Walkable City and Military Enclaves. Analysis and Decision-Making Approach to Support the Proximity Connection in Urban Regeneration

The concepts of accessibility and urban walkability are the cornerstones of urban policies for the contemporary city, called upon to adopt sustainable development models in line with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the ambitious objectives of the 'European Green Deal'. These concepts are closely linked to the paradigm of a sustainable city (livable, healthy and inclusive), founded on a system of quality public spaces and on a network of services and infrastructures, both tangible and intangible, capable of strengthening or building new relationships: social, economic and environmental. It is therefore necessary to recognize potential opportunities for connection and permeability in consolidated urban environments, very often fragmented and characterized by enclaves. Within this framework, the city of Cagliari represents an interesting case study as it is characterized by the presence of a series of military complexes, real 'enclaves' which condition the proximity connections and, more generally, the walkability. In this sense, building on previous research and analysis of policies and projects aimed at reintroducing, even partially, this military asset into civilian life (Green Barracks Project - GBP - 2019), this study proposes and applies a methodology to improve urban accessibility in a flexible network logic, where 'walkability' can become not only a moment of possible "choice" but the basis for planning oriented to the '15 min city' model or, more generally, to the renewed, inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable “City of proximity”.

Assessing Urban Accessibility in Monterrey, Mexico: A Transferable Approach to Evaluate Access to Main Destinations at the Metropolitan and Local Levels

Cities demand urgent transformations in order to become more affordable, livable, sustainable, walkable and comfortable spaces. Hence, important changes have to be made in the way cities are understood, diagnosed and planned. The current paper puts urban accessibility into the centre of the public policy and planning agenda, as a transferable approach to transform cities into better living environments. To do so, a practical example of the City of Monterrey, Mexico, is presented at two planning scales: the metropolitan and local level. Both scales of analysis measure accessibility to main destinations using walking and cycling as the main transport modes. The results demonstrate that the levels of accessibility at the metropolitan level are divergent, depending on the desired destination, as well as on the planning processes (both formal and informal) from different areas of the city. At the local level, the Distrito Tec Area is diagnosed in terms of accessibility to assess to what extent it can be considered a part of a 15 minutes city. The results show that Distrito Tec lacks the desired parameters of accessibility to all destinations for being a 15 minutes city. Nevertheless, there is a considerable increase in accessibility levels when cycling is used as the main travelling mode. The current research project serves as an initial approach to understand the accessibility challenges of the city at different planning levels, by proving useful and disaggregated data. Finally, it concludes providing general recommendations to be considered in planning processes aimed to improve accessibility and sustainability.

Accessibility and mobility deficiencies of line 2 RUTA, case of San Ramón, Puebla

Deficient accessibility and mobility conditions can create exclusion, which is why, when planning a mass transport system, it is necessary to analyse them at the neighbourhood level in order to guarantee the right to the city and access to public transport. The objective of this article is to show how the deficiencies of urban accessibility in line 2 of the RUTA system, in the case study of the San Ramón colony, Puebla, since the necessary pedestrian infrastructure conditions were not considered, which causes difficulties in pedestrian mobility to access public transport. This situation was confirmed by the disappearance of the urban routes that provided transport services in the colony. The action-research methodology was implemented through successive approaches in the theoretical, physical-spatial and legal spheres. The analysis was carried out through the application of a diagnostic instrument to evaluate urban accessibility, workshops with focus groups to identify the perception of inhabitants and users, interviews with key actors and multilevel matrices of legal instruments, with the aim of making recommendations that include participatory management.

Participatory Management to Improve Accessibility in Consolidated Urban Environments

There is a wide range of regulations on universal accessibility, but our cities are still inaccessible in many cases. Most accessibility problems in cities occur in consolidated areas that were developed prior to the development of current accessibility regulations. This leads to consider the importance of focusing more effort on managing the improvement of the accessibility of existing public urban environments. As such, the objective of this research is to design a conceptual model for accessibility management in consolidated urban environments. Unlike other research focusing on city users to collect information on accessibility problems or to provide services to improve wayfinding, this method has a focus on urban accessibility managers. The model is based on the assessment of the level of accessibility of urban environments together with the assessment of management processes in which city users are actively involved. It consists of a set of basic indicators for the identification of accessible pedestrian routes, and provides a dynamic accessibility index for the evaluation of their efficient management by the responsible governments. The inclusion of this assessment framework in the management process itself enables the necessary improvement actions to be identified and taken in time. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) provide the communication channel between the responsible governments and city users, making this a more dynamic and efficient management model based on assessment possible.

STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXPRESSWAY DEVELOPMENT ON URBAN ACCESSIBILITY IN GUIZHOU PROVINCE

The construction and development of the expressway network has far-reaching significance for the economic growth of Guizhou Province. In this paper, ArcGIS was used to calculate the nodal accessibility, daily accessibility and regional average accessibility of the expressway network in Guizhou Province, and the evolution of the spatial pattern of accessibility under the influence of expressways in Guizhou Province from 2012 to 2019 was analyzed through three different dimensions of accessibility indicators. The results show that with the continuous construction of expressways, the accessibility of the whole province continues to improve. Guiyang, as the provincial capital city, improved the accessibility of expressways the most during the last 7 years. However, due to the inequality of resources, there are still spatial differences in traffic capacity between cities and cities. Among them, Tongren and Xingyi have a small increase in the accessibility of expressways from 2012 to 2019, and the traffic conditions of Tongren and Xingyi are in the inferior position of the whole province.