Speaker
Description
The object of this present study is to reveal the spatial configuration of 55 Norwegian towns and cities related to degree of walkability potentials. The aim is to investigate to what extent the street or road profile affect the walkability potentials in the town centres based on the distribution of roads in comparison of streets based on street names. The reason as to why we focus on the town centres, is that they tend to have the largest walkability potentials. For this, we used the last part of the street or road names to identifying whether it is a balanced street or a road encouraging car use. Likewise, we counted the number of X and T junctions in the town centre. Correlations between T and X junctions were made, and correlations between road and streets were made for the town centre of all 55 Norwegian towns and cities.
The results show that the higher number of X-junctions in correlation with T-junctions, the shorter urban blocks, implying higher degree of walkability potentials in the town centres. Likewise, the higher numbers of streets in correlation with roads in a town centre, the higher degree of facilitation of pedestrian friendly pathways. Three different clusters are identified in the statistical analyses, in which comply with the reputations the various town and city centres have regards walking attractiveness or private car dependency. The higher number of X-junctions in correlation with T-junctions, the more integrated the town centre is on a local as well as global scale. Likewise, the higher number of streets in correlation with roads, the more integrated the town centre is. Finally, the more the town or city centres have an orthogonal grid structure consisting of streets, the higher integration and thus higher walkability potentials.
The method is a first step to have some operational tools to measure degrees of walkability potentials in town and city centres.
References
Ewing R, and Cervero, R (2010) ‘Travel and the Built Environment: A Meta-Analysis.’ Journal of the American Planning Association, 76, 265-294.
Hillier. B, Penn. A, Hanson. J, Grajewski. T, Xu. J. (1993) ‘Natural movement: or, Configuration and attraction in urban pedestrian movement,’ Environment and Planning B: Planning and design, 20, 29- 66.
Koning. R.E., Tan, W.G.Z., and van Nes, A. (2020) ‘Assessing Spatial Configurations and Transport Energy Usage for Planning Sustainable Communities,’ Sustainability, 12, 8146.
Van Nes, A., (2019) ‘Applied mathematics on urban space,’ In: D’Acci L. (ed) Mathematics of urban morphology, Springer Nature, Birkhäuser Basel.
Van Nes, A., and Lopez, M., (2010) ‘Macro and micro scale spatial variables and the distribution of residential burglaries and theft from cars: an investigation of space and crime in the Dutch cities of Alkmaar and Gouda,’ Journal of Space Syntax, 2.
Shi, Z. and Van Nes, A. (2009) ‘Network typology by junction and topological property and the application on urban design – Singapore as case,’ in: Koch, D., Markus, L. and Steen, J (eds.), 2007, Proceedings Space Syntax. 7th International Symposium, KTH, Stockholm.
| Keywords | Walkability; Junction type; path type; urban centres; space syntax |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
