Green and Blue Trail Networks: New Windows of Opportunity for Active Living in the XXIst Century ( breakout presentation )

Background While the benefits of walking are now widely recognized and their use is becoming more widespread, it still appears as somewhat unseemly to consider walking as an appropriate transport modes to move about in more suburban areas. Continuity in the urban network is a key issue to ensure a speedier uptake of walking in suburbia. In this context, green and blue trail networks that allow walking for long continuous stretches within metropolitan areas can play an important role in knitting peripheral districts together. Description of Policy Several European metropolises are already exploiting this potential to good effect, in order to bring forward the best infrastructure solutions to encourage a more widespread and intensive use of walking to cover medium-range distances from 2 to 5 km, be it for leisure, shopping or work-related purposes. Geneva, Brussels, Bucharest and Paris are our main case studies: four different cities, four different ways to bring about a truly walkable network that can drain mobility fluxes from the periphery of an agglomeration to its centre, and conversely, bring the centre closer to its peripheral borderlands. Such potential offers an opportunity to harness the development of green and blue trail networks over the vast territory of an agglomeration and put it to use in order to encourage the uptake of active modes for longer travel distances. Outcomes Connecting, crossing, meshing, stapling are the four urban geometry concepts that we wish to delve on during this presentation. We will show that the choice of the geometry that gathers together the green and blue framework has a strong influence in the perception of how walkable the city is perceived to be, and subsequently influences walking practice. Therefore, knowing which parameters to take into account when making this choice is relevant to policymakers implementing new strategies for promoting walking in suburbia. Implications To wrap up we would like to engage with the audience on a discussion regarding the recommendations to enhance the potential for walking in suburban areas through implementing the best geometries to enhance the attractiveness of green and blue trail networks.