Walking as urban communication: affordances and agency in public space in a semi-lockdown city

Abstract

While unlimited pedestrian mobility is usually considered a key characteristic of open democracies and healthy urban communication, a global pandemic has re-organised how public space can be used. By analysing places of interaction, infrastructure, and politics and civil society, this article examines walking in the pandemic city as a form of urban communication. The article explores meanings that young adults give to walking in semi-lockdown Helsinki, Finland by employing a qualitative multi-method approach. The findings underline participants' emotional and social motivations for walking, highlighting the need to plan for local places of connection. The article argues that an individual's chance to shape affordances of walking relies on their own walking practices and personal resources instead of understanding walking as a point of planning intervention.

Pandemic disorientations and reorientations as legacies: Scoping review of COVID‐19 impacts on European cities

“…Many studies also focused on the increased interest in cycling. Debates about creating urban infrastructures more suitable for pedestrian and cycling mobility were prompted by the growth in walking and bike usage for leisure and also as a commuting mode, and those debates have included renewed attention on bike‐sharing schemes (de Séjournet et al, 2022; Lukić et al, 2022; Niitamo, 2021; Nikiforiadis et al, 2022; Strömberg & Wallgren, 2022; Teixeira et al, 2021). Attention to other modes of micromobility (Li et al, 2021) also found informed city‐wide and neighbourhood policies concerned with long‐term planning for and design and management of urban green mobility infrastructure using pedestrianisation of public spaces, pedestrian‐friendly walking infrastructure, bike paths, and other cycling infrastructure (Fenu, 2021; Nikiforiadis et al, 2022; Ugolini et al, 2021).…”