An integrated approach for urban green travel environments: Planning factors, benefits and barriers as perceived by users and planners

Integrated urban infrastructures provide multiple benefits to people and society. Efforts to develop green spaces and active mobility infrastructures both share concerns about the environment and public health but are understudied in an integrated manner. This study focuses on this integration in core urban areas through urban green travel environments. The involvement of both lay and expert knowledge can benefit the planning of integrated urban infrastructures like these. Therefore, this study applies a mixed method approach: perceptions of and requests for urban green travel environments were explored through public participatory GIS (PPGIS) survey with residents in Copenhagen, and semi-structured expert interviews were used to explore how Danish planners perceive the benefits, barriers, and planning factors for planning urban green travel environments. Residents perceived green spaces as urban green travel environments and requested further greening of the streets. In interviews, planners acknowledged the benefits of planning urban green travel environments. Through analysis of these interviews, we identified four key planning factors: infrastructure design and management, balance with other green space functions, collaboration, and people's awareness, as well as the main barriers being related to lack of space and budget. Further, the knowledge from residents and the planners were integrated. This study discusses ways to overcome identified barriers, and provides guidance not only for planning urban green travel environments but also engaging them in political agendas. This study contributes to scholarship on active mobility and urban green space planning by providing a case that combines the knowledge of both residents and planners.