The relationship of the city centre to its surroundings: Correlations between urban spatial structures and inhabitants' frequency of city-centre visits in four Norwegian cities

Many cities seek to strengthen their city centre, and this paper contributes valuable insights for planners and decision-makers in this quest. Taking a comparative case-study approach, the study examines the assumed causal relations between urban spatial structures and the frequency of city-centre visits in four Norwegian cities with 22,400–56,000 inhabitants. The survey data show that many inhabitants visit the city centre once or more per week. The cross-case and context-sensitive case-by-case analyses shed light on a complex, context-dependent relationship between city-centre visits and the explanatory variables. Both land-use structures and the transport system influenced how often the respondents visited their city centre. The effect of competing retail and service destinations may be amplified or counteracted by spatial structural variables and the appreciation of the city centre, an influence that is pivotal for the frequency of visits. The study confirms the often-mentioned explanatory factors of reduced city-centre performance and highlights a complex, fragile, context-dependent relationship. Hence, it advances our understanding of the performance of city centres and how cities' spatial structures establish behavioural conditions.