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For promoting pedestrian mobility, the quality levels of pedestrian paths should be increased. Many researchers suggest methodologies for determining the pedestrian level of service. Among these, some studies consider both paths’ physical characteristics and users’ perception about the walkways. Investigating users’ perceptions represents a good strategy for implementing interventions aimed at increasing the quality of service. The aim is recording pedestrians’ perceptions about the characteristics of the path and detecting the choices they would make in a hypothetical scenario. This work proposes the design of a Stated Preferences survey and the analysis of the preliminary results. A questionnaire was sent out to a sample of 240 pedestrians, prevalently students, about a walkway located in the University Campus of Rende (Italy). The collected data were analyzed by means of a discrete choice model for assessing the importance assigned by pedestrians to each aspect included in the analysis. The results showed that the environment can be considered as the most important aspect for young pedestrians, while the width of the path is not significant. The outcomes also highlighted the aspects it is necessary to change in order to make pedestrian paths increasingly attractive and to encourage users towards active mobility.

The work is focused on the integration of space syntax analysis (SSA) in a process of participatory planning focused on a neighbourhood scale where the challenge of promoting pedestrian-friendly regeneration process is a bottom-up priority. The promotion of active mobility is one of the main themes of the urban regeneration project CAST operating on the western part of the city of Potenza (capital of the Basilicata region, Italy). Both the state of the art of the case study area and the potential effects of the intervention proposed on the basis of the participatory process have been assessed by SSA as a walkability assessment method. By measuring a street network’s syntactic parameters, it was possible to further enrich the cognitive framework relating to the current situation and to simultaneously evaluate the effects (in terms of potential movement and social usage) deriving from design interventions. The paper presents a methodology to evaluate the urban pedestrian environment and to provide an insight for walking-related intervention and improvements in neighbourhood-scale planning, according to a participatory approach. The research, based on specific local characteristics, represents a transferable approach to supporting and informing policy-makers and designers engaged in inclusive and participative urban regeneration projects.

This study investigated the relationship between the degree of satisfaction with the pedestrian environments in their neighborhoods and the degree of neighborhood satisfaction in Seoul, South Korea. This study employed proportional odds logistic regression and gradient boosting decision tree models, using the 2021 Seoul Urban Policy Indicator Survey. The key findings are as follows. First, there was a significant and positive relationship between the two factors. Second, respondents’ satisfaction levels with pedestrian environments showed higher feature importance than other factors. Third, the partial dependence plots show non-linear relationships; specifically, when respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with pedestrian environments, the partial dependence on the dependent variable increased significantly. This study contributes to (1) finding the association between the two factors, (2) offering insights into how to improve residents’ satisfaction with their neighborhood through pedestrian environment satisfaction, and (3) unfolding what active mobility means to people.

New strategies to improve the quality of urban pedestrian environments are becoming increasingly important in sustainable city planning. This trend has been driven by the advantages that active mobility provides in terms of health, social, and environmental aspects. Our work explores the idea of walkability. This concept refers to the friendliness of the urban environment to pedestrian traffic. We propose a framework based on the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology to rank streets in terms of walkability levels. The city of Lisbon (Portugal) is the location of the streets under examination. Findings confirmed the framework’s replicability and suggested the possibility of this strategy being used as a support tool for designing urban policies.

Negative impacts of motor vehicle traffic in cities are still increasing despite the objectives that sustainable mobility paradigm put forward almost three decades ago. Measures to reduce them still primarily focus on traffic safety improvements through vehicle speeds and flows reduction (traffic calming). Comprehensive traffic calming, a measure of sustainable urban mobility planning, targets the issue more comprehensively by also addressing changes in travel behaviour and quality of life. Literature covering the effects of measures addressing all listed aspects is scarce. In this paper, we present results of a longitudinal study of a comprehensive traffic calming redesign of a residential neighbourhood in Ljutomer in Slovenia. The following set of indicators was monitored: travel habits of neighbourhood residents, quality of living environment, acceptability of redesign, vehicle flows, speeds and classes, and traffic accidents. Motorized traffic counts, pilot interviews, postal and in-person surveys and public databases on traffic accidents were used to gather data before and after the redesign. All monitored indicators showed positive results. Around a third of residents claim to walk, cycle and socialize more than before the redesign while around two thirds state that the quality of life in the neighbourhood has improved. Vehicle speeds, flows and peak hour flows have notably decreased, and road safety has improved. The results show that the comprehensive traffic calming approach has a broad range of positive effects and contributes to achieving sustainable mobility. Its potential for a wider use in sustainable urban mobility planning practice is substantial.

Greenways (GWs) can play a key role in the context of policies and strategies for sustainable territorial development because they contribute to the development of integrated plans and interventions for environmental safeguarding and socio-economic growth. As is generally understood, in their modern conception, GWs are not only develop soft mobility, but they also represent supporting elements of a new concept of development and use of territory, attentive to its particular characteristics and the needs of resident populations. Beginning with a critical analysis of the most significant case studies of greenways, the authors propose a system of design and evaluation guidelines useful in identifying specific GW-related actions. The identified actions are divided into two categories, which are tangible and intangible actions. The first category corresponds with concrete actions that are directly implemented through different design and construction phases, the second category corresponds with processes activated in the design phase and are concretized after the “commissioning” of the path and has repercussions on the sphere of place identity. These categories are often difficult to distinguish between because many actions can be considered to be both tangible and intangible.

Finland, a prosperous Nordic country with a population of 5.5 million and significant distances between towns, though quite short distances traveled by car, is aiming to be a carbon-neutral society by 2035. Due to the level of urgency, a technological pathway with decarbonization of fuels and innovation only, is unlikely to be sufficient. Instead, a more systemic change based on a transformative pathway with demand-side management, i.e., measures based on behavioral change, is vital. In this research we were interested in learning how life satisfaction relates to the behavioral intentions of Finnish citizens, regarding a sustainable modal shift. We focused on walking, cycling, public transport and reduction in car use, e.g., a transition from fossil fuels to active mobility, from ownership to usership. Data were collected via a questionnaire in April 2017. The respondents (n = 2052) provided 2335 comments as to why they considered a specific sustainable modality as being important to them. We applied both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to establish how the mobility behavior of citizens manifests nationwide and the types of arguments that citizens put forward concerning their mobility intentions. The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between the respondents&rsquo, reduced use of private cars and their life satisfaction. There is a concern about sustainability and a willingness to change current mobility practices, as well as signs of altruism, while hedonic concerns such as health and personal finances dominate the responses. Furthermore, concerns about social injustice, such as a lack of public transport, are emerging themes, i.e., when enacting mobility transitions it is vital to focus on how to enable a meaningful life for all demographic groups using suitable mobility services.

Previous research has concentrated on traffic and health-related effects in relation to arrival patterns (e.g., stress in connection with means of transport, travel distance, and time). However, tourist mobility behavior during a vacation and potential health-related associations as well as its correlation with physical activity habits and mobility patterns at home seems to have barely been examined. To address this research gap, the study at hand applied a mixed-method approach in three tourism destinations in Tyrol, Austria. The study examined tourists&rsquo, mobility as well as their physical activity at home and at the holiday destination. Results show that the preferred transport mode (arrival and on-site) is the private car, due to its flexibility and comfort. Hotel front desks, as the main information source, determine tourists&rsquo, behavioral aspects during a vacation. General mobility routines show differences between everyday life and holiday situations, and physical activity is important for the overall satisfaction of tourists, which proves to be more intense and frequent during a vacation than in everyday life. Seven percent of the tourists participating in the research stated that they had changed their daily mobility behavior after their return, with most of them walking or cycling more often. This study contributes to research in the field of sustainable tourist mobility and physical activity behavior and highlights the necessity for further specific analyses.

COVID-19 has forced city governments to reconsider the relationship between mobility, urban space and health in order to ensure physical distancing while meeting the travel needs of inhabitants. Therefore, cities around the world are already involved in the transformation of mobility through new models of sustainable transport. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on mobility during the COVID outbreak are mostly directed at creating more spaces for cyclists and pedestrians, especially in densely populated urban areas, thus avoiding the overloading of public transport and the use of private cars. Through the analysis of the programs set up by the 10 main Italian metropolitan cities, chosen as a case study, this research evaluates the response implemented by local governments in order to transform urban environments in one of the world&rsquo, s most pandemic-affected countries in detail. Starting from the current mobility model, this paper focuses on local government policies concerning post-COVID sustainable mobility to understand policies, approaches and measures in depth, as well as the effectiveness of the ongoing actions in shaping future urban mobility. From the research, an almost homogeneous awareness among policy makers and planners emerges concerning the need to rethink urban spaces and mobility, to make up for lost time and to start a green revolution that is aimed at quickly decarbonizing urban transport and enhancing cycling and walking through the city.

This paper aims to discover why and how accessibility is fundamental to sustainable local development in heritage settings. We discussed the dimensions and variables of accessibility that control the development. Correspondingly, we proposed an interpretative framework for sustainable development planning and management of low urbanized spatial settings and accessibility for the Iglesiente Geo-mining heritage in Sardinia (Italy). The Iglesiente area is affected by a deep post-mining crisis that is reflected in poor socioeconomic conditions and an evident space oriented set of problems (a disorder in landscape matrix, low readability of space, scarce infrastructure and low accessibility). To revert negative trends of space-related problems, the paper proposes a theoretical model acting as an anticipatory landscape planning tool. The model copes with the context-specific problems in combination with theoretical findings. It acts at various scales through the definition of boundaries and variables of the internal and external environment, providing the territorial matrix of equity and cohesion. Furthermore, we argued the limitation and advantages of the model to its implementation capacity for the Geo-mining heritage and low-urbanized spatial settings. The empirical findings from an ongoing project about accessibility to territorial knowledge and services in the Iglesiente area, currently in progress, allow us to test and adjust the methodological framework in the next steps.

Autonomous vehicles promise to revolutionize the automobile market, although their implementation could take several decades in which both types of cars will coexist on the streets. We formulate a model for a circular city based on continuous approximations, considering demand surfaces over the city. Numerical results from our model predict direct and indirect effects of connected and autonomous vehicles. Direct effects will be positive for our cities: (a) less street supply is needed to accommodate the traffic, (b) congestion levels decrease: travel costs may decrease by 30%. Some indirect effects will counterbalance these positive effects: (c) a decrease of 20% in the value of travel time can reduce the total cost by a third, (d) induced demand could be as high as 50%, bringing equivalent total costs in the future scenario, (e) the vehicle-kilometers traveled could also affect the future scenario, and (f) increases in city size and urban sprawl. As a conclusion, the implementation of autonomous vehicles could be neutral for the cities regarding travel time costs. City planning agencies still have to promote complementary modes such as active mobility (walking and bicycle), transit (public transportation), and shared mobility (shared autonomous vehicles and mobility as a service).

Recent developments in vehicle automation, connectivity, electro-mobility and ridesharing are expected to transform urban mobility patterns and reshape cities. There is enormous uncertainty about how these technological developments, collectively referred to as the ‘technological shift in transportation’, may impact cities. This paper examines whether the technological shift in transportation will lead cities on a path to sustainability in five aspects—traffic flow, space use, energy consumption, transit and active mobility and economic affordability—through a review of 34 quantitative studies. We find that these studies backed by analytical and simulation models can provide more precise answers, and their results tend to contradict each other based on starting conditions, modelling methods and other driving factors. These driving factors fall within four categories: technological integration, policy, operations and urban planning. The interaction of these driving forces will determine if the technological shift improves transportation sustainability or is detrimental for the city in the long term.