Traffic Flow Causing Severance on Urban Street

Community severance is identified as an environmental factor in road planning and development. It has two components: the static severance of the road infrastructure as a barrier to the community; and dynamic severance to pedestrians induced by the flow of vehicles along the road, which is rarely quantified and frequently ignored in road planning and traffic engineering practice. In this paper, the concept of community severance is being explored and enhanced. The nature of these impacts, along with assessment methods, is addressed for both components. Methods of assessment of dynamic severance have been intensively reviewed. Particular attention is drawn on the dynamic severance that impedes pedestrian movements. The studies and analyses reported here focus on the fundamental traffic flow as a dynamic barrier on major urban arterial roads. Using pedestrian delay as an indicator has quantified the effect of dynamic severance.