Speaker
Description
Livable cities, responding the needs of their citizens, should encourage social interaction, and consider environmental sustainability. In this context, walkability plays a critical role in the design of livable cities. While walkability refers to the physical, social and environmental features that enable pedestrian mobility and increase accessibility in cities, urban design includes spatial organization and planning processes to ensure walkability. Many studies on walkability divide the basic parameters affecting walkability into two as the physical characteristics of the urban space (1) and the way it is perceived by individuals (2) (Alfonzo, 2005; Ewing and R., Handy, 2009). Then the literature address the spatial characteristics of urban design, while investigating the individuals' perceptions and walking behavior (Ewing and Handy (2009). In the literature, studies measuring, mapping or correlating walkability generally use the survey method to measure user perception and the index method to measure spatial characteristics (Fan et al., 2018; Ruiz-Padillo et al., 2018).
In Turkey, pedestrian mobility, in literature has mostly been addressed from the perspective of public space and accessibility (Ercan and Belge, 2017). Analyses of pedestrian GPS data and index values for various walkability criteria in literature focus on the examination of pedestrian mobility and spatial characteristics in Istanbul's urban macroform. Next to studies on perception and the physical characteristics of urban space, there are limited studies comparing these studies on the basis of index values based on certain standards. This study aims to quantitatively reveal pedestrian movements in urban open spaces through the physical characteristics of the urban space. The primary research question of this study is: How do the urban and spatial characteristics of open spaces shape pedestrian mobility? This question will be explored in the context of Cendere Valley, Kağıthane, where a walking path and open space arrangement have been implemented in an urban park scale. In this study, a holistic methodological approach is adopted to combine spatial and behavioral dimensions and to analyze the level of walkability, along the Kagithane stream axis of Istanbul as the study area. Since there are different urban uses and transportation connections that affect the level of walkability in this axis, we basically examined the case area in three sub-zones to distinguish both spatial features and walkability measures.
The data to be used in the study were obtained from pedestrian counts in the site observations and published metrics, officially published by local authorities. The variables related to the spatial characteristics of the urban open space based on the quantitative metrics are obtained from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s open geodata portal. As fundamental findings of the study, spatial analysis is an important tool for understanding the effects of the spatial characteristics of urban open spaces on pedestrian mobility. The pedestrian density data obtained allowed the analysis of the behavior of individuals at different time periods and revealed how these behaviors are associated with spatial characteristics. By addressing the interactions between urban form and pedestrian mobility in a holistic manner, this study makes important contributions to the development of strategies to increase walkability in urban design processes.
References
• Alfonzo, M.A. (2005) ‘To walk or not to walk? The hierarchy of walking needs’, Environment and Behavior, 37(6), pp. 808-836.
• Ercan, M. A., & Belge, Z. S. (2017). A Micro-Scale Assessment Model of Walkability for More Liveable Cities. METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 34(1), 231-266.
• Ewing, R. and Handy, S. (2009) ‘Measuring the unmeasurable: Urban design qualities related to walkability’, Journal of Urban Design, 14(1), pp. 65-84.
• Fan, P., Wan, G., Xu, L., Park, H., Xie, Y., Liu, Y., Yue, W. and Chen, J. (2018) ‘Walkability in urban landscapes: A comparative study of four large cities in China’, Landscape Ecology, 33(2), pp. 323-340.
• Ruiz-Padillo, A., Pasqual, F.M., Uriarte, A.M. and Cybis, H. (2018) ‘Application of multi-criteria decision analysis methods for assessing walkability: A case study in Porto Alegre, Brazil’, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 63, p. 63.
| Keywords | Walkability, Pedestrian Mobility, Urban Open Spaces, Walking path, İstanbul |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
