There has been a growing interest in the transformation of major urban squares in Istanbul in rec... more There has been a growing interest in the transformation of major urban squares in Istanbul in recent years. This heightened trend in the urban renewal of prominent areas within the city has led to multiple pedestrianization projects aimed to revitalize urban cores in terms of infrastructure and pedestrian activity. Despite their strategic schemes, these proposed projects lack an objective methodology to implement systematically at various scales. This paper focuses on the walkability of 3 historical urban squares in Istanbul by analyzing their street configuration and land use compositions and comparing it with the levels of pedestrian movement. The main objective of this study is to determine the existing relationship between space allocation and pedestrian activity and to assess the efficiency of proposed pedestrianization projects developed by local authorities for these areas. Overall, the analyses presented in this study emphasize the importance of measures of street connectivity in walkability studies. It is shown that street network configuration; measured using both metric and directional connectivity measures at the road-segment scale is strongly associated with pedestrian movement when controlling for land use compositions at the parcel-level. Based on the spatial analysis and statistical models produced for the research area, a pedestrian-oriented strategical framework that takes into account the existing spatial configuration, parcel-based land-use compositions, as well as pedestrian movement distributions within the areas is proposed for the study areas and their surroundings. With its systematic methodology, efficient spatial models, and strategical approach, this study is anticipated to be used as a unique design framework for prospective urban design and pedestrianization projects for Istanbul.
We study three 1 mile x 1 mile areas in Atlanta to establish correlations between street configur... more We study three 1 mile x 1 mile areas in Atlanta to establish correlations between street configuration and densities of pedestrian movement. Two kinds of analysis are used: first, standard syntactic analysis applied to axial maps drawn to cover surrounding areas large enough so that Radius 3 Integration values assigned to observation spaces suffer no edge effects; second, new techniques of analysis that can be applied to standard GIS representations of street center-lines. It is shown that the new measures post-dict movement densities as well as the standard syntactic measures.
This study examines the impact of street network connectivity on transit patronage. The aim is to... more This study examines the impact of street network connectivity on transit patronage. The aim is to better understand how connectivity affects the decision to use public transportation after we control for population density and the effect of walking distance from the transit station. Data on population densities, transit service features, and annual average daily station boardings are drawn from Chicago (CTA), Dallas (DART), and Atlanta (MARTA). Results suggest that metric reach, which measures the street length that is accessible within a walking range, has significant impact on ridership levels jointly with population density and two attributes of transit service features. In particular, the estimates indicate that metric reach is a stronger predictor of transit use than station area population densities.
This study analyzes an on-board transit survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission in or... more This study analyzes an on-board transit survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission in order to determine how far urban density, mixed land-uses, and street network connectivity are related to transit walk-mode shares to/from stations. The data are drawn from all the stations of Atlanta's rapid transit network (MARTA). Overall, the analyses presented in this study confirm the hypothesis that local conditions around MARTA rail stations are significantly related to riders' choice to walk to/from transit. The results emphasize the importance of including measures of street connectivity in transit-oriented studies. It is shown that street connectivity is strongly associated with walk-mode shares when controlling for transit service characteristics as well as population density, land-use mix and personal attributes. The research findings have several implications. They confirm that transit oriented policies are better supported by urban development policies and zoning and subdivision regulations that encourage transit-friendly urban forms. Findings also augment the knowledge base that supports transit oriented development by emphasizing the contribution of the spatial structure of the street network, over and above the impact of side-walk provision and design and pedestrian safety.
This paper reconsiders the question of how the built environment, in terms of the spatial configu... more This paper reconsiders the question of how the built environment, in terms of the spatial configuration of urban layout and land-use patterns, affects wayfinding performance. In an attempt to develop physical design solutions, first-time visitors' directed search patterns within a 2x2km area in the historical peninsula of Sultanahmet, İstanbul, are recorded. The recorded data are analyzed to determine the extent to which street connectivity, measured by metric and directional reach, and visibility patterns, measured by visual integration, visual connectivity and visual clustering coefficient, are related to spatial learning -path selection for exploratory movement. This study enhances previous findings using space syntax by better controlling for the effects of land-use as compared to the effects of spatial configuration of urban networks. Asserting the independent role of configurational design is important given that urban morphology acts as the long term framework within which land-uses change over time. The findings imply that the overall spatial configuration of urban layouts -both at the local and global level-may prove to be an important variable for the description and modulation of human spatial behavior in urban environments.
There has been a growing interest in the transformation of major urban squares in Istanbul in rec... more There has been a growing interest in the transformation of major urban squares in Istanbul in recent years. This heightened trend in the urban renewal of prominent areas within the city has led to multiple pedestrianization projects aimed to revitalize urban cores in terms of infrastructure and pedestrian activity. Despite their strategic schemes, these proposed projects lack an objective methodology to implement systematically at various scales. This paper focuses on the walkability of 3 historical urban squares in Istanbul by analyzing their street configuration and land use compositions and comparing it with the levels of pedestrian movement. The main objective of this study is to determine the existing relationship between space allocation and pedestrian activity and to assess the efficiency of proposed pedestrianization projects developed by local authorities for these areas. Overall, the analyses presented in this study emphasize the importance of measures of street connectivity in walkability studies. It is shown that street network configuration; measured using both metric and directional connectivity measures at the road-segment scale is strongly associated with pedestrian movement when controlling for land use compositions at the parcel-level. Based on the spatial analysis and statistical models produced for the research area, a pedestrian-oriented strategical framework that takes into account the existing spatial configuration, parcel-based land-use compositions, as well as pedestrian movement distributions within the areas is proposed for the study areas and their surroundings. With its systematic methodology, efficient spatial models, and strategical approach, this study is anticipated to be used as a unique design framework for prospective urban design and pedestrianization projects for Istanbul.
We study three 1 mile x 1 mile areas in Atlanta to establish correlations between street configur... more We study three 1 mile x 1 mile areas in Atlanta to establish correlations between street configuration and densities of pedestrian movement. Two kinds of analysis are used: first, standard syntactic analysis applied to axial maps drawn to cover surrounding areas large enough so that Radius 3 Integration values assigned to observation spaces suffer no edge effects; second, new techniques of analysis that can be applied to standard GIS representations of street center-lines. It is shown that the new measures post-dict movement densities as well as the standard syntactic measures.
This study examines the impact of street network connectivity on transit patronage. The aim is to... more This study examines the impact of street network connectivity on transit patronage. The aim is to better understand how connectivity affects the decision to use public transportation after we control for population density and the effect of walking distance from the transit station. Data on population densities, transit service features, and annual average daily station boardings are drawn from Chicago (CTA), Dallas (DART), and Atlanta (MARTA). Results suggest that metric reach, which measures the street length that is accessible within a walking range, has significant impact on ridership levels jointly with population density and two attributes of transit service features. In particular, the estimates indicate that metric reach is a stronger predictor of transit use than station area population densities.
This study analyzes an on-board transit survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission in or... more This study analyzes an on-board transit survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission in order to determine how far urban density, mixed land-uses, and street network connectivity are related to transit walk-mode shares to/from stations. The data are drawn from all the stations of Atlanta's rapid transit network (MARTA). Overall, the analyses presented in this study confirm the hypothesis that local conditions around MARTA rail stations are significantly related to riders' choice to walk to/from transit. The results emphasize the importance of including measures of street connectivity in transit-oriented studies. It is shown that street connectivity is strongly associated with walk-mode shares when controlling for transit service characteristics as well as population density, land-use mix and personal attributes. The research findings have several implications. They confirm that transit oriented policies are better supported by urban development policies and zoning and subdivision regulations that encourage transit-friendly urban forms. Findings also augment the knowledge base that supports transit oriented development by emphasizing the contribution of the spatial structure of the street network, over and above the impact of side-walk provision and design and pedestrian safety.
This paper reconsiders the question of how the built environment, in terms of the spatial configu... more This paper reconsiders the question of how the built environment, in terms of the spatial configuration of urban layout and land-use patterns, affects wayfinding performance. In an attempt to develop physical design solutions, first-time visitors' directed search patterns within a 2x2km area in the historical peninsula of Sultanahmet, İstanbul, are recorded. The recorded data are analyzed to determine the extent to which street connectivity, measured by metric and directional reach, and visibility patterns, measured by visual integration, visual connectivity and visual clustering coefficient, are related to spatial learning -path selection for exploratory movement. This study enhances previous findings using space syntax by better controlling for the effects of land-use as compared to the effects of spatial configuration of urban networks. Asserting the independent role of configurational design is important given that urban morphology acts as the long term framework within which land-uses change over time. The findings imply that the overall spatial configuration of urban layouts -both at the local and global level-may prove to be an important variable for the description and modulation of human spatial behavior in urban environments.
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Papers by Ayse Ozbil