Role of urban spatial configuration and evaluative images in spatial behavior: Streets in Rasht City Center, Iran

Quantitative and qualitative factors strongly influence human spatial behavior. In addition to the effect of spatial configuration, in the present study, it is assumed that pedestrians’ behavior in the streets is also influenced by evaluative reactions. Nasar’s method, though of course in a different way, was used in the first stage. Users assessed the place based on the type of perception and the presence or absence of attributes of safer places. Nasar’s method was implemented using an online questionnaire designed with web-based software. The result of this project was a group evaluative image that shows preferences and spatial evaluations of users regarding safety when consuming the streets of the city center. The first step was combined with space syntax analysis to consider the street pattern’s syntactic attributes. Syntax space analysis was done using an axial map and considering some syntactic values such as integration, choice, connectivity, and intelligibility. Next, careful observation of the overt spatial behavior was performed to obtain information about space usage patterns using a virtual gate counting technique. The findings indicate that pedestrians’ use of urban open spaces is not only based on the issues related to space syntax but also involves the meaning and evaluative components of the landscape.