Work

Promoting walkable campuses: tactical urbanism and complete streets in Brazilian knowledge territories

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study investigates the processes and challenges of complete streets and tactical urbanism as strategies to promote walkability in knowledge territories, focusing on Global South contexts marked by urban inequality and car-centric planning. It adopts a qualitative exploratory approach, combining interpretative analysis of secondary data, including Geographic Information Systems shapefiles, institutional reports, and participatory workshop records, to examine the University of Campinas campus and its adjacent innovation district. The study reveals significant gaps in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, such as poor sidewalk connectivity and fragmented bicycle lanes. Key challenges identified include governance barriers, weak integration across institutional teams, limited community participation beyond academic stakeholders, and reliance on outdated or incomplete data. Despite these constraints, the living lab approach emerges as a promising tool to support iterative and inclusive urban design processes. The findings highlight the importance of structural reforms in governance, data management, and participation mechanisms to unlock the full potential of tactical urbanism and complete streets for sustainable mobility in knowledge territories.

Source: Cities & Health

DOI: 10.1080/23748834.2025.2531674