By exposing more benefits than shortcomings regarding cycling, this paper focuses on university students as a significant target group that could promote cycling as the main transport mode in cities. The paper addresses a variety of determinants, barriers, and motivation for cycling among the university students within the international context. Furthermore, it exposes the importance of smaller university cities, where students can present a substantial share of the total population. Contextually, we present the research upon the use of bicycles among the students in the university city of Maribor, Slovenia. To examine whether social or infrastructural determinants play a decisive role, a questionnaire was conducted among 382 students. The findings revealed that although the topography of the city and the distances between crucial institutions are, in general, favorable, only 10.7% of students cycle daily, whereby 63.3% do not cycle at all. There were no statistical differences noticed between the impact of infrastructural and social factors; convenience was exposed as a statistically significant determinant, whereas the sustainability aspect proved to be an insignificant factor for students cycling. To conclude, cycling among the student population in smaller cities can represent a common case of potentially high impact of student population regarding sustainable mobility.

Ovaj rad daje pregled brojnih pristupa i alata koji mogu dovesti do značajne prostorne i funkcionalne transformacije gradskih ulica s ciljem poboljšanja kvalitete života u urbanim sredinama. Pristupi variraju od onih tradicionalnih...

The general increase in the use of social media platforms since 2010 is related to the growing amount of data collected on the Internet, which may represent an opportunity for urban research. By analysing publicly available geolocated data from social media platforms, it is possible to track changes in the attractiveness and spatiotemporal dynamics of public spaces through their different stages of development. In this paper, we analyse data obtained from the Instagram and Flickr - for both platforms, user-sharing photographs is their main feature. Photos taken during daily interactions in public space have a symbolic value. In addition, social media posts contain valuable metadata that can be used for analysis and information discovery. In research, social media posts are used to measure and identify the attractiveness and dynamics of a selected public space. Data was collected by using the REST API technology. Two case studies are presented that retrospectively analyse the attractiveness and dynamics of selected public spaces from Graz (Austria) and Maribor (Slovenia). The research results show that the data from the Flickr platform, which provides access to the exact geolocation of the posted photos, can show the attractiveness of the locations, as the popular sights in both cities were clearly identified on the generated heatmaps. The maps showed locations that were perceived as important and attractive by residents or visitors in order to document them, which indicates certain motivation or even quality that confirms the expected correlation. With the methodology presented, the data collected on the Instagram social media platform can, to a certain extent, reflect the activities carried out in the physical public space, even if it cannot provide a complete picture. The research results are considered a valuable proxy for determining the general level of social interaction in public space. The methodology presented demonstrates the innovative approach to retrospective analysis of dynamics and changing attractiveness from social media perspective in public space. In the future, however, more social media data will be available, which will allow a more specific analysis and - in combination with other data sources - a more effective detection of deficiencies in public space, but also better urban planning and management. Finally, there is an enormous potential for retrospective research using the comparative method, but also for linking new ICT driven approaches with traditional methods.

Streets with an increasingly important place function play a significant role in the contemporary discourse on sustainable cities. The paper addresses urban streets that, observed from the urban planning perspective, have the potential to be transformed into either commercial or residential shared streets. After defining urban planning parameters identified as characteristic of shared streets, streets were quantified based on an analysis of the existing shared streets in Central Europe. By setting up distinctive scenarios that could help to detect specific types of streets, open spatial datasets were used for the mapping and identification of streets that could be transformed into shared streets. The methodology was tested on the example of the city of Maribor in Slovenia. The results of the research show that the selected urban planning parameters can help to identify streets with transformation potential, whereas the basic parameters, such as the building use and the length and width of the street, help us to better understand the urban fabric in which street spaces acquire new functions. The presented mapping method could serve as a testing tool for experts, planners, decision-makers, and the interested public to identify potential street transformations.