Walkability is a concept from the field of urban planning which quantifies the comfort and safety of walking in a certain area. Walkability has health, ecological and economic benefits. Accordingly, many cities promote urban walkability, aiming at reducing the use of private cars and the resulting heavy traffic jams, air pollution and noise, thereby making cities more pleasant for pedestrians.
In recent years, there has been increased recognition that the microclimate at street level is one of the factors affecting the degree of walkability. In this context, the Mediterranean climate is considered a comfortable climate that encourages outdoor activity such as walking. On the other hand, the Mediterranean climate, especially in the summer season in the middle of the day, can be a hostile climate for outdoor activity. Moreover, different street design, such as orientation, density of tree planting, and variation in the facades can create a changing microclimate throughout the day. As a result, pedestrians are exposed to assortment of thermal variations. Thus, assessment of human thermal comfort and resulting usage patterns of urban open spaces is useful to determine optimum climatic planning. 
This study aims to evaluate the microclimatic conditions and human thermal comfort in urban vicinity open spaces; a public square, an urban park, bare streets, treed streets and boulevards in the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv during the summer season in order to identify usage patterns of urban open spaces in different urban streets and open space types. Microclimatic measurements were carried out during typical summer and winter days using fixed meteorological stations and mobile traverses through the different types of streets and open spaces. Thermal conditions were calculated using the PET index and ENVI-met software to create thermal maps of the urban tissue. 
Results showed that there are clear microclimatic differences between the two types of open spaces measured., The square is very hot in the summer and cool in the winter, while the park is comfortable to warm in the summer and comfortable to cool in the winter. Accordingly, the park is a center of attraction in the summer during the day while the square is almost completely empty. In winter, the situation is different, the square attracts visitors at all hours of the day, while in the park the number of visitors is smaller, especially in the areas under the trees. Users of the outdoor environment show seasonal behavioral adjustment to the microclimatic conditions that prevail in the outdoor thermal environment. In the summer, people use the square in the afternoon when it is shaded by the surrounding buildings. In winter, most of the people who use the square stay in the open center of the square, while most of the park user stays in the spaces that are exposed to the sun.
The planning conclusion derived from this research is that open areas which provide dynamic patterns of shade, should be designed to produce optimal microclimatic conditions for pedestrians at each time of the day according to the season.