The metrics of street network connectivity: their inconsistencies

AbstractWith the aim to enhance sustainability in general including walkability, the recent urban forms of the designs of the Emirati neighborhoods have been denser and more compact, if compared with the older design models. While there are various guidelines and regulations related to the microscale walkability measures for the urban design of neighborhoods in the Emirates but unfortunately the macroscale walkability measures have not received similar attention. So, to investigate how would these denser and more compact recent neighborhoods designs better perform regarding walkability macroscale measures, the research utilized the urban modelling interface (UMI) walkability simulation tool to calculate the UMI Walkscores of these designs because it considers almost all macroscale factors including both urban morphology and urban planning measures and it also allows for the customization of the types, required catchment distances, and weights of the significance of locally provided amenities. The UMI Walkscores were calculated for the six recent denser and more compact neighborhoods designs and were compared with the UMI Walkscore for a conventionally designed model of urban sprawling neighborhoods. Unexpectedly, it has been found out that urban compactness per se is not a sufficient design measure for enhancing walkability in local neighborhood designs, where much higher compactness and density have achieved disappointing UMI Walkscores. So, it seems that for the recent neighborhoods’ designs, little attention was paid to the impact of the street network connectivity measures of Intersection Density, Block Length and the link-to-nodes ratio, on UMI Walkscores, if compared with the main attention paid to increasing FAR through decreasing plot sizes. Meanwhile, the explicit macroscale urban planning measures including the land-use factors of the types, numbers, and the location of amenities, as well as the implicit factors of their destination and global weights seem to be more influential in enhancing the UMI Walkscores but have been less considered when planning these neighborhoods. So, besides considering well-known macroscale urban morphology aspects of street network connectivity and locational distribution of provided amenities, boosting walkability macroscale measures on the design level requires adopting a set of adequately customized measures including the appropriate values of their global and distribution weights. These walkability design weights should be also resilient and continuously reviewed to satisfy the changing needs of the local communities. Based on its findings, the research proposed a five-actions plan to help boost walkability macroscale measures in the design of local urban communities in the UAE.

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The Role of Street Network Connectivity and Access to Everyday Facilities in Shaping Everyday Walking and Cycling in English Cities

Strategies for Sustainable Mobilities ◽

10.4324/9781315610986-8 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 33-56

Keyword(s):

Network Connectivity ◽

Street Network ◽

Street Network Connectivity

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Children’s Active School Travel: Examining the Combined Perceived and Objective Built-Environment Factors from Space Syntax

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18010286 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 286

Author(s):

Ayse Ozbil ◽

Demet Yesiltepe ◽

Gorsev Argin ◽

Greg Rybarczyk

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Space Syntax ◽

Network Connectivity ◽

Active Commuting ◽

Street Network ◽

School Travel ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Active Commuting To School ◽

Active School Travel ◽

Using Data

Increasing active school travel (AST) among children may provide the required level of daily physical activity and reduce the prevalence of obesity. Despite efforts to promote this mode, recent evidence shows that AST rates continue to decrease in suburban and urban areas alike. The aim of this research study, therefore, is to facilitate our understanding of how objective and perceived factors near the home influence children’s AST in an understudied city, İstanbul, Turkey. Using data from a cross-sectional sample of students aged 12–14 from 20 elementary schools (n = 1802) and consenting parents (n = 843), we applied a nominal logistic regression model to highlight important predictors of AST. The findings showed that street network connectivity (as measured by two novel space syntax measures, metric reach and directional reach) was the main deciding factor for active commuting to school, while parents’ perceptions of condition of sidewalks and shade-casting street trees were moderately significant factors associated with AST. Overall, this study demonstrated the significance of spatial structure of street network around the homes in the potential for encouraging AST, and more importantly, the need to consider objective and perceived environmental attributes when strategizing means to increase this mode choice and reduce ill-health among children.

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TESTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STREET NETWORK OF CITIES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF PETROZAVODSK)

The economy of the North-West: problems and prospects of development ◽

10.52897/2411-4588-2021-2-145-150 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (65) ◽

pp. 145-150

Author(s):

Evgeny P. Dudkin ◽

◽

Abujwaid Husam Abbas Mohsin ◽

Leonid A. Losin ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Graph Theory ◽

Public Transport ◽

Traffic Congestion ◽

Road Network ◽

Network Connectivity ◽

Transport Network ◽

Transport Infrastructure ◽

Street Network ◽

Real Network ◽

The City

The transport network of cities can be represented as a complex of streets and passages, as well as elements of public transport infrastructure unconnected with the street and road network. It is reasonable to represent the real network in the form of a simplified network based on graph theory to analyze the properties of the transport network. There are various methods of network connectivity assessment, including those based on various indices. According to all indicators in the street and road network of the city of Petrozavodsk it is necessary to increase the number of units. The implementation of recommendations for changes of the street and road network of the city of Petrozavodsk will reduce traffic congestion, the number of accidents and transport expenses. It is recommended to use the proposed method to assess and improve the street and road network of cities.

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A century of sprawl in the United States

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1504033112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (27) ◽

pp. 8244-8249 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

Christopher Barrington-Leigh ◽

Adam Millard-Ball

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Time Series ◽

Urban Form ◽

Network Connectivity ◽

The United States ◽

Street Network ◽

Urban Street ◽

Private Car ◽

To Come ◽

New Urbanist

The urban street network is one of the most permanent features of cities. Once laid down, the pattern of streets determines urban form and the level of sprawl for decades to come. We present a high-resolution time series of urban sprawl, as measured through street network connectivity, in the United States from 1920 to 2012. Sprawl started well before private car ownership was dominant and grew steadily until the mid-1990s. Over the last two decades, however, new streets have become significantly more connected and grid-like; the peak in street-network sprawl in the United States occurred in ∼1994. By one measure of connectivity, the mean nodal degree of intersections, sprawl fell by ∼9% between 1994 and 2012. We analyze spatial variation in these changes and demonstrate the persistence of sprawl. Places that were built with a low-connectivity street network tend to stay that way, even as the network expands. We also find suggestive evidence that local government policies impact sprawl, as the largest increases in connectivity have occurred in places with policies to promote gridded streets and similar New Urbanist design principles. We provide for public use a county-level version of our street-network sprawl dataset comprising a time series of nearly 100 y.

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