Pedestrian Walkability (Architecture and public spaces) Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Architecture, Photovoltaics, Renewable Energy, Participatory Design

Excerpt from the book: "Footbridges as new urban spaces. A cultural project for the contemporary landscape," Fabrizia Zorzenon, 2014

In this paper the rationale of the bioclimatic regeneration of part of the commercial triangle of Athens is presented. In this 11 ha area, identified by three streets in the form of a triangle, the most vivid commercial activities have been taking place, from the transformation of Athens into a capital city in the 19 th century, up to late 20 th century, when the upcoming of " malls " displaced consumption habits from small shops to large shopping centres. As it is a place that has been either within the city walls or at the outskirts since antiquity, its geometry is very much affected by ancient and medieval Athenian city planning, which is explored and highlighted in this regeneration project. The commercial triangle area today is characterised by a mixture of neo-classical and modern buildings, as well as simplexes of pedestrian streets. The landscape of the area is being reshaped as the old uses that reflect the former economic backbone of the city, are displaced or replaced by new ones which are more related to the industry of entertainment. In this paper, a brief spatial description and historical review of the area is presented, pinpointing to the political and municipal decisions that have affected the area, highlighting the conflicts that the area faces today. Existing land use is monitored in detail and compared to past ones. The sustainability rationale of the regeneration of the public spaces of this area is presented, taking into consideration environmental issues (pedestrianisation of narrow streets, environmental footprint of used or reused materials, recycling municipal waste, low energy consumption street light, construction site measures), bioclimatic issues (microclimatic considerations, surface materials, placement of vegetation in narrow streets), cultural issues (putting forward the area's historic footprint through the design) as well as social issues (conflicts that might arise from competitive or incompatible land uses), trying to achieve a holistic sustainable regeneration approach.

Streszczenie: Chodzenie, siadanie, przebywanie. Utarło się przekonanie, że aby móc bywać w przestrzeni publicznej, trzeba w niej ograniczyć ruch kołowy, w mieście powstaje coraz więcej ciągów pieszych. Nie idzie to jednak w parze z tworzeniem ogólnodostępnych miejsc do odpoczynku, ustawianiem ławek, kreowaniem przyjaznych przestrzeni do nawiązywania relacji społecznych i międzyludzkich. Tekst rozważa teorię wpływu przestrzeni na zachowania ludzi. Udowadnia że im więcej pro-społecznych siedzisk na deptakach tym więcej ludzi generujących zwiększenie potencjału nabywczego przechodniów. Warunkiem siadania nie jest wyłącznie duży tranzyt, ale przede wszystkim zatrzymanie ludzi w przestrzeni. Na licznych przykładach opisuje miejsca do-społeczne i od-społeczne, tłumaczy i wyjaśnia zasady ich działania w odniesieniu do przebywania w przestrzeni publicznej miasta. Przestrzeń publiczna miasta, wymieniona w tytule, definiowana jest rozmaicie. W projektowej codzienności architektonicznej jest terminem, którego definicja, zawarta w ustawie 2 , zestawia przestrzeń z pojęciem obszaru: Obszar o szczególnym znaczeniu dla zaspokojenia potrzeb mieszkańców, poprawy jakości ich życia i sprzyjający nawiązywaniu kontaktów społecznych ze względu na jego położenie oraz cechy funkcjonalno-przestrzenne, określony w studium uwarunkowań i kierunków zagospodarowania przestrzennego gminy. Przestrzeń publiczna jest dialektyczna i działa jak sztuka, generuje pozytywne lub negatywne emocje, rodzi się z zacnych lub niecnych potrzeb, kreuje formy i antyformy. Rodzi się z ambiwalencji i sama taka jest. Jedną z ambiwalentnie ocenianych potrzeb mieszkańców 3 jest siadanie-główny przedmiot niniejszego tekstu. Można zignorować tę czynność, nie starać się zwiększać szans społecznych i 1 eMSA Inicjatywa Edukacyjna. 2 Ustawa z dnia 27 marca 2003 r. o planowaniu i zagospodarowaniu przestrzennym 3 To wynik własnych badań terenowych prowadzonych od 2009 roku. Partnerstwo Lokalne 8 SCEN zrealizowało w 2010 roku badania socjologiczne na terenie trzech wrocławskich osiedli. Wskazują one, że brak ławek jest dla mieszkańców ważnym problemem; URL: https://sites.google.com/site/emsasobotka/partnerstwo-8-scen/ankietyidiagnoza. Podobne badania zrealizował magistrat Olsztyna, w efekcie zwiększa się tam liczbę ławek, URL: http://www.konsultacje.olsztyn.eu

- by Anna Maria Ruminska
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- Anthropology, Urban Studies, Urbanism, Urban Sociology

Este trabajo de investigación evaluó el ambiente peatonal de una ciudad con predominio de transporte motorizado a través de una metodología integrada de propuestas anteriores adaptadas al contexto de la ciudad y las herramientas disponibles. Se interpreta el ambiente peatonal a través de una red conformada por el equipamiento al que se considera atractores de viajes peatonales nombrados en términos de red como “nodos” y los elementos que los unen, es decir los “arcos” siendo éstos las banquetas y cruces peatonales localizados en vías primarias.

With the aim to enhance sustainability in general including walkability, the recent urban forms of the designs of the Emirati neighborhoods have been denser and more compact, if compared with the older design models. While there are various guidelines and regulations related to the microscale walkability measures for the urban design of neighborhoods in the Emirates but unfortunately the macroscale walkability measures have not received similar attention. So, to investigate how would these denser and more compact recent neighborhoods designs better perform regarding walkability macroscale measures, the research utilized the urban modelling interface (UMI) walkability simulation tool to calculate the UMI Walkscores of these designs because it considers almost all macroscale factors including both urban morphology and urban planning measures and it also allows for the customization of the types, required catchment distances, and weights of the significance of locally provided amenities. The UMI Walkscores were calculated for the six recent denser and more compact neighborhoods designs and were compared with the UMI Walkscore for a conventionally designed model of urban sprawling neighborhoods. Unexpectedly, it has been found out that urban compactness per se is not a sufficient design measure for enhancing walkability in local neighborhood designs, where much higher compactness and density have achieved disappointing UMI Walkscores. So, it seems that for the recent neighborhoods' designs, little attention was paid to the impact of the street network connectivity measures of Intersection Density, Block Length and the link-to-nodes ratio, on UMI Walkscores, if compared with the main attention paid to increasing FAR through decreasing plot sizes. Meanwhile, the explicit macroscale urban planning measures including the land-use factors of the types, numbers, and the location of amenities, as well as the implicit factors of their destination and global weights seem to be more influential in enhancing the UMI Walkscores but have been less considered when planning these neighborhoods. So, besides considering well-known macroscale urban morphology aspects of street network connectivity and locational distribution of provided amenities, boosting walkability macroscale measures on the design level requires adopting a set of adequately customized measures including the appropriate values of their global and distribution weights. These walkability design weights should be also resilient and continuously reviewed to satisfy the changing needs of the local communities. Based on its findings, the research proposed a five-actions plan to help boost walkability macroscale measures in the design of local urban communities in the UAE.

Einkaufen-Gehen ist etwas, was allein in der Stadt wirklich geht. lm Dorf kann man nur Besorgungen machen, und in der Kleinstadt kann man darüber hinaus höchstens zum Einkaufen fahren. lch gehe Einkaufen meint im urbanen Kontext etwas anderes als Ich mache Besorgungen. Gehen und Kaufen sind beim Einkaufen-Gehen in dieselbe flache, in sich selbst ein wenig verschobene Gegenwart verfügt, und diese Gegenwart lässt kaum Ansatzpunkte für eine Zäsurierung des Gehens erkennbar werden, an denen man eine Kauf-Handlung von der Geh-Bewegung abtrennen könnte.

- by Kai van Eikels
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Dance Studies

With the example of HafenCity, discusses how public domains can be combined with individual aspirations.

A growing body of empirical findings suggests that more satisfactory, compact, and traversable built environments can positively influence active travel, physical activity, and the walking experience. To this end, planning for better and more walkable places has been identified as a hot topic in urban studies and public health research, since. However, European-level indicators assessing aspects of pedestrian-friendly urban environments are largely lacking. This article introduces spatial and tabular data files of 17 pre-processed and microscale walkability indicators. The dataset presents relevant to the pedestrian environment information for 59 central urban areas from 26 European countries and aims to support policy analysis and assessment related to healthy and low-carbon transportation systems as well as sustainable communities. Methodologically, we applied a virtual (i.e., Google Street View) street audit tool, block-by-block and on both sides of each street and crossing segment separately. To this end, we digitized in polyline features observations and evaluations for a total of 112.577 street- and/or crossing-segments. The data collection process was a demanding and challenging process, which lasted for 21 months and involved 46 trained observers. The data tables in this paper present processed data of each audited item topic as a total share of street segments or crossings length by city. More specifically, the data tables contain indicators that describe the following seventeen themes: percent of segments with predominant commercial or/and entertainment buildings (active uses), percent of segments with access to park/plaza, percent of segments with transit stop(s), percent of segments with available public seats, percent of segments according to their street lighting conditions, percent of segments with well-maintained buildings, percent of segments where graffiti is not present, percent of segments where a bike lane is present, percent of segments where a sidewalk is present, percent of segments with well-maintained sidewalks, percent of segments with sidewalk buffers, percent of segments according to shading levels, percent of segments with wider sidewalks, percent of segments according to the number of road traffic lanes, percent of crossings with a pedestrian walk signal, percent of crossings with curb(s) ramp and percent of crossings with a marked pedestrian crosswalk. Additionally, a dedicated web-GIS platform has been designed and developed to visualize and disseminate collected data in openly available density maps of high spatial resolution (50 m × 50 m). The above data can be utilized to both raise awareness of unsatisfactory pedestrian environments and appoint them as a key health and environmental issue, as well as to assist European policy-makers to apply urban mobility strategies and monitor progress in urban sustainability and public health goals.

- by Andreas Keler
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- Transportation Engineering, Spatial Analysis, Transportation Studies, Time Series

Nicholas Blomley's book, Rights of Passage: Sidewalks and the Regulation of Public Flow, in some places, reminds one of Satyajit Ray's political satire 'HirakRajarDeshe'. There is a scene from the acclaimed film where the region's poor are bundled off and kept in captivity so that the king could show off a reign free of poverty just before New Year celebrations. This analogy has been drawn in this review in an attempt to see how the author envisions the treatment meted out to the urban ordinary. Blomley's work is an important contribution in the field of urban studies in general and an alternative notion of a 'public space' in particular. He has chosen the city of Vancouver as a case study. Blomley is a Professor with a keen interest in critical geography, and is passionate about political economy and concerned with the materiality of processes. Blomley here creates a fascinating example of a nifty blend of academics and activism. This book is as much about theorizing the pedestrian and tracing its genealogies as it is about comprehending the politics involved in it. Blomley coined the term 'pedestrianism' to understand the rationale behind the engineers who constructed sidewalks from the point of utility. He says, " Pedestrianism understands the sidewalk as a finite public resource that is always threatened by multiple, competing interests and uses ". (p.3). According to the administrators and engineers of the city, the pedestrians should not huddle together at a spot and act as a visual clutter. And as long as they keep on moving, they pose no problem. However, the moment they 'block' the way they are seen as encroachers of private property because according to the urban logic, it is the city that owns the streets. Whose sidewalk is it anyway? For the city engineers and the law makers at least, the sidewalks are built to ensure smooth traffic flow, even at the cost of marginalizing the pedestrians, who are simply 'peds' to them. The sidewalks are then not meant to be more than mediating structures between one destination and another. The law wants everybody to fall in line and conform to the logic of the urban sphere. It, in a way, cannot understand halting for a prolonged period of time. Just like the traffic on the streets and on the roads must keep on moving, so should the pedestrians-who should not use the sidewalks to display their political consciousness. This is a new take on the otherwise conventional argument of the scholars in general who envision the sidewalks as 'public space' which incorporate 'certain people and voices' within the purview of the public sphere. To them, that space is about social justice, democracy, and citizenship. Blomley strives to show through his work how his understanding of pedestrianism is different from those scholars who take it as a kind of 'civic humanism', which embodies certain 'political and ethical ends, such as expression and democracy' (p.7), thus concerning itself chiefly with people. After interviewing engineers, studying laws, and observing activism on the streets however, Blomley notes that pedestrianism is an extension of police power, and is not an ideology to those interviewed. It does not differentiate between humans and non-humans as such, and views both as materials, as objects which if not in motion, then are seen as obstructions to pedestrian flow. At 129 pages, this short but important book is divided into nine sections. As the work unfolds, the reader gets acquainted with Blomley's ways of unraveling his ideas about pedestrianism gradually. As pedestrianism is linked with the ideas of police power, law, justice, and the correct order of things, Blomley terms it as 'legal geography' as well. In 'Pedestrianism', it can be said that an act of defamiliarization has been identified by Blomley while studying an anti-poverty remonstration called 'Woodsquat' at the heart of the Vancouver city during 2002. There, as a mark of protest the poor and the homeless dotted the sidewalk with articles of daily use like furniture that are normally seen adorning the bedrooms and halls of homes. It seems that Hirak Raj or the reign of the king in 'Hirak Rajar Deshe' is replaced in reality here with the new liberal state and its various institutions so that they can discipline those who are acting against the progress of urban life. To showcase how his understanding is different from other scholars, Blomley at first reviews the existing literatures which treat sidewalk as a space for the people. In chapter 2 (Civic Humanism and Sidewalk), he mentions Jacobs (1961), for whom sidewalks are a 'matter of life and death' in the city (p.19). To Jan Gehl and William Whyte, sidewalk is a civic space which gives the opportunity to observe others and enjoy each other's company. Chapter 3 (Thinking like an engineer) shows how pedestrianism for the city engineers and judges is starkly different from the civic humanists. For them pedestrian flow and 'proper' positioning of things, so as not to disrupt that flow, is what ultimately matters.

Nowadays, in historical cities, many of the urban spaces due to the changes arising from modern urban development and the lack of attention to different spatial qualities have lost their identities and also the importance of their past resulting from the city’s history and its culture. In this study, the purpose is to restore the urban life and the identity, associated with the historical past of the Southern Lalezar street in Tehran; in this regard, by adopting the urban regeneration and vitality approaches, is tried to create a suitable human-oriented context in relation to missing background. According to the theoretical reviews and the empirical investigations, this paper tries to restore the value and meaning of the Southern Lalezar street and its public spaces, with emphasis on some appropriate principles, like pedestrian-orientation, internal and infill development, using brownfields and the injection of the artistic and cultural activities. Finally, by extracting some principles and different methods from the urban regeneration and vitality approaches and also analyzing the case study, have been attempted to revive the old but valuable urban structure and emphasize the redevelopment of historical identities of the Southern Lalezar street.

There are many architectural design parameters for public transport stations which include urban
and station level studies. Each station must be designed in accordance with the basic passenger
requirements such as accessibility, safety, comfort, satisfaction and etc. Circulation spaces must be
formed and sized to meet the minimum movement needs of passengers. For an underground
station; main entrance region, position of gates, location and number of turnstiles, escalators,
stairs, ramps, passageways, intermediate concourses and platforms must be arranged to minimize
walking distances and to prevent congestion. In this study, circulation of passengers is simulated
in a quantitatively verifiable manner, taking into account how individuals interact with each other
and with the physical obstacles in their environment in a metro station. Virtual experiments are
performed to see the continuity and density of pedestrian flow at different levels of Haram Area
East Metro Station of the first metro line of Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. According
to the predictions, more than 40.000 passengers are expected to use this station in one hour after a
Friday prayer during Ramadan period in the year of 2040. That means a critically high travel
demand and it is really significant to design the most convenient underground station for these
passengers to fulfil the necessary requirements.

Physical aspects of the urban built environment are known to have significant influence on the pedestrian experience. Walkability researchers have studied this relationship focusing on physical aspects of the urban built environment in various scales. Besides the larger and commonly accepted indicators such as density, diversity, destination accessibility and distance to transit, smaller scale attributes grouped under the design indicator have also been subject of study. This paper seeks to explore the effect of building façade colours on the walkability of urban streets, which have been considered to affect the perceived complexity of the streetscape and thus make it more interesting and attractive to pedestrians. Online surveys were utilized within our study to understand people’s attitudes to varying cases of façade colour combinations in the Lapa neighbourhood of Lisbon. The results of the study indicate that the diversity and perceived pleasantness of façade colours on an urban street has a very close association with walking preferences.

A pesar de que España es, por delante de cualquiera otro de la OCDE, el país de los peatones, no se suele valorar bien el potencial del desplazamiento a pie ni su papel en la regeneración urbana. Además, se conocen poco las medidas a tomar para favorecerlo, más allá de ciertos lugares comunes como las peatonalizaciones o el templado de tráfico. Por ello, la idea de una " red de itinerarios peatonales principales " que conecte toda la ciudad y ofrezca a los barrios la misma calidad de diseño urbano que la de los centros históricos, aparece como una de las de mayor potencial. La propuesta del Plan Director para la Recuperación de los 17 kilómetros de bulevares de Madrid (desde la calle María de Molina a la ronda de Atocha, pasando por la calle Príncipe de Vergara o la calle Sagasta) y su extensión al resto de la almendra central, a pesar de no haberse materializado todavía, ilustra bien esta herramienta de promoción peatonal y de transformación urbana. El presente artículo describe la propuesta del Plan, el método utilizado para elegir sus elementos priorizando las necesidades del peatón, su configuración y cualidades a partir de diversos tipos de calle (bulevares, avenidas, aceras anchas, calles peatonales, etc.), así como sus beneficios. Todo ello, a partir de la actualización y el desarrollo de la idea de Nuevo Bulevar: una calle verde de gran calidad ambiental, con un nuevo equilibrio en el reparto de su sección a favor de los modos no motorizados y en la que, ante todo, la calle deja de ser sólo vía y se vuelve lugar.

This position paper first examines the historical background of Session Road with inclined to its planning development from the beginning to present settings, and the extent of implementation of pedestrianizing the street with a response to historical identity and cultural value of its norms. In addition, this paper examines the issues and problems that had been accumulated within the century of establishment of the street system. These include the policy and decision-making of the “political-planners” in implementing the street system of Session Road with inclined to the urban core of the city. Furthermore, this paper will be guided by references, surveys, and review of related literature that maybe possibly contributed to pedestrianized the main street of Baguio.

This study attempts to explore the possible factors contributing to pedestrian injury severity in road accidents in Malaysia using binary logistic regression method. Data from 4,143 pedestrian-vehicle accidents, which were reported by police, during the period of 2006-2008, were obtained from the MIROS Road Accident Analysis and Database System (MROADS) and used in the analyses in this study. The results showed that gender, age, injury location, pedestrian action, day of accident, light condition, and striking vehicle type are significant risk factors influencing pedestrian injury severity.

This article proposes an open vision for the Brussels metropolitan city centre. It serves as a framework for a working method for developing design initiatives that are project-oriented and focus on testing, evaluating, adapting and implementing such a vision at different scales in the Brussels extended metropolitan centre. It summarizes the results of the international master class 'Zoom in | Zoom out-Brussels hypercentre: from pedestrian area to urban project' organized by the BSI-BCO and perspective.brussels in January and February 2018. The authors propose a detailed interpretation of the metropolitan centre as a hypercentre, based on an ongoing interdisciplinary research process within the BSI-BCO. They also present the working method research-by-design and the results of the project-based research conducted by the participants. This creates a more global vision for the metropolitan centre, based on three strategic guidelines: 1) expanding the perimeter with the circle-shaped metro-loop (line 2), the Brussels Canal Charleroi-Ant-werp and the central railway stations; 2) structuring the metropolitan centre around a network of public spaces that are beneficial for soft mobility and ecological system services; 3) developing support programs for a cosmopolitan urban culture. The chapter illustrates possible sustainable scenarios for the spatial and programmatic structuring of the future metropolitan centre, of which the pedestrian zone will be a part.

- by fabio vanin and +1
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- Mobility/Mobilities, Urban Planning, Pedestrian Walkability (Architecture and public spaces), Public Space

ABSTRAKT Celem pracy jest próba uzyskania odpowiedzi na pytanie jaki wpływ na przestrzeń publiczną mają nowoczesne technologie. Na potrzeby opracowania określono różnice między wynalazkiem i innowacją. Termin nowoczesności przyjęto wg uznania w kontekście momentu i miejsca wdrożenia. Na formę i kształt przestrzeni publicznej wpływa wiele interdyscyplinarnych czynników. W opracowaniu próbuje się wykazać na przykładach historycznych, że wynalazki i innowacje przynoszą zarówno pozytywne i negatywne efekty odczuwalne przez przyszłe pokolenia. Do pierwszych zalicza się głównie efekty zamierzone. Ich uzyskanie jest uzasadnieniem i celem dokonania danego wdrożenia. Ponadto istnieją nieprzewidziane skutki uboczne, które często przynoszą negatywny efekt – bywają one akceptowane społecznie lub wiążą się z kontrowersjami. W powyższym kontekście porusza się problem aktualnych i przyszłych wdrożeń nowoczesnych technologii, poddając pod wątpliwość panegiryczne wizje ich niezbędności. Na koniec opracowania podjęto próbę zestawienia planowanych efektów najnowszych technologii z ich potencjalnymi skutkami ubocznymi dla przestrzeni publicznej.

New experiments were taking place in Singapore from the early 1960s onwards, as pedagogies and practices of urban design were being circulated among global experts and multiple stakeholders. New attitudes towards modernisation and urban renewal were developed then. Post-war humanist ideals of ‘social’ Brutalist architecture and revisionist attitudes towards high modernism and the overdevelopment of automobile infrastructure coursed through Singapore’s Golden Mile Complex (GMC). This was a project that attempted to address the problems of increased density and economic imperatives in the urban realm. This article focuses on the GMC as a contested site and as a built megastructure, in an effort to chart a new relationship between architecture, urban design, and the missed opportunity to develop a pedestrianised city. Designed by William S.W. Lim and the Design Partnership (DP), the GMC was an experiment in pedestrianised urbanism that differed from what had emerged in the original centres of invention and intellectual discourse in Singapore. Partly coinciding with the GMC’s design conception and construction, the period between 1962 and 1973 raised warnings against the ‘bulldozer addicts’ of urban renewal. It also witnessed the socially levelling roles of shopping, alternative models of urban circulation, and the emergence of extra-large architectural forms. This was also a short period of democratic debate and experimentation with mixed-use typologies and strata-title private ownership in the increased commercialisation of the city, fuelled by Singapore’s ambition to become a global city. The need to attract global capital and private consumerist functions made polarising demands on the development around the GMC. Alongside its aggressive urban renewal, Singapore was also keen to gain social legitimacy through its public housing programmes. The circulation of globally relevant pedagogies in urban design and planning formed the backdrop to an incomplete conception and realisation of an avant-garde megastructure specific to an Asian discourse of urban densification.

- by H. Koon Wee
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- Architecture, Infrastructure Planning, Urban Planning, Architectural Education

Understanding the impact of Places is critically important to property developer and yet there is no industry standard to measure this impact. At the same
time, it is recognized that the more we understand
the impacts of placemaking and placekeeping
efforts, the more equipped we are to provide
better-quality places, in addition to creating
better communities, and improve the lives of tenants, visitors, staff and residents.

Recognizing the need for consistent, reliable, and efficient methods to collect information about the walking environment, the authors have developed and tested a complete environmental audit methodology—the Pedestrian Environmental Data Scan (PEDS). In this paper, the development of the audit methodology is presented, including the design of the instrument, the creation of training and supporting materials, administration, and integration with handheld technology. Various tests of inter- and intra-rater reliability of our instrument have been conducted, including individual audit measures and various approaches to administering the audit. The results indicate high reliability for most measures and confirmed administration procedures. The PEDS audit methodology provides a comprehensive method to evaluate pedestrian environments for academics involved with transportation and physical activity research as well as practitioners seeking to an assessment tool for prioritizing investments.

The paper explores Tati's use of new film media in 'Playtime' in ways that reveal more fundamental modes of social, mimetic and situational mediation as performed in the film by architects, and architect-like characters, and by the... more

- by Lisa Landrum
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- Urban Geography, Architecture, Film Studies, Film Theory

PERCORSI PUBBLICI NEL CORPO URBANO
Il libro presenta soluzioni integrate ai problemi dell’urbanizzazione
e della sedentarietà proponendo l’approccio della città attiva in
cui si intrecciano le esigenze urbane di vivibilità, estetica e funzionalità.
Gli spazi pubblici così progettati e realizzati facilitano il
movimento del corpo promuovendo stili di vita attivi.

Third lecture on the urban research of William Whyte and Jan Gehl.

- by David Seamon
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- Behavioral Geography, Environmental Psychology, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

As the Hong Kong SAR Government embarks on new large-scale development projects in the North-East New Territories and Hung Shui Kiu, the following paper explores the qualities and inherent obstacles in Hong Kong’s urban design and planning approach. The paper is based on the authors’ research on districts in Hong Kong, namely Sai Ying Pun and Tin Shui Wai. It proposes to learn from the merits of Hong Kong’s early districts: their integrated street networks, small blocks, mixed-use typology and active street frontages enhancing connectivity and generating a multitude of social and economic activities. These advantages contrast with the conditions of Hong Kong’s recent new towns, which stifle individual initiatives, restrict microeconomic opportunities, and limit the life experiences of their residents, usually the poorest part of the city’s population. As the paper argues, the understanding of the relationship between urban form and microeconomic opportunities is essential in creating a better quality of living and nurturing sustainable communities in Hong Kong.

Jalur pedestrian merupakan sebuah sarana untuk melakukan kegiatan, terutama untuk melakukan aktivitas di kawasan perdagangan dimana pejalan kaki memerlukan ruang yang cukup untuk dapat melihat-lihat, sebelum menentukan untuk memasuki salah satu pertokoan di kawasan perdagangan tersebut. Namun disadari pula bahwa moda ini memiliki keterbatasan juga, karena kurang dapat untuk melakukan perjalanan jarak jauh, peka terhadap gangguan alam, serta hambatan yang diakibatkan oleh lalu lintas kendaraan.

- by Manuel Joao Ramos
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- Mobility/Mobilities, Anthropology of Mobility, Risk, Road Traffic Crashes

Observations conducted by researchers revealed that the group interaction within crowds is a common phenomenon and has great influence on pedestrian behaviour. However, most research currently undertaken by various researchers failed to consider the group dynamics when developing pedestrian flow models. This paper presented a critical review of pedestrian models that incorporates group behaviour. Models reviewed in this paper are mainly created by microscopic modelling approaches such as social force, cellular automata, and agent-based method. The purpose of this literature review is to improve the understanding of group dynamics among pedestrians and highlight the need for considering group dynamics when developing pedestrian simulation models.

The heavy dependency on private cars has shaped the design of cities. While offering fast, comfortable, and convenient commutes, cars have become the most popular method of transportation, but are also a health crisis due to the toxic emissions they release into the atmosphere as well as the high death toll from traffic accidents. For these reasons, there is a need to minimize the use of cars within cities in favor of greener and humanized urban design that would improve the quality of life and reduce the global threat of climate change. Humanizing Cities Through Car-Free City Development and Transformation is an essential publication that explores the concepts of car-free cities and city humanization as possible solutions to reduce the deteriorating effect on the environment and the community. The publication discusses the urban initiative to implement pedestrianization and humanization of cities and public spaces to promote the concept of car-free living. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including city humanization, smart mobility, and urban policies, this book is ideally designed for urban planners, environmentalists, government officials, policymakers, architects, transportation authorities, researchers, academicians, and students.

- by alshimaa aboelmakarem and +1
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- Sustainable Transportation, Transportation Studies, Public Transport, Sustainable Development

Promenade, se promener, déambuler, errer, se déplacer, se balader, circuler, flâner, marcher ; autant de mots que l’on utilise à loisir comme synonymes, mais qui, à y regarder de plus près, rendent compte de réalités et de déterminants... more

- by Laurent Turcot
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- European History, Cultural History, Early Modern History, Jurgen Habermas

«Методические рекомендации по разработке и реализации мероприятий по организации дорожного движения. Развитие пешеходных пространств поселений, городских округов в Российской Федерации» направлены на комплексное развитие безопасных и... more

Este trabalho pretende apresentar a pesquisa de caminhabilidade desenvolvida na área central da cidade de Criciúma/SC e surgiu da necessidade do poder público municipal apresentar soluções de acessibilidade para as calçadas da cidade. Avaliou-se 402 calçadas em relação ao seu índice de caminhabilidade (IC) três aspectos primordiais: avaliação técnica, preferência dos pedestres e comportamento e, pôde-se ainda, desenvolver um índice de prioridades (IP) de
investimentos para melhorias das condições dos passeios, através do IC e da quantidade de fluxo de pedestres existente em cada passeio. O comportamento foi estimado utilizado um modelo do fluxo de pedestres, que se baseia nas variáveis morfológicas e da qualidade do passeio e foram processados com redes neurais artificiais. O resultado da pesquisa teve como escopo embasar as decisões de acessibilidade tomadas pelo poder público em relação à melhoria da infra-estrutura viária da cidade.

In Dubai, the absurd dependence on air-conditioning in buildings and vehicles has led to sedentary lifestyles and a poor public realm in many outdoor spaces. The microclimatic conditions that have been impaired by the morphology of the built environment, reduced pedestrian comfort between buildings. Urban spaces depreciate for many months due to lack of pedestrians. The present thesis aimed to encourage what it calls walkability – the ability of a place to welcome people to walk– for longer periods every year. It focused on improving pedestrians’ overall thermal comfort and extending the distances that they could travel along their daily utilitarian journeys.
Three main methods of fieldwork were applied to investigate the physical urban environment in two districts, namely Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) and The Greens. First, interviews were conducted with random passers-by along their everyday routes to the mosque, metro, office and school. These were conducted at different periods of the year and times of the day and were meant to identify the thermal comfort limits at such periods. Second, subjective assessments, consisting of thermal sensations and thermal comfort votes, were collected from six subjects over several days in the form of short walks at different times of the year. These helped to assess the influence of the successive changes endured on the thermal sensations and overall comfort. Third, data loggers were installed in four different spaces over a period of one year to identify the influence of urban morphology on the microclimatic parameters (air and globe temperatures and relative humidity). Finally, ENVI-met microclimatic simulations were run to analyse the urban district JLT and identify the hot spots likely to inhibit comfort.
The findings of the fieldwork and simulation studies revealed the prospect for extending the distances that pedestrians tolerate walking outdoors, through improving their thermal sensation and comfort at certain areas along the journey described as the recovery conditions. The thesis proposes that allocating adequate shade and wind at frequent areas along the journey provides a psychological satisfaction and physical heat stress relief, which improves the overall comfort and encourages walkability. Proposed scenarios for such areas were modeled and tested using ENVI-met to show the improvements of the microclimate and comfort conditions that can be achieved at different times of the day and year.

Whether on foot, bike, bus, or train, women are often targets of street harassment such as catcalls, unwanted touching, or leering. When women are forced to navigate harassment in the city, it limits their ability to access public spaces... more

- by Nina M. Flores
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- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Qualitative methodology, Social Media
- by Ozzie Zehner
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- Urban Geography, Architecture, Renewable Energy, Conservation

This work follows a long line of studies and empirical investigations in Space Syntax research, that, in general, try to conceptualise, describe and quantify the relation between physical space and human agency. How many people share public space is known to affect many socioeconomic processes in cities, such as segregation, vitality and local commercial markets. Observing and measuring pedestrian movement through surveys, as well as statistically analysing it have been at the core of diverse investigations not least in the field of Space Syntax, not only a means to validate and measure the dependence of pedestrian movement on spatial configuration, but also as a means to forecast and predict pedestrian flows. However, these studies do not necessarily provide us with comparable, let alone generalisable findings that can lead to generalisable propositions. They remain in most cases specific investigations of particular cities, neighbourhoods or types of areas (e.g. city centres). Another issue, as will be elaborated in this paper, is that the typical statistical methods used, such as multivariate regression models, are not always the optimal or even suitable for modelling pedestrian movement, typically measured in pedestrian counts. This paper aims therefore, to directly address three methodological challenges: first, construction of comparable GIS-models; second, gathering large scale pedestrian data; third, applying advanced statistical modelling suitable for pedestrian data. The ultimate goal is to estimate the impact of spatial form on urban life in a way that is methodologically sound and can provide robust results that can be generalisable, and allows us to speak of the relation between spatial form and pedestrian movement in a way that is not specific to a certain area, or types of areas or streets, or even to a specific city. The results show, first, high and consistent correlations between spatial form and pedestrian movement in a study of unprecedented size that comprises three cities, including a large range of neighbourhoods of varying morphological types, from villa areas to urban cores, and offer convincing proof that the tested morphological variables have a strong impact on the spatial distribution of pedestrian flows in cities. Second, the study shows that the model with all explanatory variables has the highest explanatory power and the best model fit where Angular integration and Accessible FSI are the explanatory variables with the largest effect on pedestrian movement, but others are significantly contributing to the predictive power of the model. Third, the study contributes to the advancement of the statistical modelling that is suitable for the specificities of the data used, proposing the use of a negative Binomial model instead of regression models, most common in the field.

- by Gianna Stavroulaki and +1
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- Spatial Analysis, Space Syntax, Urban Planning, Statistical Analysis

The intention of this report is to provide policymakers with a general framework for approaching walkability, starting with a purely technical perspective and advancing towards a human-centred intersectional approach. The report also reviews the most common tools to measure different dimensions of walkability and explore the general findings of the existing literature. After reviewing this document, readers will know how to measure walkability and the limitations of their chosen methodology.