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S. Tobisch, A. Psenner:
"City Afoot-What the State-of-the-Art Walkable City Looks Like";
Talk: REAL CORP 2021, Cities 20.50, Creating Habitats for the 3rd Millennium, Smart, Sustainable, Climate Neutral, BOKU Wien (invited); 2021-09-07 - 2021-09-10; in: "REAL CORP 2021, Cities 20.50, Creating Habitats for the 3rd Millennium, Smart, Sustainable, Climate Neutral", M. Schrenk, V. Popovich, P. Zeile, P. Elisei, C. Beyer, J. Ryser, G. Stöglehner (ed.); Wien (2021), ISBN: 978-3-9504945-0-1; 183 - 193.

Walkability has been the subject of research for quite some time now. There are solid findings from a wide range of disciplines, and yet in reality the realization of pedestrian-friendly urban areas is rare. Why is that? Urban planning is a highly political undertaking; only a few politicians dare to incur the displeasure of the car lobby, the conservative economy and the - in their opinion - still car-driving and car-owning majority of voters. Rarely do decision-makers, like Anne Hidalgo or Leonore Gewessler at present, act seemingly free of fear of the next election. Regardless of this fact, the question arises: What would the state-of-the-art walkable city look like?
In addressing this question, this article not only provides a comprehensive research on walkability across the disciplines, but above all attempts to examine the findings to see whether they are suitable for implementation at all. For this reason, the second part of the text deals with the attempt to translate theoretical knowledge into the real-physical world within the chosen perimeter of the Vienna Westbahnhof site. The research by design method was chosen in order to transfer the partial knowledge about walking as a basic function of traffic science or as a leisure-immanent behavior, or about the parameters of quality of stay in public space into an inclusive planning basis. The aim was to detach planning from conventions and instead force a development of the built environment based exclusively on current walkability research.

Public Space, Urban Development, Ground Floor, Mobility, Walkability

https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/publik_297019.pdf