Research on the Spatial Quality of Urban Village Main Streets in Shenzhen from the Perspective of Nighttime Pedestrian Demands

Abstract

Our findings shed light on existing theoretical investigations and the sustainable development of urban villages and the policy recommendations are proposed for the sustainable development of urban villages. It is widely acknowledged that public spaces in urban villages play an important role in residents’ everyday lives, and the nighttime activities of most pedestrians are confined to the main streets in urban villages. Main streets are an important public space in urban villages at night and are a focus for comprehensive renovation in China. There has not been adequate research on main streets at nighttime, and such research is necessary to improve the quality of urban spaces and achieve high-quality development. This study used methods such as literature analysis, on-site research, and semi-structured interviews to understand the spatial characteristics of the main streets of urban villages at night and summarize the demands of pedestrians. This study used the Kano model to adjust the structure of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to form the AHP–Kano model and construct an evaluation system based on the evaluation dimension of pedestrian needs. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey of pedestrians on the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City in Shenzhen, and obtained the dominant categories of pedestrian demands and the results of satisfaction evaluations from the main street spaces of the two urban villages at night. According to on-site research, we analyzed the problems in the main street spaces of the two urban villages at night, and propose targeted renovation suggestions, which have clear value for improving everyday public spaces in urban villages at nighttime.

1. Introduction

Since the period of reform and opening up, the level of urbanization in China has continuously improved. The urbanization rate in China increased from 17.9% in 1978 to 52.6% in the early 21st century and reached 63.89% in 2020. At present, urban construction in China has entered a stage of high-quality development [1]. In recent years, most scholars have acknowledged that urban villages, which serve as informal immigrant settlements, play an important role in China’s urbanization; thus, the comprehensive renovation and management of urban villages, rather than massive demolition and reconstruction, have been advocated [2,3].

Main streets in urban villages are very important public spaces that serve as important carriers of urban public activities, carrying multiple functions, e.g., commerce, business, transportation, entertainment, recreation and social communication, and key construction and renewal content in urban construction and development. Pedestrians are the primary users of streets; therefore, pedestrian needs should be the basis for street space design. The demand for street space varies with the type of pedestrian involved.

Regarding residents in urban villages, more attention should be paid to the quality of public spaces in urban villages at nighttime [3]. As the location of the everyday nighttime activities of a considerable number of pedestrians, main streets in urban villages are used extremely frequently; thus, there is an inextricable link between main streets and pedestrian demands in urban villages.

At present, there is relatively little research on the evaluation of nighttime environments, with few studies focusing on public spaces such as parks and squares, and a lack of evaluations of linear public spaces such as streets. In terms of environmental perception, studies have focused on the safety of nighttime walking [4,5], but less attention has been paid to comfort, diversity, aesthetics, and other aspects that are crucial for improving the quality of street spaces. Existing research on the spatial elements of nighttime streets has focused on lighting facilities [6,7,8], with less attention paid to the other elements of the street.

In this study, we first selected and classified the evaluation indicators through a literature review. Semi-structured interviews and on-site research were used to supplement the evaluation indicators for the main street spaces of urban villages at night. Thus, a set of evaluation indicators was proposed. To adjust the indicators, the opinions of relevant experts were investigated. Then, the weight of the indicators was calculated through a questionnaire on their importance, which was given to experts in order to complete the construction of the evaluation system. Second, a pedestrian demand questionnaire was designed using the Kano model, and a pedestrian satisfaction questionnaire was designed using a Likert scale. The questionnaires were distributed, and the results were collected from the main streets of Nantou Ancient City and Pingshan Village. The questionnaires were used to collect and analyze statistical data to reveal the nature of pedestrian demands, as well as their commonalities and differences. Moreover, the questionnaires were also used to evaluate pedestrian satisfaction through various indicator scores. Finally, on the basis of the results of the satisfaction evaluation and on-site research, we analyzed the problems of the main street spaces at nighttime in these two urban villages. According to the nighttime pedestrian demand types of the two urban villages, herein, we propose targeted suggestions for updating and transforming the main street spaces of urban villages at night.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Research on Street Space Quality

In relevant research, spatial quality is often measured through evaluation, and the evaluation of spatial quality reflects users’ satisfaction with a given space. As an important public space, the quality of street space should also be measured through evaluation. At present, there are three main types of data sources for evaluating the quality of street space, namely subjective questionnaire data, street view image data, and spatial data.

Subjective questionnaire data form an important basis for satisfaction evaluation research [9]. By using evaluation results, the subjective opinions of pedestrians on street spaces can be directly obtained and can thus guide the design and renovation of street space [10]. Related studies have used questionnaire data to analyze the correlation between evaluation results and pedestrian age, gender, education level, and other information, and they have analyzed the preferences of different pedestrians for various street spatial elements from the perspective of demand differences [11]. With the continuous progress of machine learning in image processing, street view images have been gradually applied to the study of large-scale street spatial quality measurement in cities [12]. The core principle of this method is to identify street elements in street view images through machine learning and analyze the area proportion of each element as a standard for evaluating spatial quality. For example, the comfort degree of the street space is represented by the green visual rate (the proportion of viridiplantae in a street view picture) [13], and the safety of the street is reflected by the degree of motorization (the proportion of motor vehicles in the street view picture) [14]. There are also studies that have evaluated the quality of street space using aspects such as spatial disorder [15] and visual quality [16] by constructing multi-dimensional evaluation systems. Spatial data, including POI data, remote sensing data, GPS behavior trajectory data, etc., are widely used in China, often combined with multi-source data and subjective questionnaire data. When evaluating the spatial quality of commercial [17] and residential streets [18], POI data are combined with subjective questionnaire data. In addition, GPS trajectory data are combined with questionnaire data for analysis [19].

2.2. Research on the Street Nighttime Environment

The design of street space should take into account the pedestrian needs of different time periods and pay attention to the vitality of the street during nighttime periods. However, there is currently relatively little research on the nighttime environment of street space, and existing research mainly focuses on streetlighting and perceptions of the street’s nighttime environment. Some studies focus on mobile street vendors at night.

Night streetlighting facilities are the most important factor that distinguish nighttime from daytime, and are of great significance for shaping street safety, visual comfort, and the overall image of a given space at night. Existing research focuses more on the effects of color temperature, illumination, and other factors on pedestrian nighttime activities [8]. The lighting elements of street space include outdoor storefronts, advertising signs, lighting and shadow facilities, etc. Their design features prioritize the harmony of brightness and color, rather than the environmental optical and physical parameters themselves [6]. In research on nighttime environmental perceptions of streets, perceptions of nighttime safety have emerged as a dominant factor. Based on this, there are studies analyzing the characteristics of perceptions of nighttime street spaces that take into account gender differences [5], and studies using safety evaluation scores as the dependent variable to analyze the impact of nighttime elements of street spaces, such as lighting facilities, management, crowds, and interfaces, on pedestrians’ perceptions of their safety when walking at nighttime [20]. In addition, in studies of the various elements of nighttime street spaces, attention has been paid to mobile vendors. Mobile vendors are a dynamic street element with high flexibility, making them very attractive to surrounding populations. Relevant research has mainly analyzed their distribution patterns in street spaces [21] and has proposed suggestions for the utilization of street space based on their flexibility [22].

2.3. Research on Urban Village Street Space

Urban village streets are important urban public spaces, and more and more researchers are realizing the public value of urban village streets. In terms of street space in urban villages, research has mainly focused on three aspects: the spatial distribution of businesses, street space and human behavior, and the transformation of street spaces.

The functional formats of the main streets of urban villages are mostly formed spontaneously via residents’ self-construction behaviors, in order to meet the diverse daily needs of residents [23]. Many scholars have based their research on the relationship between the types and distributions of urban village formats and street spaces, analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of informal commercial formats through on-site research [24], and studied and explored the reasons for the differences in the distribution of different street formats in the same urban village [25]. Another study used space syntax to analyze the relationship between changes in the street plane structures of villages in cities and changes in business types [26]. In terms of the relationship between urban village street spaces and human behavior, studies have mostly been conducted through existing research methods, combining snapshot methods [27], behavioral annotation methods, semi-structured interview methods, GPS trajectory recording methods [28], etc., to explore and explain the mechanisms of the formation of spatial vitality in urban village streets from the perspective of daily life. In research on the renovation of street space in urban villages, the importance of street space in the renovation of urban villages has been emphasized from the perspective of communities [29]. Some studies have also focused on evaluating and updating methods of multiple subjects’ participation, and proposed suggestions for updates and transformation from different perspectives, through the evaluation of multiple subjects [30]. A few studies have focused on design strategies for nighttime public spaces [7].

3. Methodology

The construction of the evaluation system includes the selection of evaluation models and evaluation indicators, and the calculation of indicator weights. In addition, a survey questionnaire was designed based on the given evaluation system.

3.1. AHP–Kano Model

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was first introduced by Saaty (1980) as an approach to allocating the relative importance of evaluation items based on criteria of different weights [31,32]. AHP supports decision makers in understanding the complexity of a problem and exercising sound judgement. It thus incorporates both objective and subjective considerations. AHP comprises six phases common to all applications: (a) identifying the criteria of the alternatives in a decision problem and organizing them into a hierarchy; (b) comparing pairwise criteria according to user preferences and obtaining criteria weights; (c) evaluating or gathering the performance of each alternative, with respect to each criterion; (d) scaling the criteria; (e) synthesizing and ranking alternatives, and (f) selecting the best alternatives. AHP builds decision-making problems in hierarchies that include goals, criteria, sub-criteria, and decision alternatives. Pair-wise comparisons are used in AHP to determine the relative importance of different elements at each level of the hierarchy. Such comparisons can also be used to evaluate alternatives at the lowest level of the hierarchy to make the best decisions among multiple alternatives, thus transforming subjective opinions into objective measures for the decision-maker [33].

Use of the AHP model can construct a clear and complete hierarchical structure, but we encountered the following issues when it was directly applied to this study:

• The model is unable to reflect the difference in pedestrian demand between the main street spaces of two urban villages. There are significant differences in the age structure, gender composition, living conditions, and activity types of pedestrians in the main streets of different urban villages. The demand for the six types of needs varies, and the original evaluation system cannot reflect this variation, so it cannot be directly applied to the evaluation of different types of people.
• Multiple calculations of indicator weights are required, resulting in a low application efficiency. In practical research, the importance of indicators is often reflected by calculating their weight. If the original evaluation structure is applied, it is necessary to calculate the weight of the indicators for two urban villages separately. However, this increases the initial work cost and reduces the application efficiency of the evaluation system.

To address the above issues, this article adjusts the structure of the AHP model through the Kano model. The Kano model of customer satisfaction is a useful tool to classify and prioritize customer needs based on how they affect customers’ satisfaction (Kano et al., 1984) [34]. It captures the nonlinear relationship between product performance and customer satisfaction. In practice, four types of product attributes are identified: (1) must-be demands are expected by the customers, and they lead to extreme customer dissatisfaction if they are absent or poorly satisfied; (2) one-dimensional demands are those for which better fulfillment leads to linear increments in customer satisfaction; (3) attractive demands are usually unexpected by customers, and can result in great satisfaction if they are available; (4) indifferent demands are those whose level of fulfilment the customer is not interested in (Figure 1).

This article utilizes the Kano model and adjusts the structure of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model by adding a demand layer between the target layer and the criterion layer. After adjustment, the AHP–Kano model is formed (Figure 2). This hierarchical structure does not decrease the integrity of the original hierarchical structure, does not affect the connection between primary and secondary indicators, and can reflect the differences in the needs of pedestrians of the main streets of two urban villages. Only the weight calculation between primary and secondary indicators is needed to simplify the construction process of the evaluation system.

3.2. Preset Evaluation Indicators

The construction includes the selection of primary and secondary indicators, for which the evaluation index set is preset (Figure 3).

The primary indicators of the evaluation system in this study mainly come from two aspects. First, the objective criteria are derived from domestic and foreign urban street design guidelines. The street design guidelines draw on a series of research results on street space, providing a certain reference for the selection of primary indicators for the evaluation system of this article. The target criteria related to pedestrian perception include safety, comfort, convenience, regionality, and location. Second, the first-level evaluation index is derived from the dimension of pedestrian perceptions in the study of street spatial quality evaluation.

The two sources of primary indicators are selected based on pedestrian needs as the selection principle. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one of the most popular theories of motivation. The theory posits that people are motivated to fulfill five primary needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization [35,36]. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people must first meet their physiological needs (such as food, water, and shelter) before the other needs. Once these physiological needs are met, people may move up the hierarchy, focusing on safety needs (including security and protection), love and belonging needs (including friendship, intimacy, and social status), esteem needs (including self-respect and recognition from others), and finally, self-actualization needs (including creativity, personal growth, and fulfillment) [35,37,38]. In studies of street space, based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, relevant research has focused on pedestrian demands [39,40]. On this basis, this study categorizes pedestrian needs into six aspects: walking safety needs, convenient traffic needs, walking comfort needs, diverse scenery needs, spatial aesthetic needs, and place identity needs (Figure 4). Finally, safety, convenience, comfort, diversity, aesthetics, and place identity were deemed the primary evaluation indicators within this study.

The secondary indicators were selected from two sources: the first is the evaluation systems within relevant studies, and the second is interviews about pedestrian needs conducted in urban villages. We aimed to extract the spatial elements of streets that pedestrians are concerned about and convert them into indicators to be included in our evaluation system.

3.3. Indicator Screening and Weight Determination

Further screening of preset evaluation indicators was carried out through expert opinion surveys and pedestrian indicator opinion surveys. During the expert opinion survey phase, 20 experts with architectural and urban planning backgrounds were included. Statistical analysis of expert opinions was conducted, and indicators with more than half of the “suggested deletion” opinions were deleted. Indicators with more than half of the “suggested adjustment” opinions had to be merged or adjusted based on expert adjustment opinions and reasons. After screening the indicators based on expert opinions, a total of 25 evaluation indicators were formed under 6 evaluation criteria layers.

During the pedestrian indicator opinion survey phase, a total of 50 questionnaires were distributed, and a factor analysis was conducted using the data. Indicators with correction item total correlation (CITC) values less than 0.3 were removed, resulting in a total of 20 evaluation indicator systems under 6 evaluation criteria layers.

A total of 38 expert questionnaires were distributed, based on the importance of expert indicators, including 24 researchers in the field of architectural planning, 8 urban renewal designers, and 6 researchers in the field of construction management. Some 38 questionnaires were collected, including 38 valid questionnaires. The indicator weights passed consistency testing. The final evaluation system indicators and weights are shown in

Table 1. Evaluation system indicators and weights.

Evaluation Objectives	Criterion Layer	Evaluating Indicator	Indicator Weight
Space quality of main street in urban villages at night	A Safety	A1 Smoothness of road	21.626%
		A2 Interference of vehicle	18.558%
		A3 Interference of non-motor vehicle	19.479%
		A4 Lighting brightness	21.933%
		A5 Safety assurance	18.405%
	B Convenience	B1 Continuity of pedestrian space	30.548%
		B2 Convenience of service facilities	35.770%
		B3 Path selectability	33.681%
	C Comfort	C1 Lighting comfort	34.053%
		C2 Space scale comfort	33.813%
		C3 Rationality of parking space	32.134%
	D Diversity	D1 Diversity of business	33.333%
		D2 Diversity of interface types along the street	32.609%
		D3 Diversity of street furniture	34.058%
	E Aesthetics	E1 Aesthetics of the street interface	34.217%
		E2 Road cleanliness	32.771%
		E3 Aesthetics of light and shadow art facilities	33.012%
	F Placeness	F1 Spatial imagery	35.860%
		F2 Sense of spatial belonging	30.282%
		F3 Place identity	33.858%

.

3.4. The Design of the Survey Questionnaire

Based on the Kano model, a pedestrian demand questionnaire was designed, and on the basis of the established primary indicators of the evaluation system, a survey questionnaire containing six demand factors was ultimately formed. Within the questionnaire, there were paired questions for positive and negative responses: positive questions asked how well pedestrians would accept a certain demand if it was improved, and the reverse question asked how well pedestrians would accept a certain demand if it was reduced. Each question had five levels of options, and the questionnaire’s design is shown in

Table 2. Example of a pedestrian demand questionnaire.

Safety refers to the safety perception of your activities in the street space. Scientific research has shown that the safety of pedestrians is often related to motor vehicle interference, electronic monitoring facilities, street crossing safety facilities, and nighttime lighting conditions.
If the safety of the village main street in the city is improved, would you be:
① very satisfied	② satisfied	③ indifferent	④ reluctantly accepting	⑤ dissatisfied
If the safety of the village main street in the city is reduced, would you be:
① very satisfied	② satisfied	③ indifferent	④ reluctantly accepting	⑤ dissatisfied

.

The pedestrian satisfaction questionnaire was scored according to the evaluation system of the quality of the main street space of the nighttime village in the city mentioned above. The evaluation was divided into five measurement levels using the Likert scale. Five options were set for the 20 evaluation items in the evaluation system, namely, “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “general”, “dissatisfied”, and “very dissatisfied”.

4. Case Study

4.1. Selection of Research Subjects

This article attempts to construct an evaluation system for the spatial quality of urban village main streets from the perspective of nighttime pedestrian demand. Therefore, pedestrian-oriented urban village main streets were selected for our research. At present, the degree of renovation in various urban villages varies, resulting in differences in business formats and pedestrian types on both sides of the main street. According to the differences in pedestrian types, these spaces may be categorized as either urban villages dominated by residents or urban villages dominated by non-residents. Based on the above considerations, Pingshan Village Main Street and Nantou Ancient City Main Street were ultimately selected as the research objects of this article.

As comprehensive renovation-type urban villages, the two have certain common characteristics. The length of the main street is roughly the same, with the length of the main street in the east–west direction of Nantou Ancient City being about 370 m, and the length of the main street in the north–south direction being about 450 m. The length of the main street in the east–west direction of Pingshan Village is about 475 m, and the length of the main street in the north–south direction is about 300 m. In terms of spatial form, the plane form is a cross-shaped plane (Figure 5 and Figure 6). At the same time, there are certain differences between the two. In the surrounding environment, Pingshan Village includes living areas, commercial areas, university towns, and industrial areas, while the surrounding area of Nantou Ancient City includes office areas, commercial areas, living areas, and scenic spots. In terms of pedestrian types, residents are the main pedestrians on the main street of Pingshan Village, while there are also office workers and university students in the surrounding areas. As an important scenic area, Nantou Ancient City is mainly inhabited by tourists.

4.2. The Current Situation of the Main Street in Pingshan Village at Night

The main street has a cross-shaped layout, and the two main streets are the site of the main transportation, leisure, consumption, and other activities of Pingshan Village. The main street is populated by a mixture of people and vehicles, with people dominating. There are various types of businesses that can meet the basic daily needs of residents, with a relatively high proportion of commercial service facilities, such as catering and retail outlets. From the perspective of the street interface morphology of the shops along the street, most follow the direction of the street and have been arranged to face the street, with close connections between shops forming a continuous street-side interface.

In this study, we divided the main street of Pingshan Village into four sections: A, B, C, and D. The distance between the roads and buildings in Section A is between 7 and 8 m. The buildings along the street, except for the 2 buildings at the entrance, which have 2 and 4 floors, respectively, all have 8–11 floors. The height difference at the junction of Section A and Section B is significant, while the direction of the building interface changes, forming an irregular space. The pavement of Section B is wide, and the buildings’ spacing is between 10 and 12 m. Except for the building near the north of memorial archway, which has 4 floors, the other buildings have between 8 and 11 floors. There are one-way sidewalks and two-way roadways, and the sidewalks are about 300~450 mm higher than the roadways. Due to the wide road surface, some recreational facilities have been set up for pedestrians to use. In addition to snack bars, fast food restaurants, and grocery stores, there are also barber shops, a community hospital, and other living facilities on both sides of the street. There are mobile vendors selling at the ends of the pedestrian roads. The entrance of Section B is Pingshan Village memorial archway, decorated with light and shadow facilities at night, which is a landmark of Pingshan Village. The distance between the south-end buildings of Section C is between 8 and 9 m, and at the north end is Pingshan Park, with only a vehicular road, mixed pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and low pedestrian flow. The stores are concentrated at the southern end, with a small number in the northern end, and these are mainly catering establishments. The distance between the Section D roads and buildings is between 6 and 7 m, with this section featuring only vehicular roads. Usually, people and vehicles mix, and the pedestrian flow is more limited than that in Sections A and B, but relatively greater than that in Section C. The shops on both sides of the street are mainly snack bars (Figure 7).

4.3. Current Situation of the Main Street in Nantou Ancient City at Night

Nantou Ancient City has a history of over 1700 years and was first built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. After the reform and opening up, construction activities have become increasingly vigorous, with most historical buildings and traditional residences demolished and converted to multi-story residential buildings, gradually forming the high-density urban village architectural space we see today.

In this study, we divided the main street into four sections: A, B, C, and D, based on the intersection of the east–west main street and the north–south main street. Section A is the entrance section of the north–south street, which is completely open, but only allows pedestrians to enter and exit freely, and strictly restricts the time electric vehicles have to pass. There are significant differences in the spacing between roads and buildings in Section A, and there are many pockets of space in the road section, often with landscape facilities arranged to form spatial nodes. The height of the buildings on both sides is not uniform, and many buildings have retreating treatment, so although the distance between buildings is small, the view is wide. The shops on both sides of the street are mainly jewelry stores, souvenir stores, cultural centers, and exhibition centers, with a strong cultural emphasis. The distance between the buildings in Section B is about 4 m, and the main street is a pedestrian road with a dense pedestrian flow. The height of the buildings on both sides is not uniform, mostly consisting of three-story buildings and eight- to ten-story buildings. The shops on both sides of the street are mainly specialty restaurants, bars, and dessert shops, with a strong emphasis on leisure. Section C is more consistent with Section B in its spatial form. The north side of Section D is connected to Zhongshan Park, and the entrance is open. The distance between buildings here is relatively small, around 3 m, and the buildings on both sides have higher heights, mostly having 10–12 floors. The space feels slightly narrow, and the buildings’ ground floors have been pushed inward to alleviate the sense of spatial oppression to a certain extent (Figure 8).

5. Results

5.1. Data Collection and Statistics

In this study, the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City in Shenzhen were selected as the research objects. The questionnaire distribution was made to ensure that the proportions of pedestrians from different age groups, genders, and activity types matched the real-life situation. The questionnaires were distributed in both urban villages in June 2022. Based on the nighttime research conducted on the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City, the period with the most crowd-dense activities was roughly between 18:00 and 22:00, which also corresponds to the peak hours of nighttime urban street vitality in Shenzhen. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed, with 100 questionnaires in each area of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City, respectively. All the questionnaires were collected, meaning a 100% response rate. Questionnaires that did not meet the pedestrian demands were eliminated, resulting in 90 valid questionnaires for Pingshan Village with an effective rate of 90%, and 92 valid questionnaires for Nantou Ancient City with an effective rate of 92%. Statistical results of the basic information gathered regarding the two urban villages are shown in Figure 9.

Overall, there are not significant differences in the gender and age of respondents between Pingshan Village’s main street and Nantou Ancient City’s main street. However, there are considerable differences in residential status, activity type, and stay duration. Pingshan Village’s main street primarily serves as a residential area, so the respondents mainly consist of residents, but there are also a substantial number of non-residents such as students and workers. On the other hand, Nantou Ancient City is an important tourist attraction in Shenzhen, so the main street mainly attracts tourists, resulting in a majority of non-residents. Pingshan Village’s main street is a street used for the activities of daily living, providing essential services for residents and surrounding communities. Compared to other urban village streets, the main street in Pingshan Village is relatively wide, providing a place for nighttime leisure activities for residents living in the area. On the other hand, Nantou Ancient City’s main street is a key renovation project from the 7th Shenzhen Urbanism/Architecture Bi-city Biennale, which later developed into a representative tourist attraction, thereby attracting pedestrians who are mostly tourists.

5.2. Pedestrian Demand Analysis

To analyze the collected questionnaire data on pedestrian demands, the first step taken was to classify the two-dimensional attributes and use frequencies to determine the classification of each demand factor. The collected questionnaires were categorized as shown in

Table 3. Classification reference table for demands.

		Negative Questions
	Demand Indicators	Disliked	Tolerated	Indifferent	Expected	Liked
Positive questions	Disliked	Q	R	R	R	R
	Tolerated	M	I	I	I	R
	Indifferent	M	I	I	I	R
	Expected	M	I	I	I	R
	Liked	O	A	A	A	Q

A: Attractive attributes, O: one-dimensional attributes, M: must-be attributes, I: indifferent attributes, R: reverse attributes, Q: questionable attributes.

, in order to identify the various types of demands. The statistical results of these demand types are shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11.

It is necessary to introduce a correction factor to ensure the scientific validity of the data analysis. The formula is as follows:

Better = (T_A + T_O)/(T_A + T_O + T_M + T_I)

(1)

Worse = −(T_O + T_M)/(T_A + T_O + T_M + T_I)

(2)

In the formula:

• Better—Better coefficient,
• Worse—Worse coefficient,
• T_A—Proportion of attractiveness demand judgments,
• T_O—Proportion of one-dimensional demand judgments,
• T_M—Proportion of must-be demand judgments,
• T_I—Proportion of indifferent demand judgments.

To provide a more intuitive display of the various demand factors, the study presents the better coefficient and worse coefficient in quartile plots. Using the absolute value of the worse value as the x-axis, and the better value as the y-axis, a coordinate system was established, and the average of both values was taken as the quadrant intersection. The results are presented in the coordinate system (Figure 12 and Figure 13).

For Pingshan Village, the must-be demands are convenience and safety. If these aspects are optimized, pedestrian satisfaction will not significantly increase, but if they cannot be improved, pedestrian satisfaction will be greatly reduced, and they should be given priority. The one-dimensional demands are comfortability and diversity. Optimizing these aspects will lead to an increase in pedestrian satisfaction, while neglecting them will result in decreased satisfaction. The attractiveness demand is that of aesthetics, which is an unexpected demand for pedestrians. Enhancing the overall aesthetics of the street can improve pedestrians’ evaluation of the nighttime urban village main street space, but not improving the aesthetics will not significantly affect the pedestrians’ overall evaluation. The indifferent demand is placeness, so increasing investments in placeness will not improve pedestrians’ overall evaluation of the urban village main street. For Nantou Ancient City, the must-be demands are comfortability and safety. If these aspects are optimized, pedestrian satisfaction will not increase significantly, but if they cannot be improved, pedestrian satisfaction will be greatly reduced. The one-dimensional demands are aesthetics and diversity. Optimizing these aspects will lead to an increase in pedestrian satisfaction, while neglecting them will result in decreased satisfaction. The attractiveness demand is placeness, and enhancing the overall placeness of the street will increase pedestrian satisfaction. If it cannot be improved, pedestrian satisfaction will not be reduced. Convenience is an indifferent demand and will not affect the overall evaluation of the nighttime urban village main street space for pedestrians.

5.3. Pedestrian Satisfaction Analysis

As mentioned before, a pedestrian satisfaction questionnaire was designed based on the evaluation system constructed in Section 3. Before conducting the data analysis, a test of reliability and validity was performed to ensure the data’s authenticity and reliability, which further validated the usability of the evaluation system. Typically, the KMO (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin) value and Bartlett’s test of sphericity with a corresponding p-value are used for validation tests, where a p-value less than 0.05 is considered acceptable. After the test, it was found that the data from the questionnaire showed high reliability and validity, making them suitable for the subsequent analysis.

5.3.1. Overall Satisfaction Analysis

In general, the scores of each indicator were weighted and aggregated to calculate the primary indicator scores for the main streets of the two urban villages. The results are presented in Figure 14. For Pingshan Village’s main street, only the indicator D (diversity) received a satisfaction rating above 4, while the indicators safety (A) and aesthetics (E) received ratings below 3. For Nantou Ancient City’s main street, the primary indicator scores for safety (A), diversity (D), and aesthetics (E) were all above 4, and all indicator scores were higher than 3. Overall, Nantou Ancient City’s main street received higher satisfaction ratings for the primary indicators compared to Pingshan Village’s main street, except for convenience (B) and diversity (D), which had similar scores. This can be attributed to the “cross”-shaped layout and diverse functional formats of the main streets in the two urban villages. Furthermore, all other indicators received significantly higher scores in Nantou Ancient City’s main street compared to Pingshan Village’s main street, indicating that the nighttime spatial quality of Nantou Ancient City’s main street is significantly better than that of Pingshan Village (

Table 4. Comparison of demand types and indicator scores.

	Pingshan Village Main Street		Nantou Ancient City Main Street
	Primary Indicator	Score	Primary Indicator	Score
Must-be	Safety	2.99	Safety	4.28
	Convenience	3.51	Comfortability	3.96
One-dimensional	Comfortability	3.22	Aesthetics	4.49
	Diversity	4.23	Diversity	4.28
Attractive	Aesthetics	2.61	Placeness	3.69
Indifferent	Placeness	2.77	Convenience	3.39

).

Considering the classification of nighttime pedestrian demand types for the main streets in the two urban villages mentioned herein, for Pingshan Village, the must-be demand of safety received a low score, indicating that it requires primary attention during the renewal and improvement process, with a focus on enhancing safety. Additionally, improvements can be made in the one-dimensional demand of comfortability. As the attractiveness attribute, aesthetics shows significant potential for development and transformation. However, placeness, as an indifferent demand, does not require any specific improvement efforts. Regarding Nantou Ancient City, all aspects have already reached a good level of pedestrian satisfaction. For future development, attention can be directed towards enhancing the attractiveness demand of placeness. Although convenience did not receive a high score, it falls into the category of an indifferent attribute, so there is no need to focus on it excessively.

5.3.2. Secondary Indicator Satisfaction Analysis

As shown in Section 5.3.1, an overall analysis of the spatial quality of the main streets in the two urban villages was conducted based on the satisfaction scores of the primary evaluation indicators. However, in order to make improvements to the main street spaces that would actually impact various demand types, a comparative analysis of the secondary indicators is necessary. The statistics of the secondary indicator scores are shown in Figure 15.

Based on the evaluation results and combined with on-site research, the existing problems of the nighttime spatial quality of Pingshan Village’s main street are summarized in

Table 5. Current problems threatening the spatial quality of Pingshan Village’s main street at night.

Pedestrian Demand	Current Problems
Safety	1. Severe pavement damage 2. Numerous and disorderly manhole covers with uneven edges, not conducive to nighttime walking 3. High volume and fast speed of electric scooters at night 4. Insufficient pedestrian walkway areas, leading to mixed pedestrian–vehicle traffic at night 5. Insufficient maintenance facilities with a certain safety distance during nighttime construction 6. Poor lighting conditions and elevation differences at intersections
Convenience	1. Limited choice of pathways, poor connectivity between alleys and main street 2. Numerous intersections, low continuity of pedestrian pathways 3. Numerous instances of unreasonable occupation of street facilities at night
Comfortability	1. Lack of properly planned non-motorized vehicle parking areas 2. Motor vehicles occupying pedestrian spaces at night 3. Inconsistent and chaotic shop lighting colors 4. Uneven streetlighting brightness
Diversity	1. Uneven distribution of street furniture along the street
Aesthetics	1. Improper placement of sanitation facilities 2. Lack of garbage bins for pedestrian use 3. Disordered architectural interface elements, lack of variations of solid and void 4. Lack of artistic light, monotonous street facility forms 5. Insufficient green landscape elements at the bottom of the space
Placeness	1. Lack of design in the main street space, insufficient representation of nighttime urban village characteristics 2. Lack of iconic structures or buildings 3. Few entertainment and leisure formats, lack of cultural facilities 4. Low sense of belonging, local cultural characteristics being obscured

.

Compared to Pingshan Village, Nantou Ancient City’s main street has fewer problems at night. Its main concerns are related to convenience and placeness. In terms of convenience, the following problems exist in Nantou Ancient City’s main street at night: a low number of pathway options and a low rate of development of alleys. Nantou Ancient City’s development has been focused in two main streets and the surrounding squares, meaning less attention has been paid to the development of alleys, resulting in limited pathway options for tourists. Regarding placeness, the following problems exist in Nantou Ancient City’s main street at night: a limited sense of belonging, and inadequate representation of the town’s ancient culture. On the one hand, most visitors are tourists who are not familiar with the local environment, making it difficult for them to develop a sense of belonging. On the other hand, although Nantou Ancient City actively promotes its historical and cultural heritage and has local museums that were built using modern technology, the overall spatial characteristics of the main street are a blend of various modern elements, which do not evoke contemplation on the historical culture of the place.

6. Discussion

6.1. Pingshan Village Main Street Space Renovation Recommendations for Nighttime

Based on the analysis of pedestrian demands in Section 5, the priority for improving the nighttime spatial quality of Pingshan Village’s main street should be addressing safety and convenience problems, followed by comfortability and diversity problems, and lastly, aesthetics problems. To this end, we propose the following areas for improvement: safety and convenience problems involving the road surface, construction facilities, nighttime lighting, and overall layout.

• Road surface conditions should be improved. Damaged road surfaces should be repaired, roads flattened, and vulnerable areas, such as the junctions of inclined roads, reinforced. The pavements’ materials should be anti-skid, durable, and easy to maintain. Even and smooth edges for manhole covers should be ensured to prevent tripping hazards and allow for smooth drainage during rainy days. Any variations in height in pedestrian walkways at intersections should be eliminated to ensure continuous pedestrian pathways.
• Safety should be ensured during street construction. Safety barrier facilities should be provided to prevent pedestrians from entering dangerous construction areas. Warning signs should be placed at construction sites to prevent pedestrians from entering, and the visibility of signs at night must be ensured, which may include using luminescent LED signs.
• Nighttime lighting conditions should be improved. Continuous lighting should be ensured throughout the street. The distribution and spacing of lighting fixtures should be optimized to create a continuous linear lighting environment. Lighting facilities should specifically be installed at intersections, and the number of lighting fixtures increased in spaces with high pedestrian traffic. We should avoid creating strong contrasts that result in glare and uncomfortable visual experiences. The brightness of indoor lighting in ground-level shops should be controlled.
• Small streets and alleys should be appropriately developed, thereby enhancing the connection between small streets and alleys and the main street. We should consider widening certain streets and alleys that are closely connected to the central area and main street and introduce commercial activities to encourage small businesses and enhance the linkage between small streets and the main street.

Comfortability and diversity problems involve parking space planning, lighting facilities, and street furniture arrangements. Therefore, we propose the following improvement suggestions:

• Electric scooter parking spaces should be appropriately planned, and the flow of electric scooters during nighttime controlled. Parking spaces should be for electric scooters, taking landscape elements into consideration and providing adequate separation from pedestrian spaces.
• The comfort of lighting facilities should be enhanced. Even lighting, without uneven brightness or flickering, should be ensured. The color temperature of lighting fixtures should be controlled, and we should pay attention to the overall layout of lighting facilities. Lighting fixtures should be planned and designed in a way that harmonizes with surrounding buildings and landscapes to form a cohesive environment.
• The comfort of street furniture usage should be improved. Appropriate resting facilities, such as shop interfaces with combined seating for dining, should be added. This not only reduces the occupation of pedestrian spaces, but also utilizes the space in front of shops effectively, while enhancing the aesthetics of building facades.

Aesthetic problems involve sanitation facilities, street interfaces, light art, and landscape facilities. Therefore, we propose the following improvement suggestions:

• Sanitation facilities should be properly arranged. This will involve installing small trash bins for pedestrians and setting up designated garbage collection points. Garbage collection points for businesses should be set up away from the main street, with appropriate separation measures, to maintain a clean road surface in the nighttime main street environment.
• Street interfaces may be beautified, and a neat appearance maintained by ensuring horizontal uniformity. We should consider implementing unified resting platforms or architectural features to achieve interface consistency. While enriching interface forms, interface colors should be controlled to maintain diversity and avoid conflicting elements. We should consider opening ground-level interfaces and using open-style display windows to showcase shop content, enhance spatial forms, and encourage interaction with pedestrians.
• Light art and landscape facilities should be appropriately installed, combining light art installations with street elements such as building interfaces and landscapes to enhance the nighttime main street environment.

6.2. Nantou Ancient City Main Street Space Renovation Recommendations for Nighttime

The primary issues to be addressed in the nighttime renovation of Nantou Ancient City main street are safety and comfortability, followed by diversity and aesthetics, and finally, placeness. According to the evaluation results, there are currently no problems with safety, comfortability, diversity, and aesthetics in the nighttime main street of Nantou Ancient City, so its current state may be maintained. Therefore, this paper focuses on the issue of placeness, and provides corresponding recommendations for the future development of Nantou Ancient City’s nighttime space.

The main placeness-related problem is the lack of a sense of belonging. As most of the visitors on the main street of Nantou Ancient City are tourists rather than residents, we may observe that the renewal and transformation of the main street have erased the memories of the original residents to some extent and have failed to provide a sense of belonging to the tourists. To address this, it is important to create a positive nighttime cultural atmosphere to allow tourists to feel a sense of belonging to the nighttime life and culture in Nantou Ancient City. Additionally, attention should be paid to the daily lives of residents to enhance their sense of belonging. The following recommendations are thus proposed:

• The outdoor space of ground-level shops and the central area of main street intersections should be expanded to meet pedestrians’ nighttime socializing needs. Public squares should be created at intersections radiating from the central crossroads to the surroundings, and small streets and alleys developed. We should consider introducing mobile vendors to form a night market to gather at the square, offering handicrafts, snacks, and other mobile stalls, in order to establish a distinctive night market culture and enhance peoples’ sense of belonging to nighttime life.
• Historical architectural features should be restored. Some of the architectural elements of historical buildings, such as eaves styles and roofs, should be preserved in order to revive the memories of the original residents. Meanwhile, leisure squares should be set up at the connections between the main street and alleys to increase residents’ sense of belonging through constant interaction.
• The historical and cultural heritage connection between Nantou Ancient City and the development of Shenzhen should be strengthened. This may be achieved by condensing the key memories of Shenzhen’s urban development into symbols and setting up corresponding artistic facilities in the main street space. Furthermore, different cultural themes can be set for different segments of the main street, highlighting their respective characteristics through material and color contrasts, thereby reflecting historical and cultural aspects.

7. Conclusions

The contributions of this study lie in its comprehensive understanding of the current status of urban village renewal and transformation in Shenzhen, China. We recognize the significant importance of main street space in urban villages during nighttime and have established a spatial quality evaluation framework from a pedestrian demand-oriented perspective. Additionally, empirical research has been conducted on the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City.

Among these, the construction of the AHP–Kano model embodies both the clear hierarchical structure of the AHP model and the categorization capability of the Kano model to identify needs, highlighting the advantages of capturing variations in pedestrian demands among different research subjects. By utilizing the Kano model to adjust the structure of the AHP model, a novel AHP–Kano model was proposed, centered around the distinct variations in pedestrian demands within two urban village main streets. This adjustment maintains the hierarchy of indicators while ensuring that the evaluation model reflects the diversity of demands without compromising the hierarchy of criteria.

The assessment indicators on spatial quality evaluation were organized based on the evaluation model and using pedestrian needs as the evaluation criteria. Through semi-structured interviews, the indicator framework was further supplemented and refined, taking into full consideration various insights from experts and pedestrians. This process resulted in the selection of evaluation indicators. The AHP was then applied to determine the indicator weights. Eventually, a nighttime urban village main street spatial quality evaluation framework was established, comprising 6 primary indicators and 20 secondary indicators.

Finally, by applying an urban village main street evaluation system from the perspective of nighttime pedestrian needs, this study allowed us to identify the various types of demands among pedestrians on the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City, and commonalities and differences were analyzed. Pedestrian satisfaction evaluations were derived from indicator scores, coupled with on-site investigations to analyze issues present in the nighttime spatial aspects of both urban village main streets. Ultimately, based on must-be, one-dimensional, and attractive needs, the problems were categorized as priority-resolution, special-attention, and distinctive-exploration problems. Targeted recommendations were proposed for the renovation of the nighttime urban village main street spaces. The applicability of the AHP–Kano model was validated through empirical research.

Consequently, based on the research results, this paper proposes several suggestions for the renovation of main streets in urban villages. First, the priority issues to be addressed in the main street of Pingshan Village at night are safety and convenience; thus, we propose the following transformation suggestions:

(1)

The damaged road surface should be repaired, leveling the height difference of the road surface, canceling the height differences between pedestrian roads at intersections, and ensuring the continuity of pedestrian space, which will then improve road conditions.

(2)

Temporary facilities should be used for enclosure to prevent pedestrians from entering dangerous construction areas at night. Warning signs should be set up at construction sites to prevent pedestrians from entering construction areas by mistake. During construction, the construction time should be controlled in order to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

(3)

The location distribution of lighting facilities should be optimized, and reasonable spacing controlled. Special lighting facilities should be set up at intersections, and the number of lighting fixtures should be increased at spatial nodes with high pedestrian flow. The height of streetlights should be controlled to avoid situations in which streetlights are too high to provide good lighting, thereby improving nighttime lighting conditions.

Second, the priority issues to be addressed in the main street space of Nantou Ancient City at night are safety and comfort. We propose the following renovation suggestions:

(1)

The outdoor space of stores’ bottom floors should be expanded. Providing sufficient night activity venues for pedestrians and introducing mobile stalls such as handicrafts and snacks, thereby forming a distinctive night market culture, will help to create a cultural atmosphere at nighttime.

(2)

Artistic facilities that reflect Shenzhen culture should be set up in the main street space. In different sections of the main street, different cultural themes may be set up to highlight their respective characteristics through the contrast and comparison of materials and colors, reflecting the city’s historical culture in order to encourage exploration of the history and culture of Shenzhen.

This article presents an evaluation system for the spatial quality of main streets in urban villages at night from the perspective of pedestrian demands and supplements the shortcomings of existing research on the evaluation of street spatial quality at night. Suggestions for updating and renovating the main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City at night were proposed, and these have certain reference value for the renovation of the main streets of other urban villages in Shenzhen at night.

The research objective specifically focused on the nighttime main streets of Pingshan Village and Nantou Ancient City, so one limitation of our study is the limited number of cases. To further validate the adaptability of the AHP–Kano model established in this research for assessing the nighttime spatial quality of main streets in different urban villages, empirical studies across various types of urban village main streets are necessary in future research. Based on these empirical results, targeted renovation and design strategies can be proposed, and the evaluation framework constructed herein can be further refined.