Measure, understand and improve cities

Abstract

We all have walked on a street when suddenly someone comes over to you asking for directions. Sometimes, people do not know where they are and they do not know how to reach their destination. They are lost. However, people should not depend on others to find their way. The urban fabric should be legible enough to find one’s way. The problem statement of this Master Thesis is that people should wander and stroll through the urban fabric instead of getting lost. Consequently, for the graduation project we zoom in to one of the many aspects of “good public space”, namely the element ‘wayfinding’. What is good public space in relation to pedestrian’s ability to orientate themselves in the historic city centre? The first chapter deals with wayfinding, its definitions, how it is related to the city centre of Delft, environmental psychology and urban economy. The aim of the graduation project is to better understand how people navigate in cities in order to develop recommendations for urban planning and design to make city visits more enjoyable, engaging and involving for pedestrians. The main research question for the graduation project is: “Which strategic spatial design interventions can improve public space for the slow traffic network in order to retain city visitors in the city centre of Delft?” This subject will be solved by answering four sub-research questions: (i) What are criteria for successful public spaces looking at pedestrians walking in city centres? (ii) What is the current quality of the streets and built environment in the city centre of Delft? (iii) Do pedestrians (visitors/tourists, city centre inhabitants and neighbourhood residents) use the public space in the city centre of Delft differently? (iv) How can the criteria for successful public spaces, the analysis of the current situation and the conclusions of how people use the city centre be embedded in strategic spatial (navigational) recommendations for the city centre of Delft? Applied methods in order to answer the sub-research questions are: (ad i) Literature review studies (a general study about good public space and a specific wayfinding study). (ad ii) Evaluation of the city centre by mapping urban facilities, making a Three-Step analysis, measuring walking distances from two garages, visibility graph analysis, history of Delft by a morphology analysis, quality analysis perception of the city centre based on participants’ questionnaires and a visual analysis (photographs). (ad iii) Actual pedestrian movement is gathered and mapped by doing two GPS-tracking research pilots in the city centre of Delft (a) November 2009: following visitors/tourists who park their car in the Phoenix or Zuidpoort garage and who continue their journey on foot (b) April/May 2010: following city centre inhabitants and neighbourhood residents of Delft. Results are mapped in ArcGIS and statistics are made in SPSS and Excel. Behaviour of the three different pedestrian groups is compared, where after results and conclusions are noted. (ad iv) All gathered information is put into a self made GPS-flowchart: the model shows a researcher in four steps which strategic interventions are recommended for a project area. To answer the main research question, first a future vision of Delft 2030 is described which is followed by a mission, vision and strategy for the city centre of Delft. Consequently, strategic spatial design interventions are proposed, divided into conservative short term and ambitious long term scenarios. The GPS-flowchart is used to determine a strategy for a specific area in the city centre. Due to the fact that there is an enormous amount of data available, several tips for follow-up research are suggested.