CITY-STEP: How city morphology and environmental effects shape gait while walking – CITY-STEP

The CITY-STEP project investigates how urban morphology and environmental factors influence walking behavior, with a focus on gait and walking dynamics. While previous research has assessed walkability primarily through macro-scale characteristics such as street density and accessibility, CITY-STEP aims to investigate how urban elements influence pedestrian movements at the "step scale”.
The project is divided into three main work packages (WPs):
- WP1 involves data collection of pedestrian environments, identifying urban routes with different morphological characteristics. Fifteen to twenty participants from Nantes will walk these routes, and geospatial data as 3D models and their attributes will be collected to assess walkability.
- WP2 is developing a multi-scale gait model using sensors such as inertial trackers, cameras and eye trackers to capture walking dynamics without disturbing the natural gait on site. This package focuses on identifying key biomechanical indicators such as gait variability and ground reaction forces.
- WP3 links the gait data to urban morphology and performs a multifactorial analysis to derive new indicators of walkability and understand how different urban elements influence walking mechanics.

The City-STEP project uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines expertise from the fields of urban research, signal processing and computer vision. It aims to gain new insights into walkability by focusing on the interaction between urban form and walking dynamics, providing new knowledge for urban design to create more pedestrian-friendly spaces. CITY-STEP is in line with the goals of sustainable mobility and contributes to the development of healthier, more walkable cities.