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Among a number of variables shown to affect pedestrian route choice, path length and turns have stood out as the most consequential. Turns have been considered the superior variable by some architectural scholars of urban street networks, while transportation planners and geographers believe distance to be paramount. The longstanding debate between these two approaches has been reinvigorated with the emergence of big data and advanced computational methods. In this paper, we provide much-needed clarity to this debate by demonstrating how the relative effect of turns depends on the spatial properties of street networks. We postulate that certain properties of street networks make it possible to reduce the number of turns without substantially increasing route distance, and suggest that data from such environments are likely to show a large effect of turns on route choice. Conversely, networks where a reduction of in turns is necessarily accompanied by an increase in distance are expected to reduce the effect of turns. We test these hypotheses by examining the effects of both distance and turns on pedestrian route choice using a path size logit model calibrated on over 10,000 anonymized GPS traces of pedestrians each in San Francisco, CA and Boston, MA. We find that the effect of distance is consistently larger in magnitude, while the effect of turns depends on network geometry. Only in specific street networks can turns alone explain route choice behavior as well as distance. Our findings suggest that turns, as well as other environmental qualities of a route, should be considered in addition to, not in lieu of, distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although there is ample evidence that the way we feel and anticipate feeling in certain situations or places can assert great influence on our behavior, this emotional component of the space–time path has for the most part remained external to time geographical analyses. Working from within a time geographical framework, this paper shows that spatio-temporal and emotional boundaries are both relevant and interacting while persons travel their paths through time and space. To that purpose we suggest a reinterpretation of authority constraints and to take into account the biological and cultural expressions of individuals. The rather static conceptualizations of the poverty–context relationship in poverty studies could benefit from an emotionally sensitive time geography. We draw from a small case study of low-income single mothers in San Francisco, California. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Intersection level of service (LOS) is a traffic engineering concept which measures how streets handle automobile traffic. It is widely used in transportation planning as an indicator of delay at intersections. The use of LOS is often criticized for its bias towards automobiles at the expense of bicycling, transit, and walking, and it complicates smart growth or compact development. In San Francisco, California, there is a political movement to eliminate the use of LOS in planning. But this movement has met significant obstacles and debate. In this paper I explore how the debate in San Francisco is unfolding and suggest implications for broader efforts to reconfigure urban streets and urban space in the United States and globally. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a detailed empirical description of airport connectivities in four major multiple airport cities (London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Our analysis draws on data derived from a previously largely untapped information source, i.e. the so-called ‘Marketing Information Data Transfer’ (MIDT). This dataset contains information on actually flown transnational routes, which allows for a thorough assessment of the chief connectivity characteristics of specific airports. Combined with information derived from a number of other sources, our results point to functional divisions among airports, both in terms of their geographical scale (e.g. national, regional, and international airports) and their specific role in the airline network (e.g. origin/destination versus hub airports). The implications of the results are discussed, and some avenues for future research are considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Synergies between shopping and public transit have long been noted, with main streets emerging along tram lines and shopping malls attached to train stations. The shopping-transit synergy is also at the core of transit-oriented development (TOD), a widespread planning approach to urban sustainability. However, there is a lack of morphological research investigating how shopping clusters around transit stations at a fine-geographic scale. This paper explores the shopping morphologies of three central-city subway station areas in Toronto, San Francisco, and Melbourne, mapping and measuring the extent of public and quasi-public shopfronts relative to the station. The morphological analysis of 200, 300, 400, and 500 m walking catchments shows that as the distance from the station increases, the proportion of shopfronts in the total catchment declines. Quasi-public shopping space can enhance the walkable catchment and permeability of a station area and may contribute to urbanity as long as it adds to diversity of access options. The findings highlight the role walkable shopping environments can play within urban transit station areas and show the importance of nuanced consideration being given to morphologies in the analysis and planning of TODs. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]