Design Points of Rigid Pavement Materials for Pedestrian Road Space

Pavement paving on traffic-oriented roads

1. Road characteristics

Traffic road is to meet the main function of transportation road, to bear the city’s main traffic flow and external traffic links. Its characteristics are high speed, many vehicles, wide carriageway, road linearity to meet the requirements of fast traffic, the road on both sides to avoid the layout of public buildings and facilities to attract a large number of people.

2.Pavement design and material selection

The number of pedestrians on the pavement of such roads is small, and the viewers of the street landscape are mainly in the moving vehicles, so the pavement paving is generally more simple in shape and less complex in color to suit the fast-moving viewers. The paving materials for these pavements are generally chosen from block-like materials, leaving a large spacing between joints to create a greater sense of scale. Large-scale repetitive compositions can be used to give a sense of rhythm to the paving, creating the feeling of a fast walk.

The paving of lifestyle road pavements

1.Road characteristics

The Living road is to meet the city’s living traffic requirements as the main function of the road, mainly for urban residents shopping, social, recreationa, and other activities, mainly walking and bicycle traffic, less motorized traffic.

2.Selection of paving materials

This type of road is the main place of daily life for residents, is the most concentrated area of human flow, and is also the longest time people stay in the street space, so should be selected with very good anti-slip, permeable and flexible paving materials, to provide people with a convenient walking, should not slip and trip, should not be fatigue comfortable road surface. The use of block paving materials such as concrete blocks, granite, limestone slabs, brick blocks, and other block paving materials should be avoided, as should the use of glazed bricks, mirrored granite and other paving materials with poor slip resistance.

3.Paving design

In addition to meeting the requirements of the material function of the pavement of the living road, but also meets the spiritual requirements of the pedestrian, so the visual adaptation of the pedestrian is an important requirement of the pavement design, pleasing to the eye pavement landscape can make walking easy and enjoyable. Therefore, the paving design should also pay attention to the following design elements and design principles.

(1) Scale, color and shape

In the scale the general requirements of the paving design using a human scale or small scale, to give people a sense of intimacy, and comfort, for wider pavements, through the pattern of intervals, lines of division to reduce the sense of scale, to attract more people to stop.

The design of colors should be colorful, and at the same time pay attention to coordination with the surrounding environment.

The shape of the structure is mostly in the form of repetition, giving a sense of rhythm to walking.

(2) Increase the ornamental and readable nature of the paving landscape: the paving of the pavement on the living road strengthens the detailed design of the paving pattern to increase the cultural connotation of the landscape, to meet the people in the process of walking on the street landscape tasting, association, reminiscence. For example, the pavement leading to the school is paved with some cartoon paintings with scientific significance, which not only enriches the pavement pattern but also allows students to learn relevant knowledge. By making the pavement highly informative through detailed design, it will make it easier for pedestrians to understand the situation of the place they are in.

(3) People-oriented: to create a humane walking space is the ultimate goal of paving landscape design, to fully embody the “people-oriented” design principle, the paving design should pay attention to meeting the requirements of all kinds of people. For example, two different forms of paving are used on a pavement, with the outer liner or large scale composition of the walkway designed for fast-passing pedestrians; and the inner curved or small scale composition of the walkway designed for leisure walkers. Both meet the requirements of necessary walking activities and make it possible for spontaneous and social walking activities to take place.

(4) Enhancing pedestrian safety: The pedestrian space and the vehicle space can be effectively defined through a break in the difference, i.e. so that the footpath and the carriageway are not at the same height. When the road is narrow, to enhance the openness of the space, the carriageway can also be set at the same height as the pavement, when the paving material and color can be changed, with the limited height of the separation facilities to effectively define the space and enhance the sense of safety of pedestrians.