Walking is the most natural and frequent way for people to get from place to place. Every trip using any means of transport begins and ends with walking. Roughly a quarter of all trips (26 %) are made solely by foot. Relatively speaking, the greatest number of pedestrian trips occur in the central part of the city, in particular within the Prague 1 municipal district.
One of the most visible projects with an impact on pedestrian traffic in 2020 was modification to the intersection at Karlovo náměstí, where three new pedestrian crossings were added, across Resslova, an extension of Ječná, and across the branch leading to Moráň. Pedestrians are thus no longer forced to used the underpass via the metro station vestibule.
Another new pedestrian crossing was installed in 2020, 500 metres east of Karlovo náměstí roughly in the middle of the section of Ječná between I. P. Pavlova and Štěpánská by the intersection with Melounova. It is also controlled by a traffic light and allows pedestrians to now move from the medical complexes on Kateřinská towards the street V Tůních.
New crossing at intersection Karlovo náměstí – Resslova
New Troja footbridge
At the end of October, the new Troja footbridge, a footbridge over an unregulated arm of the Vltava, was opened to the public, connecting Císařský ostrov with Troja and the nearby zoological garden. The bridge is made of steel with a wooden deck and a length of 256 m, width 4 m. People can walk on it and ride bikes, scooters or inline skates. The width and load capacity of the footbridge also allow EMS vehicles of up to 3.5 tonnes to cross it if necessary.
During a comprehensive overhaul of the street Jungmannova, the part leading up to the intersection with Vodičkova saw a fundamental transformation in terms of pedestrian traffic. The pedestrian crossing was shifted to the south, closer to Vodičkova, which straightened out the pedestrian route heading towards Lazarská. The pedestrian area was widened and benches were added.
Modifications to part of Jungmannova leading up to Vodičkova
Widening of narrow stop island at Malostranská
In autumn 2020, the previously narrow tram stop islands at Malostranská were successfully widened. With regard for further planned projects at the location, the modification was done in a provisional manner, and the considerably lower amount of tourists in the area allowed it to be realised quickly.
On the street Na Slupi near Albertov, the sidewalk alongside the hospital building was expanded, having previously only been 35 centimetres wide. The railing was also removed, having prevented for example prams from passing through and long since ceased being functional.
Expansion of the sidewalk on Na Slupi
New crossing from Vltavská tram stops towards the embankment
The Technical Administration of Roads devoted major attention to sidewalk repairs last year. Fifteen thousand metres of Prague sidewalks (an area of 57 000 m2) received new surfaces and 156 pedestrian crossings saw minor modifications, some of them from the special Pavement Programme. Barrier-free modifications for pedestrians were realised for example on the streets Dubnova, Františka Kadlece, V Štíhlách, Svatovítská and Tusarova.
The City of Prague and TSK both work to improve conditions for pedestrians on an ongoing basis by implementing measures to increase the safety of crossing the street. As part of these projects, construction is done to raise the surfaces at intersections, install speed humps with integrated pedestrian crossings (e.g. in front of Pod Marjánkou Primary School) and new traffic islands have also been added at a number of crossings. There is a detailed list of the projects completed in 2020 in Chapter 9.3 “Measures to increase transport safety”.
Structural speed hump at a crosswalk (Pod Marjánkou Public School)
Structural speed hump at a crosswalk (Litoměřická – K Lipám)
In order to have a better idea about the volume of pedestrian mobility in the city, work was commenced in 2020 on the project “Pedestrian traffic volume in public space”.
Determining the number of pedestrians in selected areas will be conducted using several technologies – WiFi sensors, PIR sensors (an electromagnetic sensor that measures infrared light) and advanced video analysis to detect movement.
