Settlements along Main Road Axes: Blessing or Curse? Evaluating the Barrier Effect in a Small Greek Settlement

Abstract

Being the heart of every human settlement, the road network constitutes a significant component of the built environment that serves the accessibility and mobility needs and supports economic activities. Despite its positive role, the road network, in some cases, due to increased geometric and functional characteristics, can act as a barrier to the movement of vulnerable road users, thus fragmenting the urban space and creating the phenomenon of the “barrier effect”. The barrier effect is considered detrimental to the mobility of vulnerable users, causing delays or even cancellation of trips, increasing collision risk, limiting access to services, posing negative impacts on public health, and loosening social ties. In this context, the current paper focuses on a settlement in Greece (Dispilio) developed along two national roads and comprehensively evaluates the barrier effect. More specifically, the presented methodological approach attempts to investigate the actual and the perceived dimension of this phenomenon by applying well-established metrics and landscape indicators, such as the effective mesh size, and conducting a questionnaire survey, respectively. The overall research results highlighted interesting findings regarding the intensity of the barrier effect in the examined area and outlined some critical interventions that could be implemented in similar cases.