Received: 19 December 2022 | Revised: 14 March 2023 | Accepted: 14 March 2023 | Published online: 16 March 2023 RESEARCH ARTICLE Highlighting Pedestrian Equity Considerations Using Walkability Space Syntax: A Case from Suburb in India Rahul Tiwari 1, * , Yogesh K Garg 1 , Anjali Gupta 1 , Vedankur S. Kedar 1 and Nilanjan Paul 1 1 Department of Architecture and Planning, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, India Abstract: Increasing urbanization has led to uncontrolled growth along the periphery of urban areas, particularly in developing countries. This has led to the formation of suburban areas around the metropolis, which are characterized by low-density neighborhood with the places of activities like education, and work, usually far off from one another. Walking is the predominant mode of transport across the world, but the facilities for pedestrians, while planning and implementation, are usually overlooked. Hitherto, ample amount of literature has been found to be centric to the pedestrian analysis in core city under different purviews, but only some studies highlight pedestrian inequity in suburban diorama. To highlight these pedestrian issues, a study was conducted in Kajlikheda, a suburb area of Bhopal, which is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India. The paper highlights the pedestrian equity concern through Walkability Space Syntax (WSS). WSS of street integration and pedestrian choice analysis is used for understanding the walking pattern in a neighborhood. A reconnaissance survey was conducted to find out the available pedestrian infrastructure and facilities, post which absence of these facilities was observed. To establish the share of pedestrians in traffic and reinforce the findings, a Traffic Volume Count was conducted, and pedestrian share was found to be substantial. In cognizance to the laid standards, volume to capacity ratio was calculated for automobiles and pedestrians for quantifying the Level of Service (LoS) for both the modes. Through statistical analysis, the paper attempts to express the need to take adequate consideration to provide better pedestrian facilities, which can be generalized in various suburban scenarios across the globe. The research also brings a new dimension to the pedestrian equity studies by integrating concepts of space syntax to answer the modality. Keywords: pedestrian, equity, policies, walkability space syntax 1. Introduction A sustainable transportation system has been defined as “the current transport and mobility needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (Black, 1997; Richardson, 1999). A sustainable transportation system is one that offers transportation and mobility using renewable fuels, while limiting emissions harmful to the local and global environment, and avoiding unnecessary fatalities, injuries, and traffic jams (Black, 1997). A more elaborated definition was given by Rohács & Simongáti (2007) furthered in Awasthi et al. (2011), emphasizing the development needs of individuals, companies, and societies, optimized on a equilibrium with human and ecosystem health sustained between and within successive generations. In cognizance to the same, reinforcing toward competitive economy, affordable pricing, and offering choice of transport modes for balanced regional development, it limits emissions and waste with a focus on renewable resources. Reducing automobile journeys and promoting alternate modes including public transportation, walking, and cycling should be the main goals of transportation policy (Babalik-Sutcliffe, 2013). Because walking and biking have good effects on people’s health, they should be encouraged (Rosenberg et al., 2009; Van Dyck et al., 2011). The most typical and fundamental kind of transportation and urban mobility in a city might be walking. Every person, at some point throughout their journey, is a pedestrian (National Complete Streets Coalition, 2022). Walking makes it very simple to link activities that are close together. When compared to other modes of transportation, especially motor vehicles, walking allows one to experience and engage with the local environment and larger cultures in ways that are not conceivable (Kelly et al., 2020). In addition to promoting the development of livable, walkable, and sustainable communities, walking has several good effects on one’s health, the environment, and the economy as well as sociocultural advantages for the person and the community (Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Centre, 2010). According to Spinney et al. (2012), walking has substantially contributed to achieve recommended levels of physical activity among all its different arenas. Concurrent to this, Banister (2008) and Sallis et al. (2004) have evidently highlighted that walking has come in * Corresponding author: Rahul Tiwari, Department of Architecture and Planning, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, India. Email: ar.rahultiwari@ gmail.com Green and Low-Carbon Economy 2023, Vol. 1(2) 85–93 DOI: 10.47852/bonviewGLCE3202561 © The Author(s) 2023. Published by BON VIEW PUBLISHING PTE. LTD. This is an open access article under the CC BY License (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). 85