Special Issue "Towards More Walkable and Liveable Cities: Perceptions, Attitudes, Methods, Technologies and Policies"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Fernando Fonseca
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4750-057 Braga, Portugal
Interests: sustainable mobility; walkability; pedestrians; walking; cycling; public transport; eco-industrial parks; industrial parks; geographic information system
Prof. Dr. Paulo Ribeiro
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Campus de Azurém, University of Minho, 4800 058 Guimarães, Portugal
Interests: sustainable mobility; transportation and mobility resilience; transport planning; mobility as a service
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Elisa Conticelli
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Bologna 40136, Italy
Interests: sustainable urban regeneration
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. George N. Papageorgiou
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management and Marketing, Systema Research Centre, School of Business Administration, European University Cyprus, Diogenous Str. 2404, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: sustainable mobility; systems dynamics; sustainable development; strategy; management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Walking is one of the easiest, greenest, healthiest, and most enjoyable modes of transport. Switching to walking reduces the negative environmental impact of motorised vehicles. Walking is also an inclusive mode of transport and a form of physical activity that helps to prevent various diseases associated with sedentary lifestyles. Finding solutions to transform our cities from car-oriented into more people-oriented spaces has been a major concern for researchers and planners. Many cities are unattractive for pedestrians and are still far from the 15-minute city concept. Within the notion of walkability, extensive research has been carried out over the last years to measure how walkable a place is. However, people may not necessarily walk more just because they live in a walkable area. This happens because the propensity to walk also relies on individual characteristics such as age, gender, education, income, race, and mobility culture, which determine different psychological perceptions of space and travel behaviours. Thus, collecting qualitative data is potentially highly valuable to gain an in-depth understanding of pedestrian behaviours and preferences.

This Special Issue aims to promote a cross-sectorial learning space to analyse and discuss the influence of attitudinal and cognitive factors in the overall experience of walking, resulting from the interaction between pedestrians and the built environment and other street users. This knowledge can potentially be highly valuable for researchers, planners, and policymakers in their endeavour to define and implement planning policies tailored to pedestrian needs with the purpose of creating healthier, more liveable, and sustainable urban environments. It is aimed at researchers and practitioners from different disciplines and countries engaged in advancing knowledge regarding the role of walking to regenerate urban environments and to promote health and well-being in our cities.

This Special Issue is devoted to the entire spectrum of qualitative studies on walking. Authors are encouraged to present reviews, case studies, applications, and tools developed to collect, examine, and compare pedestrian attitudes, experiences, and perceptions that may inspire policies for designing more walkable cities. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Pedestrians’ perceptions of the effect of built environment attributes at the macro, meso, and micro-scales on walking;

- Pedestrians’ perceptions of the effect of environmental conditions, such as air quality, noise, and microclimate, on walking;

- Implications of new technologies on walking habits: routing, monitoring, trip planning, gamified incentives, etc.;

- Effects of walking on self-assessed physical and mental health conditions;

- Pedestrian behaviours, perceptions, and safe practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and other risky situations;

- Realistic behavioural data regarding pedestrian route preferences: shortest route, least directional change routes, healthier routes, etc.;

- Pedestrians’ perceptions on the effect of urban design and regeneration policies in our cities;

- The role of affective and cognitive attitudes in walking and feelings from walking excursions;

- Emerging tools and techniques to collect and analyse pedestrian qualitative data: geodata-based tools, sensors, etc.

Dr. Fernando Fonseca
Prof. Dr. Paulo Ribeiro
Dr. Elisa Conticelli
Prof. Dr. George N. Papageorgiou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pedestrian behaviour
  • pedestrian perceptions
  • walking
  • walkability
  • qualitative methods
  • data collection methods
  • active mobility
  • sustainable mobility
  • walkable cites
  • liveable cities
  • sustainability

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Levels and Characteristics of Utilitarian Walking in the Central Areas of the Cities of Bologna and Porto
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3064; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063064 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 460
Abstract
Walking is a mode of transport that offers many environmental and health benefits. Utilitarian walking refers to walking trips undertaken to fulfil routine purposes. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which walking is used as a transport mode [...] Read more.
Walking is a mode of transport that offers many environmental and health benefits. Utilitarian walking refers to walking trips undertaken to fulfil routine purposes. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which walking is used as a transport mode for short urban trips in the city centers of Bologna and Porto and the barriers preventing utilitarian walking. Based on a questionnaire (n = 1117) administered in the two cities, results indicated that 21% of the individuals travel by foot, while 47% combine walking with other modes. This means that 68% of the daily trips to these city centers involve walking activity. From the overall trips, 84% were made to reach work and school/university. Statistical tests showed that utilitarian walkers were more likely to be females (p < 0.001) and undergraduates (p < 0.001). People from Bologna were more likely to engage in utilitarian walking than people from Porto (p < 0.001). Travel distance and time were the main barriers preventing people from engaging in utilitarian walking. The findings described in this paper provide a better understanding of utilitarian walking in the central areas of both cities, which can guide policies to promote healthier lifestyles and sustainable mobility. Full article
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