Hello, colleagues!
My name is Christiano Piccioni Toralles, I am a professor at the Inst. Fed. of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and student of the Doctoral Program in Spatial Planning at Un. Coimbra (Portugal), under the supervision of prof. Anabela Ribeiro. I'm here inviting volunteers to collaborate as an expert with my Ph.D. research on urban mobility, specially dedicated to walkability, in an inter/multimodal, inclusive, and participatory perspective.
The form link is found below. It starts with a brief explanation of the proposal and the Consent Form, then moving on to the questionnaire itself.
- Form in English:
- Form in Portuguese (if you prefer):
- At the beginning of the form, there are instructions for translating into other languages, if necessary.
Globally and mandatorily, this questionnaire has 222 questions with multiple choice answers, except for two open-ended questions (one for the name of your city and the last one for optional comments or suggestions), with an estimated duration of 30 minutes.
This research has as its target audience only professionals who work in urban planning, mainly dedicated to the theme of urban mobility, in public or private institutions, including academic-scientific. Planners, designers, researchers, and teachers are invited to respond. There are no restrictions about their professional qualification (for example, in Urban Planning, Architecture, Engineering, Geography, Public Health, Environmental Psychology, Tourism, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.), as long as they have some experience in the subject.
If you have any questions or would like to request further information, feel free to write on this forum. Or you can contact me by email: .
Thank you for your attention.
Dear Christiano
My suggestion for criteria:
* Traffic lights in intersections
* Bumps to reduce speed in streets
* Safety on streets
* Ramps to access sidewalks
* Sidewalks without obstacles
* Sidewalks of enough width
* Sidewalks in good repair
* Pedestrian streets
* Good rainwater drainage, etc.
The simplest way is the count the minimal number of intersections in a good urban environment. In my experience circa 150 in a square km.
Dear Nahoum
Really, I don't understand how intersections can help, other than having traffic lights
But what about people in wheelchairs trying to access a sidewalk, or ascending or descending from a bus without ramps?
What about the formation of little lagoons on the street after heavy rains, because of lack of drains?
Dear Norberto, you are into details too early. We plan the general first then slowly by grade into details. Slowly. Intersections are the best indication of connectivity, block size, etc. Please compare urban centers to outskirts in that, and you will get my point.
Dear Nahom
I don't discuss your procedure but if we are talking about walkability, we are assuming people not using a car but public transit, especially in the outskirts where buses stop are normally more distant than in the central city.
Therefore, in my humble opinion, if we go from the general to particular - which for me is the right approach - we need to address the bus, trams, subways, and rail network.
A definition, not mine, of Connectivity (or permeability), refers to the directness of links and the density of connections in a transport network.
A city traversed by creeks, railways tracks, rivers, etc, connectivity is how to reach from A to B as direct as possible. Of course, intersections define an urban street network, but that is not synonymous with connectivity.
Just think why large cities need beltways, ring roads, or bypasses
Norberto you are still jumping into the particular. Too soon. If the connectivity by roads is bad' nothing can help it.
I agree, but the number of intersections doesn't define connectivity
Norberto think again. Number of intersections is the result of number and length of streets, precisely so. It is a number very low in suburbia and high in real urban situations. Thus connectivity. Check it out. You are invited to read my books and lectures on Youtube.
Its a good well thought made survey questionnaire for the walkability in urban areas. A thought also should be made to the futuristic ideas of having solar charged lights, charging points along the walk pathways. The type of walk path material also to be seen in the angel of comfort.
Nahoum
How do you define urban connectivity?
Look at these definitions, not mine:
Connectivity (or permeability) refers to the directness of links and the density of connections in a transport network
Roadway Connectivity (VTPI) Connectivity refers to the density of connections in a path or road network and the directness of links. A well-connected road or path network has many short links, numerous intersections, and minimal dead-ends
Now, assume that you have a perfect urban grid with many 90 degrees intersections. You will probably have avenues from N-S and E-W, so, there are no problems of connection in those directions.
You are now in downtown, which is the intersection of the two avenues, and you want to go to the northeast of the city. Of course, you can, driving first north and then turning east, traveling the two sides of a triangle
But that is not good connectivity; you need a direct link between downtown and the northeast via a diagonal.
Therefore, you can see that does not matter the number of intersections in the grid, if you don't have a direct link between areas, or a circular ring around the city, or a beltway, especially in the outskirts of the city. Still better, in large cities, you need inner circular roads, such as in Moscow, Leeds, and other cities
I am sure that you are by far more knowledgeable than me in this aspect since I am not an urban planner.
I use only common sense and what I have seen in many cities around the world
Nawrose, Esraa, Nolberto, Nahoum, Zahra, and Mallikarjuna: Sorry for my delay in responding, but thanks for the comments and the debate generated here. In the last month and a half, I have received around 150 answers in this form from many people worldwide. Therefore, I will leave the questionnaire open for a few more days while I analyze the results and check if there is any pattern of greater relevance or any contextual difference between countries/continents, city sizes, genders, age groups, etc. Of course, it is not the most correct procedure in terms of method and sampling, but it tends to help think a lot about the theme of walkability in perspective with social inclusion and modal integration.
This is a very interesting discussion. I do agree with Dr. Nolberto Munier. He gave us more insights to walkability research.
Very interesting discussion ... thanks everybody for your valuable information
Walkabity has to have some real numerical basis, otherwise its just wasted words.
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