Spatial Metro

Summary

Pedestrian mobility and the regeneration of the European city centre.

Description

Spatial Metro, a project largely funded by the European Union, was lead by the English city of Norwich. The project aim to make city visits more enjoyable for pedestrians by making cities easier to navigate, easier to walk around and easier to understand and apprecia­te. This is achieved in various ways, including a dedicated retail strategy, illuminating characteristic buildings, the use of events, improvement of public space, providing ‘metro style’ maps as well as appropriate information and signposting for pedestrians and the application of GPS technology.

The Delft University of Technology examined the question as to how to assess of the effectiveness of the investments made in Norwich, Rouen and Koblenz. How can aspects like the accessibility and navigability of public spaces be measured? Much of the effectiveness hereof naturally depends on the way people use the public space. We therefore used novel tools to analyse in detail the movement patterns of people visiting these three city centres.

Book
Street-level Desires, Discovering the city on foot
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