Speaker
Description
The ongoing debate on urban walkability features three primary perspectives (Forsyth, 2015). The first approach focuses on critical conditions of pedestrian environments, including accessibility and connectivity (Alfonzo, 2005; Moudon et al., 2006; Ewing & Cervero, 2010), traversability (Dovey & Pafka, 2020), compactness, safety (Buehler & Pucher, 2017; Lo, 2009) and inviting environment (Southworth, 2005; Moudon et al., 2006). The second group of research focuses on walkability goals, which are health, liveable and social environment or resilience. The third approach, particularly relevant to urban design purposes, aims to define proxies for normative design applications. The characteristics and scale of the environment, along with the research objectives and analytical methods, determine the specific features that researchers choose. Various contextual factors make establishing a universal standard for design attributes that facilitate walkability impossible. The actual collection of features enabling walking depends on the type of environment. The characteristic sets usually differ for central city areas, surrounding residential multifamily estates, and peri-urban areas.
In the current study, we aim to compare the discrepant conditions to define sets of features specific to the three types of urban contexts. To do this, we conduct in-depth analyses of walkability in three neighbourhoods in Łódź, Poland: central mix-use urban location, peripheral multifamily residential and peri-urban historical village.
References
Alfonzo, M. A. (2005). To Walk or Not to Walk? The Hierarchy of Walking Needs. Environment and Behavior, 37(6), 808–836. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916504274016
Buehler, R. and Pucher, J. (2017). Trends in Walking and Cycling Safety: Recent Evidence From High-Income Countries, With a Focus on the United States and Germany. American Journal of Public Health, 107(2), 281–287. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303546
Dovey, K. and Pafka, E. (2020). What is walkability? The urban DMA. Urban Studies, 57(1), 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018819727
Ewing, R. and Cervero, R. (2010). Travel and the built environment. Journal of the American Planning Association, 76(3), 265–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944361003766766
Forsyth, A. (2015). What is a walkable place? The walkability debate in urban design. Urban Design International, 20(4), 274–292. https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2015.22
Lo, R. H. (2009). Walkability: what is it? Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2(2), 145–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549170903092867
Moudon, A. V., Lee, C., Cheadle, A. D., Garvin, C., Johnson, D., Schmid, T. L., Weathers, R. D. and Lin, L. (2006). Operational Definitions of Walkable Neighborhood: Theoretical and Empirical Insights. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 3(s1), S99–S117. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.3.s1.s99
Southworth, M. (2005). Designing the Walkable City. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 131(4), 246–257. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9488(2005)131:4(246)
| Keywords | walkability, public space, urban design |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
