Attitudes and Expectations Towards the Erzincan City Center Pedestrianization Project

The rapidly increasing private vehicle ownership in today's cities brings with it many negativities. In order to eliminate these transportation-related social, economic and environmental problems, various measures have been taken primarily in city centers. The most important of these measures is undoubtedly pedestrianization projects that provide pedestrians' safety and easy circulation in urban space. However, it is also a known fact that pedestrianization projects are not always easily implemented. In fact, pedestrianization projects affect "enterprises carrying out commercial activities" in the region as much as "pedestrians", and if one of these two user groups does not adopt and support the project, it prevents urban planners and local governments from implementing the project in accordance with the principle of public interest. For this reason, the study examines the Erzincan city center pedestrianization project from two axes and seeks an answer to the question "How can the project be implemented most effectively?". For this purpose, first, the density was determined by pedestrian counting in 15 streets/avenues that maintain their central business district characteristics, and the demographic structure, transportation behaviors and expectations regarding pedestrianization were determined. Secondly, the opinions of commercial enterprises regarding pedestrianization were evaluated. These studies were conducted using personal observation and survey methods (269 pedestrians and 131 commercial enterprises were surveyed in the study). Thus, the problems of users (pedestrians and enterprises) regarding the space, pedestrianization tendencies and expectations were revealed and various suggestions were developed in the study.