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Residents’ acceptance towards car-free street experiments : Focus on perceived quality of life and neighborhood attachment

Marcheschi, Elizabeth LU ; Vogel, Nina ; Larsson, Anders ; Perander, Sonja and Koglin, Till LU (2022) In Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 14.
Abstract

While the twentieth century was dominated by private car usage, shifts towards more sustainable urban mobility, to mitigate environmental damage and increase health benefits, are now taking place. In Scandinavia, several car-free street experiments take form, that span from permanent car-free inner-city plans (i.e. Oslo) to temporary interventions (i.e. pop-up plaza and parklets) to shift the use of urban settings and infrastructures from motorised traffic towards spaces for people and social interactions. Specifically, in Sweden, transitory car-free street experiments (i.e. summer streets) are developed with the purpose of creating novel mobility patterns and uses of public spaces that enhance social inclusion and quality of life.... (More)

While the twentieth century was dominated by private car usage, shifts towards more sustainable urban mobility, to mitigate environmental damage and increase health benefits, are now taking place. In Scandinavia, several car-free street experiments take form, that span from permanent car-free inner-city plans (i.e. Oslo) to temporary interventions (i.e. pop-up plaza and parklets) to shift the use of urban settings and infrastructures from motorised traffic towards spaces for people and social interactions. Specifically, in Sweden, transitory car-free street experiments (i.e. summer streets) are developed with the purpose of creating novel mobility patterns and uses of public spaces that enhance social inclusion and quality of life. Despite Swedish municipalities’ monitoring of these interventions, very little is known about which physical parameters (i.e. environmental qualities) and psychosocial processes (i.e. emotional relation with places) affect people's acceptance and place usability during car-free initiatives. Following the guidelines proposed by the European Commission, this paper focuses on residents’ perception of car-free street experiments. The aim is to identify how acceptance and usability of car-free street experiments might vary depending on the perceived qualities of the physical urban settings and on interceding psychosocial processes such as, neighborhood attachment and perceived quality of life. An interdisciplinary methodology of investigation merging knowledge from the field of environmental psychology, landscape architecture, urban transport and planning was applied on four case studies in Sweden. Results suggest that psychosocial processes of place attachment and quality of life are relevant in order to understand the level of acceptance towards car-free streets implementations.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Car-free street experiments, Neighbourhood attachment, Quality of life, Residents' perception, Usability and acceptance of car-free streets
in
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
volume
14
article number
100585
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85126687698
ISSN
2590-1982
DOI
10.1016/j.trip.2022.100585
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
732b8655-d02b-4859-a401-a138d50df96e
date added to LUP
2022-05-20 15:23:00
date last changed
2022-05-20 15:23:00
@article{732b8655-d02b-4859-a401-a138d50df96e,
  abstract     = {{<p>While the twentieth century was dominated by private car usage, shifts towards more sustainable urban mobility, to mitigate environmental damage and increase health benefits, are now taking place. In Scandinavia, several car-free street experiments take form, that span from permanent car-free inner-city plans (i.e. Oslo) to temporary interventions (i.e. pop-up plaza and parklets) to shift the use of urban settings and infrastructures from motorised traffic towards spaces for people and social interactions. Specifically, in Sweden, transitory car-free street experiments (i.e. summer streets) are developed with the purpose of creating novel mobility patterns and uses of public spaces that enhance social inclusion and quality of life. Despite Swedish municipalities’ monitoring of these interventions, very little is known about which physical parameters (i.e. environmental qualities) and psychosocial processes (i.e. emotional relation with places) affect people's acceptance and place usability during car-free initiatives. Following the guidelines proposed by the European Commission, this paper focuses on residents’ perception of car-free street experiments. The aim is to identify how acceptance and usability of car-free street experiments might vary depending on the perceived qualities of the physical urban settings and on interceding psychosocial processes such as, neighborhood attachment and perceived quality of life. An interdisciplinary methodology of investigation merging knowledge from the field of environmental psychology, landscape architecture, urban transport and planning was applied on four case studies in Sweden. Results suggest that psychosocial processes of place attachment and quality of life are relevant in order to understand the level of acceptance towards car-free streets implementations.</p>}},
  author       = {{Marcheschi, Elizabeth and Vogel, Nina and Larsson, Anders and Perander, Sonja and Koglin, Till}},
  issn         = {{2590-1982}},
  keywords     = {{Car-free street experiments; Neighbourhood attachment; Quality of life; Residents' perception; Usability and acceptance of car-free streets}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives}},
  title        = {{Residents’ acceptance towards car-free street experiments : Focus on perceived quality of life and neighborhood attachment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100585}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.trip.2022.100585}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}