Measuring walkability in urban context for touristic purposes

In the context of sustainable mobility research, a field of great importance is represented by "active mobility" and, specifically, by “walkability”. And there is a growing interest of local government authorities for this issue in the urban development planning, noting potential benefits in terms of health, economy, environmental sustainability, quality of life, from measures aimed at promoting walkability. With this contribution, after a state of the art on the topic, criteria and attributes useful for characterizing walkability in urban areas for tourism purposes are proposed; a specific attention is paid to the utility functions perceived by the users, starting from studies of Transport Systems Theory. Reflecting on walkability means not only knowing the "current state" of pedestrian mobility in a city, an area or a single street but, above all, thinking about future perspectives, outlining innovative proposals and new projects, until providing a basis for the elaboration of new strategies and policies. Walking is the first and simplest human activity. It is probably moving on foot that man will contribute to winning the challenge of sustainability, redesigning the relationship between town planning and transport planning. The paper focus in depth on the walkability in relation to touristic mobility in urban context and the user cost functions