Revisiting Urban Street Planning and Design Factors to Promote Walking as a Physical Activity for Middle-Class Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome in Cairo, Egypt

Hisham Abusaada and Abeer Elshater ()
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Hisham Abusaada: Housing and Building National Research Center, Giza 1770, Egypt
Abeer Elshater: Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, Egypt

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-29

Abstract: This paper revisits the planning and design factors of “pedestrianized” and “walkable” urban streets to encourage physical activity, focusing on their prioritization according to public health and smart growth. The aim is to create a conceptual framework for urban planners and designers to encourage walking and reduce metabolic syndrome (MetS) risks. Through a scoping review, the study found that while pedestrianized and walkable streets share many planning and design factors, they have different objectives. The study explores how urban planning and design can reduce MetS risk among middle-class individuals using online video storytelling for 30 participants in three districts of Cairo, Egypt: El Zamalek, Old Cairo, and Heliopolis. It identifies three factors to address MetS symptoms for middle-class individuals: strategic, design-oriented, and technical. Practitioners and policymakers can use this framework to evaluate the impact of their work. This study is particularly relevant for cities in the Global South that are facing similar challenges.

Keywords: public health; pedestrianization; planning and design practices; smart growth; socio-economic disparities; urban streets; walkability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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