFP-r aims to strengthen the global evidence base on walking and contribute to a future in which pedestrian mobility is recognised as foundational to safe, equitable and sustainable cities.
