Zurich Papers
(re)Presenting Suburbia: image and identity at the citys edge
Kelvin Walsh
Summary: This paper presents the changing representation of suburbs and suburban culture during the 20th century and provides a global scan of new directions in suburban development and their implications for creating walkable cities. The role of the suburb in the metropolis is not as clear as it once was. The edges between city and suburb, suburb and country, and between the core and periphery have become increasingly blurred in the polycentric city. This presentation will explore the representation of suburbs and suburbia in contemporary culture (film, literature, art) and map its changing culture. This is presented alongside the manner in which city design professionals have discussed suburbs. Weaving the two simultaneous discourses provides a deeper understanding of the suburbs, its culture and the opportunities for improving city sustainability in the broadest sense. The presentation will demonstrate the way in which identity, geography, psychology, ecology, planning, population complexity and economy contribute to the complexity that is suburbs. It is vital that, as practitioners, we understand this complexity if we are to turn the visions of a new walkable culture into practice in the suburbs. The presentation concludes with a discussion of new directions in the development of suburbs and provides a global scan of developers emerging trends including the introduction of irony in suburbia, transposing urban ideals to the suburban context, the play on nostalgia and the importance of ecology. ... More
A Business Case for Active Transport A Tool for Measuring Outcomes against the Triple Bottom Line. Social Environmental and Economic outcomes
Rita Butera, VicHealth; Julie Webb,
Summary: Abstract VicHealth and ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability Australia/New Zealand (ICLEI-A/NZ) have worked in partnership to develop a tool for measuring the benefits of active transport initiatives against triple bottom line indicators (social, environmental and economic indicators). The focus of the active transport measurement tool is on the Walking School Bus. The aim of this project was to demonstrate to local governments in Victoria, Australia, the multiple health, environmental and economic benefits of supporting and promoting active transport practices, specifically through increased pedestrian and bicycle friendly initiatives. Specifically, VicHealth funded ICLEI-A/NZ in 2003/04 and 2004/05 to develop the Walking School Bus Quantification Tool. ... More
A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture dealing with the city''
Wrights & Sites: Stephen Hodge, Simon Persighetti, Phil Smith & Cathy Turner
Summary: Drawing on the urban exploratory work of our ongoing is-Guide project and our use of the walking drift or derive, Wrights & Sites presents a manifesto for the active and creative pedestrian - envisioning a walking that is neither a functional necessity (to shops, to work) nor a passive appreciation of (or complaint about) the urban environment. Instead we present a manifesto for a walking that engages with and changes the city, particularly using the arts. One of our key strategies is site-specificity: devising walkings that are specific to their routes, to their surroundings. In harmony with this we present our paper in a manner specific to the Casino setting of the conference, dividing it into four suits (as in a deck of playing cards). The order of presentation of the material was determined by the shuffle of a deck of cards by a croupier. Each 'suit' of the manifesto has been written by a different member of Wrights & Sites. In broad outline these 'suits' have the following foci: The walker as artist, the city as compositional catalyst. Flirting with Dada (with its roots in Zurichs Cabaret Voltaire and its emphasis on chance operations and the production of manifestos), this 'suit' explores connections between the processes walking and artistic composition. [Clubs - Stephen Hodge] The walker as writer of the city. First we change the way we 'read' the city: a set of new concepts that will unbalance the consciousness of the everyday walker and challenge the dominant assumptions about walking and the city as a place for walking. Then proposing a set of strategies (or 'fulcra') for ways of re-writing the city, moving from changed perceptions of the familiar city to the means to change its organisation, uses, attitudes to and planning of public space. [Spades - Simon Persighetti] The walker as playful performer. Walking as a means of playful reinvention, a 'making strange' of the everyday. Remembering our theatrical roots and that Brecht was an exile in Zurich in 1947-1948, this suit considers the walker's performance as a move out from the theatre towards a more open playing space. [Hearts - Cathy Turner]Disrupted walking as the new designing of the city. How does a new kind of walking engage with the planning of the city and the powers that initiate and deliver it? Strategies for a new walking, to become more like an active re-designing of public place, generating a 'culture' that changes specific spaces. The creative pedestrian as the new architect of the city. [Diamonds - Phil Smith] In place of the 'court cards' (Jack, Queen, King) of these suits, we have invited guests to offer short interventions into our manifesto. These are Bess Lovejoy [journalist and writer on urbanism - Diamonds], Richard Layzell [performance artist - Hearts], Fiona Templeton [author of YOU, the city - Spades] and contemporaries of the Dada movement [Clubs]. ... More
Address by Dorothee Fierz President of the Government Council on the following
Dorothee Fierz
Summary: The topic you are concerned with, ladies and gentlemen, is also an issue that concerns very much, a pedestrian-friendly future. For one thing, I myself am a very active person loves to walk. I walk often and I enjoy it since it gives me a chance to relax and recharge batteries. For another thing, walking is a means of transport that promotes health, does not generate either noise or exhaust fumes, and does not burn limited resources. In the title of speech I have posed a question: whether the Canton of Zurich is truly pedestrian-friendly. me turn briefly to the term itself. Pedestrian friendliness must first be examined in a cultural context. It is defined by general living conditions and habits and by the importance society gives to walking. In many cities the world, pedestrian friendliness can simply mean that it is possible to cross from one side the road to the other without getting run over. ... More
Are pedometers useful motivational tools for increasing walking in sedentary adults?
Graham Baker, BSc (Hons): University of Strathclyde, Professor Nanette Mutrie, DPE, M.Ed, PhD, FBASES: University of Strathclyde
Summary: Walking helps people achieve the recommended accumulation of 30 minutes moderate activity daily. It is accessible to both genders, young and old, and is capable of overcoming many barriers such as time or expense. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of pedometers, in conjunction with goal setting programmes (designed to accumulate 30 minutes of walking at least 5 days of the week), in providing motivation for walking. The study used the transtheoretical model of behaviour change (TTM) as a framework for behaviour change. Seventy-one participants (54 women and 17 men, aged 42 to 11 years; range 18 to 61 years) wore a sealed pedometer for 7 days to establish baseline step counts. Participants were randomly assigned to; pedometer intervention (n=23, pedometer open for feedback plus 4-week goal setting programme in steps), minutes goal setting intervention (n=24, 4-week goal setting programme in minutes) or control group (n=24, no action for 4 weeks). Questionnaires based on the 4 components of the TTM (self-efficacy, decisional balance, process of change, stage of change) and a 7-day recall of physical activity (PA) were completed at baseline and week 4. A one-way ANOVA was performed between the groups for step-count at baseline, week 4 and step-count difference (week 4 minus baseline). No significant difference was found between the groups at baseline in terms of step-count. However at week 4 (p=0.044) and for step-count difference (p=0.000) significant differences were found. A one sample t-test identified that the pedometer intervention group significantly increased step count from baseline to week 4 (mean increase of 20,186 steps, p<0.001). Both other groups displayed no significant difference. 1-sample Wilcoxon tests showed both the pedometer intervention group (p=0.012) and minutes goal setting group (p=0.002) significantly increased their total 7-day recall of PA. The control group reported no significant difference. For all groups (at baseline and at week 4), the processes of self-liberation and self re-evaluation received the highest frequency of use scores. Wilcoxon analysis found the minutes goal setting group significantly increased their use of counter conditioning (p=0.022), while the control group significantly increased their use of stimulus control (p=0.007). 69% of participants considered themselves inactive at baseline, ... More
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