Understanding Walkability in the Libyan Urban Space: Policies, Perceptions and Smart Design for Sustainable Tripoli

Authors: A. Abdulla Khairi Mohamed, Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem, Gehan Selim

Abstract:

Walkability in civic and public spaces in Libyan cities is challenging due to the lack of accessibility design, informal merging into car traffic, and the general absence of adequate urban and space planning. The lack of accessible and pedestrian-friendly public spaces in Libyan cities has emerged as a major concern for the government if it is to develop smart and sustainable spaces for the 21st century. A walkable urban space has become a driver for urban development and redistribution of land use to ensure pedestrian and walkable routes between sites of living and workplaces. The characteristics of urban open space in the city centre play a main role in attracting people to walk when attending their daily needs, recreation and daily sports. There is significant gap in the understanding of perceptions, feasibility and capabilities of Libyan urban space to accommodate enhance or support the smart design of a walkable pedestrian-friendly environment that is safe and accessible to everyone. The paper aims to undertake observations of walkability and walkable space in the city of Tripoli as a benchmark for Libyan cities; assess the validity and consistency of the seven principal aspects of smart design, safety, accessibility and 51 factors that affect the walkability in open urban space in Tripoli, through the analysis of 10 local urban spaces experts (town planner, architect, transport engineer and urban designer); and explore user groups’ perceptions of accessibility in walkable spaces in Libyan cities through questionnaires. The study sampled 200 respondents in 2015-16. The results of this study are useful for urban planning, to classify the walkable urban space elements which affect to improve the level of walkability in the Libyan cities and create sustainable and liveable urban spaces.

Keywords: Walkability, sustainability, liveability, accessibility, safety.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1339634

References:

[1] Jane Jacobs (1961) the Death and Life of Great American Cities. First ed. New York: Random House. p. 458.
[2] Robert S. Cook (1980) Zoning for Downtown Urban Design: How Cities Control Development. First ed. New York: Lexington Books. p. 178
[3] Jan Gehl (1989) A Changing Street Life in a Changing Society. Places Journal , 6(1),
[4] Kruger, J., Ham, S.A., Berrigan, D. and Ballard-Barbash, R. (2008) Prevalence of transportation and leisure walking among U.S. adults. Preventive medicine (online), 47(3), pp. 329-334 p.
[5] The Mayor of London and Transport for London (2004) Making London a walkable city: The Walking Plan for London. London: Mayor of London & Transport for London. p. 44.
[6] Amy Child & Ryan Falconer (2015) 12 Walkability Studies 242404. Australia: Arup.
[7] J.F. Sallis and N. Owen (2002) Ecological models of health behaviour. In Karen Glanz, Barbara K. Rimer and K. Viswanath (ed). Health Behaviour and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. 3rd ed ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp.462-484.
[8] Adel A. S. Mohamed (2013) towards more Sustainable Urban Forms in the City of Benghazi: A study of urban fragmentation at the neighbourhood level. Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, University of Westminster.
[9] Douglas Farr (2012) Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Copyright. p. 304.
[10] Mohamed Atef Elhamy Kamel (2013) walkability in GCC cities: smart urban solutions. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 2(3), pp. 288-310.
[11] B. Azlitni (2009) the Libyan Architectural Features between Tradition and Modernization. Int. Journal for Housing Science, 33(3), pp. 137-148.
[12] Gilderbloom, J.I., Riggs, W.W. and Meares, W.L. (2015) Does walkability matter? An examination of walkability’s impact on housing values, foreclosures and crime. Cities (online), 42, Part App.
[13] Litman (2003) Measuring Transportation: Traffic, Mobility and Accessibility. ITE, 73(10), pp. 28-32.
[14] Steve Abley (2005) Walkability Scoping Paper, sa001 3523. Christchurch New: Abley Transportation Consultants.
[15] Southworth, M. (2005) Designing the Walkable City. Journal of Urban Planning & Development 131(4), pp. 246-257.
[16] Frank, L.D., Schmid, T.L., Sallis, J.F., Chapman, J. and Saelens, B.E. (2005) Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form: findings from SMARTRAQ. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(2), pp. 117-125.
[17] Forsyth, A. and Southworth, M. (2008) Cities Afoot—Pedestrians, Walkability and Urban Design. Journal of Urban Design (online), 13(1), pp. 1-3.
[18] Graeme Evans (2009) Accessibility, urban design and the whole journey environment. Built Environment, 35(3), pp. 366–385.
[19] S Abley& S Turner (2011) Predicting walkability, 452. New Zealand: NZ Transport Agency research report.
[20] Moura, F., Cambra, P. and Gonçalves, A.B. (2017) Measuring walkability for distinct pedestrian groups with a participatory assessment method: A case study in Lisbon. Landscape and Urban Planning (online), 157pp. 282-296 Available at: . Accessed on 10/11/2016
[21] Forsyth, A. (2015) what is a walkable place? The walkability debate in urban design. Urban Design International (online), 20(4), pp. 274-292.
[22] Libyan government (2009) The National Spatial Policy of Libya. Libya: Libyan government.
[23] Pradinie, K., Navastara, A.M. and Martha, K.D.E. (2016) Who's Own the Public Space? The Adaptation of Limited Space in Arabic Kampong. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (online), 227pp.
[24] Chen, Y., Liu, T. and Liu, W. (2016) Increasing the use of large-scale public open spaces: A case study of the North Central Axis Square in Shenzhen, China. Habitat International (online), 53pp. 66-77.
[25] Mitchell, R. and Popham, F. (2008) Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an observational population study. Lancet (online), 372(9650), pp. 1655-1660.
[26] Koohsari, M.J., Mavoa, S., Villanueva, K., Sugiyama, T., Badland, H., Kaczynski, A.T., Owen, N. and Giles-Corti, B. (2015) Public open space, physical activity, urban design and public health: Concepts, methods and research agenda. Health & place (online), 33pp. 75-82 Available at :< http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829215000295>. Accessed on 07/06/2016
[27] Nielsen, T.S. and Hansen, K.B. (2007) do green areas affect health? Results from a Danish survey on the use of green areas and health indicators. Health & place (online), 13(4), pp. 839-850.
[28] Taylor, W.C., Floyd, M.F., Whitt-Glover, M. and Brooks, J. (2007) Environmental justice: a framework for collaboration between the public health and parks and recreation fields to study disparities in physical activity. Journal of Physical Activity & Health (online), 4 Suppl 1pp. S50-S63.
[29] Kim, J. and Nicholls, S. (2016) Using Geographically Weighted Regression to Explore the Equity of Public Open Space Distributions. Journal of Leisure Research (online), 48(2), pp. 105-133.
[30] Abbasi, A., Alalouch, C. and Bramley, G. (2016) Open Space Quality in Deprived Urban Areas: User Perspective and Use Pattern. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (online), 216pp. 194-205.
[31] Mark Francis (2003) Urban Open Space: Designing For User Needs. Washington: Island Press. p. 96.
[32] Arif Budi Sholihah (2016) the Quality of Traditional Streets in Indonesia. Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, University of Nottingham.
[33] Oxford Advance Learner Dictionary (2010) 10th ed ed. UK: Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[34] Spiro Kostof (2005) The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 320.
[35] Donald Appleyard, M. Sue Gerson, Mark Lintell (1981) Livable Streets. University of California Press. p. 364.
[36] Allan Jacobs (1995) Great Streets. First ed. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 331.
[37] Lyn H. Lofland (2009) the Public Realm: Exploring the City's Quintessential Social Territory. 3rd ed. Transaction Publishers. p. 305.
[38] Southworth, B. (2003) urban design in action: the City of Cape Town's Dignified Places Programme - implementation of new public spaces towards integration and urban regeneration in South Africa. Urban Design International (online), 8(3), pp. 119-119.
[39] Carmona, M. Heath, T. Oc, T. and Tiesdell, S (2003) Public Places -Urban Spaces, The Dimensions of Urban Design. First ed. Oxford, UK: Elsevier. p. 322.
[40] Jalaladdini, S. and Oktay, D. (2012) Urban Public Spaces and Vitality: A Socio-Spatial Analysis in the Streets of Cypriot Towns. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (online), 35pp. 664.
[41] Joan Clos (2013) Streets as Public Spaces and Drivers of Urban Prosperity. United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
[42] Allan Jacobs (1993) Great Streets. first ed. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 331.
[43] Jan Gehl (2011) Life between Buildings: Using Public Space. (Translated by Jo Koch).Washington: Island Press. p. 216.
[44] Matthew Carmona, Filipa Matos Wunderlich (2013) Capital Spaces: The Multiple Complex Public Spaces of a Global City. UK: Routledge. p. 320.
[45] Jan Gehl (2010) Cities for people. Washington: Island Press.
[46] University of Winconsin Transportation Analysis Team (2011) Sustainability, Liveability and Wakability Connection. Transportation and Urban Syatem Analysis Laboratory.
[47] Ahmed Lakhder and François Dugeny (2010) Tripoli City Centre’s Urban and Architectural Charter, Tripoli-Libya: Engineering and Consulting Office for Utilities and AKT / IAURIF GROUP.
[48] Alfonzo, M.A. (2005) To Walk or Not to Walk? The Hierarchy of Walking Needs. Environment & Behavior (online), 37(6), pp. 808-836.
[49] Mehta, V. (2008) Walkable streets: pedestrian behavior, perceptions and attitudes. Journal of Urbanism (online), 1(3), pp. 217-245.
[50] Ewing, R. and Handy, S. (2009) Measuring the Unmeasurable: Urban Design Qualities Related to Walkability. Journal of Urban Design (online), 14(1), pp. 65-84.
[51] JamesF Sallis, Adrian Bauman and Michael Pratt, (1998) Environmental and policy interventions to promote physical activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 15(4), pp. 379–397.
[52] Pikora, T.J., Bull, F.C.L., Jamrozik, K., Knuiman, M., Giles-Corti, B. and Donovan, R.J. (2002) Developing a reliable audit instrument to measure the physical environment for physical activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(3).
[53] TRB/Transportation Research Board (2005) does the built environment influence physical activity? Examining the evidence – Special report. First ed. USA: Transportation Research Board. p. 282.
[54] Sideridis, G.D., Kaissidis, A. and Padeliadu, S. (1998) Comparison of the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology (online), 68(4), pp. 563-580
[55] S. Makki, M. Surat, A.I. Che-Ani, H. Farkisch, H.R. Mokhtarian (2012) The Importance of Design Characteristics in Walking from Student’s Perspective: A Case Study in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Journal of Building Performance, 30/09/2016(1), pp. 42-49.
[56] Government of Western Australia (2012) Walk WA: A Walking Strategy for Western Australia 2007-2020, Australia: Government of Western Australia.
[57] Garland F. White (1990) Neighbourhood permeability and burglary rates. Justice Quarterly, 7(1), pp. 57–67.
[58] Novruz Alzklaa (2016) Evaluating Public Squares According to the World Organization for Projects of Public Spaces Case Study: Al-Shuhada Square. Unpublished Master, University of Tripoli.
[59] Fathia Samur (2013) the Townscape of Tripoli City during the Italian Colonial Period. Unpublished Master., University of Tripoli
[60] Gayani Ranasinghe, Susantha Amarawickrama, Rangajeewa Rathnayake (2016) A Study to Compare the Level of Walkability in Two Urban Neighborhoods of Sri Lanka. International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science, 4(1), pp. 6-13.
[61] Lorraine Fitzsimons (2013) a multidisciplinary examination of walkability: Its concept, assessment and applicability. PhD Thesis, Dublin City University.
[62] Joseph F. Hair, William C. Black, Barry J. Babin, Rolph E. Anderson (2009) Multivariate Data Analysis, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.