About the Workshop

Walking is associated with many well-known personal, social and environmental benefits, especially in cities. Consequently, as environmental issues gain priority, much effort is now being directed towards making urban environments more pedestrian-friendly. Walkability research deals with the extent to which the built environment facilitates or hinders walking for daily life purposes. The study of walkability has been fruitful and resulted in the identification of useful correlations of objective environmental characteristics (e.g., density, mix land use and accessible networks) and subjective aspects of environmental phenomena (e.g., fear of crime and road safety) that may have beneficial impacts on walking activity.

Since walking movement emerges out of complex interactions between people and their external environment, it is essential to refer also to spatial perception and cognition in order to establish more genuine knowledge. Thus, walkability research has begun to consider cognitive aspects that may have impact on walking behavior (e.g., the influence of cognitive distance on walking route choice). However, we still have very limited knowledge on how spatial cognition affects walkability, that is, how individual perception and cognition affect the subjective evaluation of walkability levels, the experience of walking and walking behavior attributes.

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The association between social, functional and morphological characteristics of the urban environment and the formation of cognitive spatial representation and spatial behavior has been discussed extensively. In general, walkability and walking behavior can be related to two main domains of spatial cognition: spatial knowledge and cognitive distance. Spatial knowledge is inherently connected to the portions of the environment which people know, aware of and act within. It is also well known that urban design qualities like legibility, imageability, intelligibility, and complexity, are related to spatial knowledge acquisition and the way individuals feel about the environment as a place to walk. Furthermore, the quality of spatial knowledge has been associated with direct experience in the environment, and specifically with the act of walking. Cognitive distance is a product of acting and learning the environment. Distance is often considered the most important factor to affect the decision to walk, as people seek to minimize the distance and duration of walking trips. Cognitive distance, however, is sensitive to environmental conditions (such as morphological, social, and functional properties) and to personal attributes, and thus it often demonstrates significant inconsistencies with objective distance measurements. This has consequences on individuals’ decision to walk and on their route choice. Additionally, there is evidence that the environmental characteristics that inherently relate to the formation of the cognitive representation of space and to spatial behavior, also constitute the main variables of walkability. Hence, there is a need for a comprehensive discussion that integrates individual perception and cognition of environmental characteristics with the experience of walkability and walking behavior.

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The workshop will deal with some of the main questions of our current research and particularly with the question of how spatial cognition is involved in the relationship between walkability and walking behavior in cities. The suggested workshop is intended to generate such discussion, and to elaborate the means to narrow the existing gap. This, while relying on the assumption that spatial cognition aspects have the potential to significantly tune the subjective perception of walkability and consequently affect walking behavior. It requires the integration of several fields of research, from urban modeling and planning through cognitive and behavioral sciences. It also involves specific methodologies and technologies.

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