Parks as urban nodes: effects of public space design on pedestrian mobility

Abstract

The quality of urban public space and pedestrian mobility are two crucial aspects that significantly influence urban life, especially in the current context, where cities face growing challenges related to sustainability, public health and social welfare. In this context, the objective of this study was to determine how the quality of urban public space is related to pedestrian mobility; for this purpose, it was necessary to conduct a basic, correlational, non-experimental, cross-sectional study. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.902 was used to collect the information, which was applied to a sample of 162 residents neighboring the unit of analysis. The results were a coefficient Rho=0.728 and a P value of 0.000, which indicate the existence of a positive and strong correlation between the quality of public urban space and pedestrian mobility, suggesting that as the quality of public urban space improves, pedestrian mobility also tends to improve. It is concluded that the quality of public urban space and pedestrian mobility are essential for the development of more livable, healthy and sustainable cities, and that professional, architecturally sound urban design planning is essential to meet the current and future challenges of urbanization.