Pedestrian level of service assessment in an area close to an under-construction metro line in Thessaloniki, Greece

Pedestrian mobility is one of the most sustainable transport alternatives as it offers significant environmental, social and economic benefits. In fact, the non-motorization contributes to the reduction of emissions and at the same time, walking is able to revive purchases and also sociality and communication between people. The present paper focuses on the assessment of a section of a pedestrian area located in the center of the Municipality of Kalamaria, which is one of the biggest Municipalities in the Thessaloniki Metropolitan area, Northern Greece. The pedestrian area which was examined includes the oldest and most important pedestrian street in the Municipality, as it is located in the central business district (CBD) and it serves a large number of pedestrian flows on a daily basis. Also, the construction of a metro station in the area is expected to further increase the pedestrian flows. The analysis of the paper includes the evaluation of the existing situation of the pedestrian street through Viswalk, which is a microscopic software for pedestrian simulation. The aim of the specific evaluation is the identification of variations in the Level of Service (LOS), as the pedestrian composition and flows change. The results of the simulation show that even tripling the pedestrian flow in the pedestrian area will not cause a significant drop in LOS, with the exception of specific sections of the pedestrian street, where bottlenecks are formed.