The Pleasure of Walking: An Innovative Methodology to Assess Appropriate Walkable Performance in Urban Areas to Support Transport Planning

Mapping the Transformation Potential of Streets Using Urban Planning Parameters and Open Spatial Datasets

Streets with an increasingly important place function play a significant role in the contemporary discourse on sustainable cities. The paper addresses urban streets that, observed from the urban planning perspective, have the potential to be transformed into either commercial or residential shared streets. After defining urban planning parameters identified as characteristic of shared streets, streets were quantified based on an analysis of the existing shared streets in Central Europe. By setting up distinctive scenarios that could help to detect specific types of streets, open spatial datasets were used for the mapping and identification of streets that could be transformed into shared streets. The methodology was tested on the example of the city of Maribor in Slovenia. The results of the research show that the selected urban planning parameters can help to identify streets with transformation potential, whereas the basic parameters, such as the building use and the length and width of the street, help us to better understand the urban fabric in which street spaces acquire new functions. The presented mapping method could serve as a testing tool for experts, planners, decision-makers, and the interested public to identify potential street transformations.

Selected Aspects of Sustainable Mobility Reveals Implementable Approaches and Conceivable Actions

The transportation sector plays a prominent role in driving the economy of any given nation. However, with the recent tensions arising in and around the transportation sector, sustainable mobility concepts have evolved. However, it is quite unclear whether sustainable mobility is feasible and exhibits economic returns, environmental benefits, and societal advantages. Hence, taking into account the environmental, economic, and social impact, and technical possibilities, this study intends to analyse sustainable mobility in relation to economic returns, environmental benefits and societal advantages using bibliometric analysis. For this study, we considered two decades of research, from 2001 to 2021. An in-depth search was performed on articles generated in the last two decades to assess the state of the literature on sustainable mobility. The most reverent, frequently referenced papers and influential journals in the field of sustainable mobility were identified. The acquired findings highlight the most prominent publications, journals, and authors who have made significant contributions to sustainable mobility studies, as well as the sub-areas or themes linked to sustainable mobility. Overall, the analysis discovered current paradigms, significant research topics, and a relationship between the domains of sustainable mobility studies. Meanwhile, this study also demonstrates advancements in the primary themes and sub-areas during the previous 20 years and alterations in future research fields. In addition, this study identified the promotion of rapid-reliable-safe-convenient (RRSC) transportation services, reduction in urban car traffic, and support to low transportation demand as the critical steps that require immediate attention in order to build a sustainable mobility future. We also observed that hydrogen would be a promising fuel and potential technology for the future mobility sector in the post-COVID era.

An Integrative Review of Socio-Technical Factors Influencing Travel Decision-Making and Urban Transport Performance

Socio-technical systems have a very complex structure presenting multidimensional co-evolutionary dynamics between people and technical factors. Each urban area has a different sociocultural structure, where the built environment and user choices vary. Understanding how urban transportation is shaped by socio-technical factors as well as how these factors affect transportation users and system performance is important to support sustainable transportation planning. This paper aims to provide a holistic view of socio-technical factors shaping urban transportation for the use of transport planners and decision-makers. The current review focuses on understanding which alternative transport modes can be sustainable under specific socio-technical conditions and how to attract travelers toward these sustainable modes. Moreover, under which socio-technical conditions an urban transport system can minimize its socio-economic costs and environmental impacts are investigated. Furthermore, the interrelations among system dynamics, their influence on transport users as well as on system externalities are identified and integrated as a system model perspective for a holistic view.

Active Aging Governance and Challenges at the Local Level

International and national guidelines have been promoting active aging while creating the necessary means for decision-makers and other relevant actors to work together (governance mechanisms) to implement local and active aging policies. This is especially important in the present COVID-19 pandemic context, posing greater challenges on older people who tend to be self-isolated. How are local actors conceptualizing active aging? What are their priorities related to a healthy life for older people? Which governance mechanisms are used to implement such policies? These are some of the questions addressed in this paper, targeting Portugal, a southern European country. A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design combining a survey conducted at a national level and interviews with key actors in the NUTS III Aveiro Region was employed to identify and understand the underpinning governance mechanisms. Findings confirm the ‘passive organization type’ in which European politico-territorial studies tend to place Portugal, as there are gaps in the way policies are formulated, implemented and evaluated, as well as a lack of coordination. Results of this study have important impacts on the way local governments and other stakeholders will prepare themselves in the post-pandemic period to design and implement policies addressing active aging.

Walkability Perception in Asian Cities: A Comparative Study in Bangkok and Nagoya

Asian cities are unique, where people may need more than just walking; however, the walkability research in a local context has received less attention. This paper analyses the walking needs and the influential factors of walking behavior in Asian cities. A comparative analysis in Bangkok and Nagoya is presented, taking into account the characteristics of local street design and development. Street evaluation experiments of various streets are conducted through 360-degree videos. The factor analyses indicate that the walking needs in both cities can be considered in two levels, but the components of the needs are different. Being smooth and having no obstacles are common basic needs. Safety and security are regarded as basic needs in Nagoya, but as higher-level needs in Bangkok. Attractiveness of activity and walk pleasure are the common upper-level needs. Street elements such as width, green, traffic, parking, pollution exposure, and activity are found to be influential on the walking needs. The structural equation models indicate that higher-level needs have more of an influence than the lower-level needs for walking behavior in Bangkok and for shop walking in Nagoya, while the basic need has more influence on walking willingness for transit access. These findings call for practical attention for street design and development where local context and street functions must be carefully considered.

Reliability of T-WSI to Evaluate Neighborhoods Walkability and Its Changes over Time

More walkable neighborhoods are linked to increased physical activity. The Walking Suitability Index of the territory (T-WSI) is an easy method to evaluate walkability on the basis of direct observation. T-WSI provides 12 indicators divided into 4 categories (practicability, safety, urbanity, pleasantness); the weighted analysis of these indicators gives an overall score of the actual usability of the neighborhood. The aim of the study is to evaluate the ability of T-WSI’ indicators to measure, in a reliable way, any street’s walkability variations occurred over time. The investigation was performed in 2018 in nine urban neighborhoods of Rieti city. Cronbach’s α is used to evaluate internal consistency of T-WSI; Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) is used to evaluate the reproducibility of measurements (or ratings) made by different investigators. Cronbach’s α is 0.89 (± 0.02); ICC is also good (ICC = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.84–0.92). The results of the 2018 investigation are also compared with those collected in 2016 in the same districts. The results show that T-WSI is a reliable and easy to use tool, useful to measure the effectiveness of the interventions already realized at local level, but it could also contribute to making decisions to develop regeneration projects.

Walkable Urban Environments: An Ergonomic Approach of Evaluation

Background. The salutogenicity of urban environments is significantly affected by their ergonomics, i.e., by the quality of the interactions between citizens and the elements of the built environment. Measuring and modelling urban ergonomics is thus a key issue to provide urban policy makers with planning solutions to increase the well-being, usability and safety of the urban environment. However, this is a difficult task due to the complexity of the interrelations between the urban environment and human activities. The paper contributes to the definition of a generalized model of urban ergonomics and salutogenicity, focusing on walkability, by discussing the relevant parameters from the large and variegated sets proposed in the literature, by discussing the emerging model structure from a data mining process, by considering the background of the relevant functional dependency already established in the literature, and by providing evidence of the solutions’ effectiveness. The methodology is developed for a case study in central Italy, with a focus on the mobility issue, which is a catalyst to generate more salutogenic and sustainable behaviors.

Sustainable Mobility: A Review of Possible Actions and Policies

In this paper, a review of the main actions and policies that can be implemented to promote sustainable mobility is proposed. The work aims to provide a broad, albeit necessarily not exhaustive, analysis of the main studies and research that from different points of view have focused on sustainable mobility. The structure of the paper enables the reader to easily identify the topics covered and the studies related to them, so as to guide him/her to the related in-depth studies. In the first part of the paper, there is a preliminary analysis of the concept of sustainable mobility, the main transport policies implemented by the European Union and the USA, and the main statistical data useful to analyze the problem. Next, the main policies that can promote sustainable mobility are examined, classifying them into three topics: Environmental, socio-economic, and technological. Many of the policies and actions examined could be classified into more than one of the three categories used; for each of them, there is a description and the main literature work on which the topic can be analyzed in more detail. The paper concludes with a discussion on the results obtained and the prospects for research.

Walkability Index for Elderly Health: A Proposal

Nowadays, the elderly tend to make more trips: Health benefits resulting from their daily walking routines are an important topic in the context of urban renewal processes. Many health organizations and researchers have demonstrated the influence of the urban environment on walkability levels. This article aims to design a multifactor Walkability Index for Elderly Health (WIEH), capable of associating both the adequacy level of public spaces to elderly walkability, and physical exercise benefits while walking. The methodological approach comprised two main parts: Firstly, a literature review of main reports, legislation, and scientific articles was conducted at the intersection of ‘gerontology and physical exercise’ with ‘urban design and mobility’, leading to the selection of four aging-related studies as main contributors to the design of the WIEH; and, secondly, the development of the WIEH was undertaken, based on two premises and designed according to four steps. The first premise defined three systematic areas (urban tissue, urban scene, and safety), variables, and criteria to classify the pedestrian network; and the second premise focused on slopes and stairs in public spaces. The WIEH is divided in four steps: (1) Analyzing public spaces and characterizing their quality for walking, (2) considering the existence of slopes and stairs, (3) calculating different routes for the elderly in their daily routines, or when going to points of interest, and (4) selecting the “heart-friendly route” for elderly people. Adequate walking paths for the elderly can be identified through this innovative approach, with the aim of achieving direct health benefits during their daily routines. Ultimately, the WIEH is capable of supporting decision makers and designers in creating inclusive and age-friendly spaces.