Walking and high-quality walking environments are essential for sustainable and healthy cities. Walkability depends on both objective environmental features and perceived aspects. However, less is known about how the interplay between objective and perceived walkability influences walking behaviour across different urban contexts. We conducted a spatially explicit comparison of walkability and walking routes between a city centre representing inner-city walking fabric and a suburb comprising transit and automobile urban fabrics in Helsinki, Finland. Our objective walkability index consisted of floor space ratio, functional mix, and accessibility variables, while the perceived quality index included safety, comfort, and enjoyment variables retrieved from public participatory GIS data reflecting citizens’ perceptions. We also compared the characteristics of hotspots of people’s reported routes for utilitarian and recreational walking, incorporating additional variables, namely green and blue index, which consisted of the NDVI and shoreline length. We found that prerequisites for walking significantly differed between city-centre and suburban contexts. In the city centre, objective and perceived walkability were high in the commercial centre, whereas in the suburb, they rarely overlapped. Suburban centres had a lower degree of perceived walkability than the city centre, but these areas were widely used for utilitarian and recreational walking. In the city centre, perceived protection was higher in utilitarian walking hotspots, which were also associated with higher building density, functional mix, and objective walkability index. Conversely, in the suburb, perceived protection was higher in recreational hotspots, associated with higher urban permeability, NDVI, and shoreline length. High perceived enjoyment, i.e., pleasant sensory experiences, induced both utilitarian and recreational walking across urban fabrics. Our results underline the importance of including citizen perceptions in walkability planning. With more limited mobility options, suburban walkability is crucial for fair mobility. Such contextual features of walkability need to be better addressed in future studies and planning practices.

中文翻译：

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芬兰赫尔辛基市中心和郊区范围内步行能力的空间明确比较


步行和高质量的步行环境对于可持续和健康的城市至关重要。步行性取决于客观环境特征和感知方面。然而，关于客观和感知步行性之间的相互作用如何影响不同城市环境中的步行行为，人们知之甚少。我们对芬兰赫尔辛基代表市中心步行结构的市中心与包含公共交通和汽车城市结构的郊区之间的步行能力和步行路线进行了空间显式比较。我们的客观步行性指数包括容积率、功能组合和可达性变量，而感知质量指数包括从反映公民感知的公共参与式 GIS 数据中检索的安全、舒适度和享受变量。我们还比较了人们报告的功利和休闲步行路线的热点特征，并纳入了其他变量，即绿色和蓝色指数，由 NDVI 和海岸线长度组成。我们发现，在市中心和郊区环境中，步行的先决条件存在显著差异。在市中心，商业中心的客观和感知步行便利性很高，而在郊区，它们很少重叠。郊区中心的步行程度低于市中心，但这些区域被广泛用于实用和休闲步行。在市中心，实用型步行热点的感知保护感更高，这也与较高的建筑密度、功能组合和客观的步行性指数有关。 相反，在郊区，娱乐热点的感知保护更高，这与较高的城市渗透率、NDVI 和海岸线长度有关。高感知享受，即愉快的感官体验，诱导了在城市结构中进行功利主义和娱乐性的步行。我们的结果强调了将公民感知纳入步行规划的重要性。由于行动不便的选择越来越多，郊区的步行性对于公平的出行至关重要。步行性的这种背景特征需要在未来的研究和规划实践中得到更好的解决。