Abstract
The purpose of this study is to offer new insight into architectural and urban planning in the post-sedentary age. Specifically, we reveal the characteristics of walking in cities with mobile networks. The experiment involved strolling around the old town of Tokyo with 20 participants divided into two groups: (1) Those who could use smartphones and (2) those who could only use printed maps. The participants′ behaviors were recorded by GPS data loggers and analyzed by GIS in terms of the following three aspects.
First, we estimated the features of walking according to the lengths of time participants collected information and the contents of that information and reached the conclusion that walking within mobile networks was deliberate. Second, we analyzed the efficiency of walking using the redundancy index and concluded that different kinds of behaviors can be confirmed depending on the time available to complete tasks. Third, we explored walking with curiosity in terms of the various types of roads where participants walked and inferred that walking in a mobile network environment reduced anxiety regarding losing one′s way and aroused much curiosity.
