Cities at human speed: A favorable way to reduce the pace of modern life. Pull and push measures for change

Abstract

Walking is the wealthiest and fairest, healthiest, safest and strongest, smartest and greenest form of transport (Government of Scotland, 2014). Since Walking is part of the daily life of most people, that is why it is often taken for granted. To achieve a city for pedestrians, urban planners must reflect on how to stop designing cities with dispersed, discontinuous, and car-centric urban models, because it will be impossible to reverse this trend of development. Currently, contemporary cities must face the stress of its population, due to the speed of urban life, traffic congestion, long travel distances, etc. This research is underpinned by how pedestrian's scale contributes to better urban environments and for the welfare of citizens through the development and implementation of policies and strategies for encouraging walking. To address this issue, it tries to identify the factors that determine walking, and it explores some existing strategies at three administrative levels: local, regional, and national. In this regard, it proposes push and pull measures as the potential to help more people to walk. The city of Pontevedra is selected as a case study because it is considered a case of success. The results indicate that there is necessarily a transversal organization of mobility in the administration, adequate combinations of pull and push measures have shown to have the greatest effect, and interventions tailored to different parts of the city.