Por onde andamos? O ambiente construído e a caminhabilidade na área central do município de Mossoró/RN

Abstract

The walkability and the concern with the human scale has been gaining prominence with the emergence of the debate regarding sustainable cities and the improvement of the quality of urban life. Walking is the main mode of transportation carried out in Brazilian cities. However, the current way of planning cities leads to the subordination of urban space to the automobile's logic. Walkability is a feature that allows us to understand how much the built environment encourages walking or not, reflecting on the choice of routes when traveling on foot. Thus, the current paper aims at the relation between walkability and the built environment and how can the quality of this environment influence the choice to walking. In this regard, how does the built environment influence the walking conditions in the city of Mossoró/RN? Furthermore, what characteristics of the built environment determine the choice of pedestrian routes when traveling on foot? This research features a qualitative study considering the Case Study as an investigation method covering primary data from field data collection. The methodological's approach is arranged into three stages: the measurement of the built environment's attributes; mapping of pedestrian behavior patterns; and an overview of the empirical data collected in a thematic maps' series, in order to provide a visual panorama of the issue studied in space. Lastly, the correlation of walkability and the pedestrian movements will provide insights to understanding the influence of the built environment on walking.