Transportation-Related Constructs of Activity Spaces of Small Town Residents

2011

UMI. ProQuest® Dissertations & Theses The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest. Concepts of space and place neighborhood access, pedestrian movement, and physical ...

2007

This paper investigates the role of spatial structure and “urban narrative” in individual’s experience of a “place”. The spatial structure describes the actual space that individual navigates and occupies through its everyday activities. Whereas the term “urban narrative” describes the factors in urban history and social culture that create an imagined space that evolves through historical time and is navigated through city’s cultural mythology. A main challenge that urban designers and planners are facing is of creating recognisable and valued “places” that people would like to live and work in. This paper deals with the nature of neighbourhood as spatial, social and economic phenomenon and brings to the fore the “sense of place” as its intrinsic characteristic. It is acknowledged that the latter has a long history of investigation. However, to date the research has focused either on individual’s perceptions or attitudes towards geographical spaces or the local design features of u...

Leisure Sciences, 2007

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the meanings recreationists tenting at an agricultural fair associated with the settings in which their fair experience occurred. Using a symbolic interactionist framework, our analysis of data collected through onsite observation and using photo-elicitation guided interviews illustrated that informants' place meanings were the product of interactive processes involving the individual, their social world and the physical setting. These interactions elicited meanings tied to place that were largely independent of the physical attributes that defined the setting. Most significant were specific place experiences shared with family and close friends. The importance attached to these relationships and experiences were embedded in the spatial contexts that encapsulated informants' fair experience. Findings from this investigation shed light on the social construction of place meaning within a built environment.

Transportation Research Record: Journal of …, 2008

2013

Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyingly on the usability of the transportation system as a whole, a particular mode, the pattern of land uses, or the wherewithal of individuals and communities to make use of those systems. One aspect of accessibility that has received relatively little attention from planners is its cognitive, experiential aspect. Individuals' activity and travel choices require not just money and time but also information about opportunities in the city. This component of an individual's accessibility is highly personal but also dependent on the terrain of land uses and transportation options shaped by planners and policymakers. I seek to extend current accessibility research, addressing shortcomings in how the literature deals with individual experience of the city and knowledge. Through a series of empirical analyses of activity patterns and cognitive maps of the iii Los Angeles region, I explor...

… on Sustainable Tropical Design Research & …, 2007

significance disrupts emotional attachment . Since meaning and attachment construct place identity, further accentuated that the loss of meaning and attachment to places has negative implications for individuals' psychological well-being and their bonding with places as a venue of collective identity, memory and history. With consideration that activity is one of the basic components of place, this paper examines the linkage between attributes of activity and place attachment dimensions in the context of Kuala Lumpur city centre.

Journal of Transport and Land Use

Activity space (AS) is a measure of spatial behavior used to summarize the mobility behavior of individuals. Current studies often highlight the fact that AS is highly complex and multidimensional in character. Therefore, the need for more holistic approaches providing more comprehensive descriptions of mobility patterns is evident. This article assesses the activity spaces of young adults aged 25–40 living in the Helsinki metropolitan area using a dataset collected with an online map survey. Using a wide range of measurements covering different aspects of AS, we identified seven components that define activity spaces, namely size, intensity of activities, volume of trips, exteriority, polycentricity, elongation, and destination specialization. We then used the components together with travel mode use to identify a typology of daily mobility patterns. The results show that individuals with different types of AS differ significantly in their socio-demographic characteristics, such as...

The aim of this paper is to explore the behavioural framework for the integration of the 'mental map' concept into the activity based modelling of travel behaviour. The conceptual framework and the research methodology are described. Stated and revealed preference data gathering techniques are used simultaneously to gain insight in the role of 'spatial cognition' in daily travel choice behaviour. This results in a qualitative descriptive reflection on spatial learning and activity travel planning. Keynote of this research is the fact that spatial cognition -here defined as knowledge, experience and perception of large scale environments and its transportation systemsinfluences the choice set of alternatives that are known and considered by individual travelers. This could affect location choice, mode choice as well as route choice.

The dependence on cars for urban mobility and the exponential increase in traffic and urban infrastructure to sustain traffic have lead to an encapsulated way of life, where the connection with the natural environment is much more reduced and programmed. In a previous study, a process based on estimating distances showed that children who move around their city by automobile do not appreciate their environment as a spatial continuum, but rather as a series of independent spaces that are reached by automobile or bus, thereby evidencing a different way of conceptualizing urban space in the light of different cognitive structures (Goluboff, García-Mira, and García-Fontán, 2002). The present study is concerned with the process of understanding and knowledge of urban space, and contrasting the cognitive structure of different groups. The implications that this study may have for urban planning are discussed.

2018

Frontiers in psychology, 2024

Placeness is believed to play a significant role in enhancing the well-being and place-use of individuals, contributing profoundly to how spaces are experienced and interacted with. Despite its perceived importance, there is ongoing debate and insufficient clarity about how exactly placeness influences people's behavior. This study aims to bridge this gap by theorizing and investigating the pathways from placeness to people's behavioral intentions, emphasizing the roles of personal place attachment and public place image as pivotal mediators in this relationship. To explore these dynamics, we conducted a survey in Japan, examining the complex interplay between placeness and behavioral intentions, given their rich cultural heritage and modern urban pressures. We employed the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach for path analysis. The analysis suggests that placeness influences behavioral intention through personal place attachment. While placeness does affect public place image, this public image does not have an impact on behavioral intention. The results demonstrated that an individual's activities, experiences, and cognition of a place are significant factors in creating the intention to engage in wordof-mouth, recommendation, and revisiting behaviors. Policymakers, urban planners, and designers need to understand how to foster people's behavioral intentions when creating a place imbued with placeness.

Ecosphere, 2019

Place connections are core to being human: Every person lives in, and thus has direct experience of, at least one place and likely of numerous places throughout a lifetime. Sense of place-or the meanings, knowledge, and bonds that arise from the biophysical, social, and political-economic aspects of places-in turn influences people's interactions with those places. Of particular interest to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, such interactions can impact place-protective, stewardship, or conservation behaviors. However, how sense of place develops and what it represents is shifting in today's rapidly urbanizing, globalizing world. Especially when considering the integrated social-ecological context, questions related to how sense of place forms and is enacted in urban settings and at a range of geographic scales are challenging to study. Our study addresses this dynamic space: We examined how people's place connections intersect with their notions of geographic scale and levels of urbanity. Specifically, we conducted a 1201-person randomized telephone survey in the San Francisco Bay Area ecoregion of California, USA, to explore how sense of place varies by (1) the scale of what people consider to be their place, and (2) the urbanity of where people live. In comparison with respondents who perceived their place as the larger-scale ecoregion, we found that respondents who perceived their place as primarily focused on the urban area rated their connection to the biophysical aspects of place (the plants, animals, and landscape-related elements) lower. Similarly, overall, respondents who lived in urban areas rated their connections to the biophysical aspects of place lower than did respondents who lived in non-urban areas. Our findings suggest the importance of encouraging conceptualizations of place at broader geographic scales and, particularly, of supporting notions of urban spaces that stretch beyond urban boundaries. We also call for supporting increased engagement with urban nature, especially among residents of urban areas.

Cities, 2021

Centricity and multi-locality of activity spaces: The varying ways young and old adults use neighborhoods and extra-neighborhood spaces in Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Cities, 110, Article 103062.

2009

This paper starts from the assumption that a good space is a used space and that people’s behavior, movement and use, is primarily correlated to the potential of both the spatial structure and the visuals fields created by the spatial configuration: visibility. The success is attributable to “…how well the spatial configuration fits real pattern of human behavior” (Hillier 2004). The use of space is governed by two considerations: Its attractiveness, in term movement, how easy for people to move in; as to-movement and through-movement space, and the conduciveness of its visual properties to people’s activities. The correlation between the spatial use and isovists proprieties of space is the focus of this paper that is divided into two parts. The first, a comparative study of four plazas, considering the concept of natural movement about the “accessible destination” and space intelligibility, is carried out to look for the correlation of the number of static people (sitting and stand...