Pedestrian priority Street

As a result of the rapid and unplanned urbanization, many problems as land loss, collapse of city centers, expansion to rural areas, increase in private car ownership and environmental issues have emerged. In metropolitan cities, all these negatively affect the right and demand of the urban residents to access the city life and creates a spatial layout that is hard to walk and access. The “New Urbanism Movement” emerged after the 1990s aims to put an end to these problems. In New Urbanism movement, the solutions for the urban transport are decreasing automobile dependency, improving public transport by determining the best mode of transport both within and outside the city with connections to the other centers and designing walkable, pedestrian-friendly roads and streets.
In this direction, the study aims to point out the development of TOD (Transit Oriented Development), developed as a solution to urban transportation problems after 1990 and its benefits to urban space. Turkey has utilized the experiences in metropolitan cities as Florida, Boston, New Jersey etc. to create a guiding base for urban transportation/urban design policies.
Within the scope of the study, the contributions of transit-oriented development to urban transportation are determined and its importance in creating pedestrian-friendly space is highlighted.
The limitations of the study include the lack of similar projects in Turkey and selection of mega-city Istanbul as the sample of the project in the country.
The method of the study is literature review on the solutions for public transportation and pedestrian-oriented transportation from past to present. The experiences of global metropolitan cities are transferred. In Turkey, mega-city Istanbul is assessed in these terms. Spatial evaluations regarding the transfer points and commonly used public transportation rail systems as metrobus, metro, tram etc. are conducted. The study utilizes a three-stage method:
- Face-to-face interviews with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Directorate of Public Transportation. The semi-structured interview method, which is a qualitative research method, is utilized. Photographs and IMM maps are provided for a better understanding of the study.
-It is aimed to create a guide for urban transportation/urban design strategies of Turkey using comparative analysis of megacity examples. In the comparative analysis, () refers to developed and () refers to underdeveloped.
- In order to create a base for Turkey and Istanbul as a sample, the study also offers suggestions for pedestrian-oriented design/planning.
Keywords: Transport Planning, TOD, Pedestrian Priority, Metropolitan Cities, Istanbul.

Based on what Oldenburg stated, a “third place” is a place of “refuge” other than the home or workplace. It provides the opportunity for people to meet old friends or even make new ones where people can regularly visit and commune with their friends, relatives and even strangers. Mehta and Bosson (2010) concentrated on place based characteristics of “third place” and classified four groups, i.e. personalization and permeability (as subjective), and seating and shelter on the street (as objective characteristics). This paper aimed to distinguish third places and their characteristics, which support human scale and social interaction through studying in Meldrum Walk, in which the priority is given to pedestrians and non-traffic activities. In this study determining the way pedestrians perceive these environments, leads us to group all businesses premises as “third place” and “non third place”. “Non-third places” also divided in two groups. Only restaurants grouped under the “third place” category in Meldrum Walk.

Streets are the primary urban element and the primary public good. The word street has a broad meaning. Regarding programs we differ a primary street with city programs, a business street with a variety of businesses, a housing street with housing programs and a combination of all three. Regarding purposes we differ streets to pedestrians and streets to automobiles. In this paper we present the research of the two primary business/housing pedestrian streets in two different cities. The first street is Maršala Tita Street in Zenica, in BiH, formed gradually and largely in a spontaneous manner, located in the city centre. The second street is Ruđera Boškovića Street in Split/Split 3, in Croatia, carefully planned and built at once, located in the centre of the third city rayon. Maršala Tita Street encompasses city and housing programs, businesses, the University of Zenica Campus, the market, the old centre and the Jalijasꞌ Bridge. Ruđera Boškovića Street encompasses city and housing programs, businesses, the University of Split Campus, a bus hub and a department store. In the vicinity of both streets there are primary and secondary schools.