Measuring Shoppers’ Perceived Satisfaction Toward Pedestrianized Urban Commercial Market Spaces in Delhi

As urbanization continues to accelerate across the country, it births numerous challenges, such as transportation, pollution, and parking shortages attributed to the non-walkability of many Indian cities, especially in the commercial markets. The Government has initiated pedestrianization measures in various commercial markets to address this. However, the accessibility to these commercial markets needs improvements to meet the shoppers’ expectations. Therefore, the present study aims to measure the shoppers’ satisfaction with accessing the two pedestrianized urban commercial markets, namely, Lajpat Nagar and Karol Bagh in Delhi, India. Accordingly, the study derived the satisfaction ranking of selected eight attributes influencing the accessibility of markets based on shoppers’ perceived satisfaction. Using digital and pen-paper survey methods, a face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted to collect 400 samples of shoppers’ satisfaction with the selected attributes on a 5-point Likert-type ordinal scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Subsequently, the database was analyzed using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to derive the satisfaction rankings of the attributes. The results show that the attributes shoppers find most satisfying are ‘safety’ and ‘social life’. While ‘cleanliness’ and ‘universal accessibility’ are the attributes, shoppers are least satisfied. ‘Cleanliness’ was observed as the major concern among shoppers, regardless of gender and age. The study findings would help policymakers and urban planners by providing valuable insights into the impact of pedestrianization on urban market spaces and shed light on the specific areas for improvement for accessibility in Indian commercial markets.