Active mobility

Abstract: 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’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.

Abstract: Being physically active in natural environments has been linked with multiple mental and physical health benefits. However, not all urban contexts can provide their residents the same access to green areas for walking and sport activities. Mediterranean cities provide open spaces for physical activity that differ from those of Northern European cities. This study explores both conventional spaces in the form of public parks and urban green spaces, i.e. beaches, tree-lined streets, boulevards and public squares, in relation to the daily walking levels of residents in a Mediterranean city, such as Barcelona by presenting findings based on examining and assessing spatio-temporal exposure levels measured with the help of smartphones and publicly available GIS layers. To achieve this, both exposure and daily walking time were measured from GIS and GPS-based smartphone tracking data for 127 adult individuals from Barcelona, Spain. Based on these measurements, it was determined that the presence of large-scale open spaces for physical activity, such as beaches or large parks in the participants’ daily walking routes, proved to have the highest association with daily walking time. Also, underexplored forms of nature, such as street trees were also positively correlated with individual walking levels. Additionally, small-scale public spaces, such as public squares and boulevards, indicated a considerably negative association with walking time. The findings from this study confirm existing evidence on the health benefits of urban greenness and broaden the analytical focus on the role and impact of green space provision on physical health. Altogether, street trees and the presence of both blue and traditional green spaces proved to be significant factors of increased walking levels.