Pedestrianisation

The research addresses a central tension of modern society between materialism and retail expansion on the one hand and growing environmental awareness on the other, during the 1970s and 1980s. It does so through a study of the operations of Marks and Spencer, with comparative reference to other leading retailers, principally Sainsbury’s and the John Lewis Partnership.

Marks and Spencer experienced a complex renegotiation of its relationship with the environment and resource use as it underwent rapid expansion and changes in the period 1968-1992. This has yet to be addressed by academics, especially in relation to the notable growth in environmental concern at this time. It is this changing retail context, as experienced by Marks and Spencer, coupled with the evolving significance of the broader environmental agenda, which this thesis addresses. It makes extensive use of the Marks and Spencer Company Archive to address the importance of the company’s changing commercial operations, its relationship with consumers, the government and British society more broadly, in shaping its approach to the environment and resource use.

The thesis contributes to existing academic literature concerning retailing and the environment by illustrating the extent to which the environment was a highly constructed and negotiated retail concern, which invariably predated the environmental fervour of the late eighties and early nineties and the subsequent commercial clamour to be seen to be green. The research addresses Marks and Spencer’s response to environmental issues, its energy conservation efforts, its retail store development, as well as the internal and external environments of its stores. It shows how the relationship between retailers and the environment was shaped as much by the outlook and operations of individual retailers and the changing nature of modern retailing, as it was the wider environmental agenda and growing popular concern.

Many people believe that nonmotorized modes (walking, cycling, and their variations) have an inferior right to use public roads compared with motor vehicles. This reflects the belief that motor vehicles are more important to society than nonmotorized modes, and that roads are funded by motorists. Pedestrians and cyclists are sometimes forbidden from using a particular public road to avoid delaying motorized traffic.Thats the reason transportation planning practices are often unintentionally biased toward motorized travel. A city is a social structure and not merely a physical structure. To quantify the benefits of nonmotorized transportation facility, 300m long stretch of Fazilka city local road was converted into Pedestrian Street. Case study was performed to quantify the direct and indirect benefits of Nonmotorized facilities within the city. Fazilka has an estimated urban population of 67,424 (2001) and registered motor vehicles 45000 (Appox.) This paper highlights the results of...

The study aimed to answer the question of how pedestrianisation can influence walkability to increase physical activity vitality and livability of urban spaces. Therefore, after the theoretical understanding of the framework of the research, the study will focus on experimental research on the Salamis rode of Famagusta to assess the problems of walkability in the street to propose a sustainable and human-friendly solution for this area. The main aim of the research is to find what is the interrelation between pedestrianisation in public urban spaces and walkability? Therefore, it concludes that walkability as a part of the pedestrianisation scheme will lead to an increase in the quality of the urban environment by increasing safety and organization in urban infra-instructors.

An analysis of the strategic master plan of Greece and the plan to pedestrianize Panepistimiou Street in the center of Athens from a spatial modelling perspective. A brief history of the strategic master plan is presented in the first part of this paper, along with all the smaller plans that lead to the proposal of the pedestrianization. The second part is a critique to the choice of pedestrianizing Panepistimiou Street.

Urban planning has received tremendous public attention in the last few years. Energy cost, environmental issues, traffic congestion and the feeling of lack of belonging in the cities are among the factors that have contributed to the development of pedestrian areas. These public spaces provide opportunities for shopping, entertainment, eating facilities and gatherings where people can experience urban life as pedestrians. Over decades, the concept of pedestrianisation has become part of social urban life in the developed countries. However, developing countries such as Iran have just recently paid attention to pedestrianisation and walking as a mode of transportation. The historic core of Tehran, the capital of Iran, embraces significant tangible and intangible values. For a long time, enhancing the mobility in the area has been the important concern of the urban developers; pedestrianisation is their recently solution to this issue in this site. To study and evaluate this project, a literature and field research have been performed through investigating the valid documentations and using questionnaires and interviews with the locals and visitors. Taking advantage of the Historic Urban Landscape approach, the results of the field and bibliographic research have been evaluated and recommendations have been made for improving the pedestrian-oriented areas in the historic context. The findings of this research show that converting a street to a pedestrian zone does not mean to simply ban the vehicles from entering the site. On the contrary, there are essential bases in the site such as multifunctional places, human-scale dimensions or activities during the whole day and night that should be taken into consideration to provide a suitable space for pedestrians including citizens and tourists. Pedestrian zones include different functions such as residential, social, cultural, tourists, physical, economic, etc. on various dimensions and scales which affect the whole city design and management. Moreover, these spaces should be supported by variety of facilities like parking lots, public transportation and equipment for people with disabilities. Assessing the impacts of pedestrianisation in Tehran Grand Bazaar can pave the way for future studies with the aim of conserving unique features of the historic sites within an urban development process.

Essentially this paper analyses a current debate on Taksim Square, which is the most commonly known open public space of Istanbul, Turkey. The debate is basically about the municipality’s project to pedestrianize the square, which is already used mainly by pedestrians but planned to be cleared up totally from any vehicular traffic. This brings to the minds one of the non-lasting discussions of urban design; that is the accompaniment or segregation of cars and pedestrians. Although the local –and also the central government- presents its intention as “creating a pedestrian-friendly urban square”, the project has different dimensions, specifically related with political and cultural conjunctures. The paper discusses the appropriation of urban space by cars or by pedestrians through this up-to-date debate, while it tries to make inferences about political and cultural claims over public space.

The paper examines how technologies intended for ensuring women’s safety affect freedom of movement and reproduce masculine domination over space. Since times immemorial, humans have had an innate desire to explore and discover new spaces. However, for women, this desire has often been curtailed, due to the fear of being harassed or assaulted. Women tend to live by the ‘rape clock’; their daily routines, clothes, travel schedules and companions are constantly adjusted according to the location they have to visit. The recent proliferation of safety apps seek to offer a more secure way to travel through neighbourhoods. Inbuilt with safety audits, these apps prescribe the routes that women can take to travel to their destinations. The apps allow users to evaluate their current location in terms of seemingly objective parameters like security, openness, crowd density, lighting and transportation. In addition, the users can proactively determine the ‘safety score’ of the locality depending on how they feel about it and can also share its photos to justify the score. However, the paper argues, safety apps tend to circumscribe women’s desire to loiter. By recommending routes to travel safely and by constantly prescribing the parameters that women need to keep in mind while venturing out, these apps narrow down the spaces women can access. It enhances the fear of being assaulted and curtails the pleasure of loitering. Secondly, the apps neglect the fact that conceptions of safety vary according to one’s social location. Most safety apps begin with the notion that their users comprise of an abstract, universal category of women. But, individuals hailing from different backgrounds, including class, caste, education, region and religion experience the world differently. What counts as a safe neighbourhood for one may be considered unsafe by another. The subjective evaluations in safety apps tend to present a lopsided notion of safety which may tilt the scales against localities frequented by people hailing from minority communities. This may have other cascading effects such as overpolicing, non-access to goods and financial services, etc. In addition, these apps tend to shift the onus of safety onto the woman. Moreover, the GPS tracking feature of apps is undergirded in the misogynistic logic that women’s movements are to be controlled. The paper therefore critically analyses intriguing questions — How do safety apps determine what constitutes a safe neighbourhood for women? To what extent do these apps encourage freedom of movement for women? How can safety apps be restructured to accommodate women’s desire to loiter?

La contemporaneità è segnata da una riscoperta del ruolo delle reti ambientali, dei percorsi ciclabili e pedonali, degli spazi aperti e del trasporto di massa, come condizione per redistribuire il capitale spaziale, per incrementare la resilienza del sistema insediativo, per ripristinare la continuità tra diversi sistemi ecologici e per incrementa-re la pluralità dei modi di praticare lo spazio (Alexander et al., 1977; Donini, 2008; La Cecla, 2014; Magris, 2005; Jacobs, 1961; Gehl, 1987; Salingaros, 2005; Secchi, 2014).
Emerge, dunque, la questione delle discontinuità determinate dalle reti primarie e di distribuzione e dagli elementi discreti che le costituiscono (Pavia, 2015, Secchi, 2005; 2014, Bianchetti, 2014). Questa questione interseca la critica ad alcune figure su cui si fonda l'articolazione delle reti e la ricerca di metafore e di paradigmi alternativi (Ventura, 1989; Magnani, Val, 1989; Magnani, 2005; Pope, 1996; Viganò, 2010). Emerge, dunque, una istanza di domesticazione dei grandi canali viari (Secchi, 2005; Donini, 2008). Questa istanza sempre più spesso si esprime in interventi di trasforma-zione di grandi vie di comunicazione o di loro parti in spazi pedonali multifunzionali. Questi interventi, quando modificano le gerarchie su cui si fondano l'articolazione delle reti della mobilità e le relazioni tra forme del movimento diverse, determinano condizioni di minore funzionalità del sistema della mobilità: le strategie di pedonalizzazione non sono state compiutamente definite entro un sistema teorico coerente, capace di stabilirne i criteri fondamentali, le condizioni e le modalità di implementa-zione. Questo articolo si propone di evidenziare come la gerarchia sia condizione fonda-mentale di alcune proprietà desiderabili dei sistemi della mobilità: la coerenza, la leggibilità, l'inter-connettività delle reti e la sicurezza e la fluidità della circolazione (Jiang, 2009; Marshall, 2005; 2014; Salingaros, 2005; Xie, Levinson, 2007; Yerra, Levinson, 2005). Inoltre, l'articolo inferisce dalle condizioni della gerarchia un metodo qualitativo di controllo e verifica del progetto degli interventi di pedonalizzazione. L'articolo si compone di tre sezioni; la prima definisce la gerarchia, riferendola allo studio delle reti della mobilità, e ne individua le condizioni fondamentali; lo scopo è dimostrare che la gerarchia è condizione di alcune proprietà desiderabili di una rete; la seconda sezione individua la causa della discontinuità delle reti minori e propone una gerarchia dei modi del movimento in funzione delle velocità, come criterio per definire le relazioni tra modi di trasporti diversi lungo un percorso; la terza sezione descrive un metodo analitico qualitativo, fondato sulle condizioni della gerarchia, e ne descrive l'impiego come strumento di verifica di un caso studio, la trasformazione di una arteria stradale in spazio pedonale. Le conclusioni, infine, riprendono i risultati delle sezioni precedenti e ne considerano la validità come criteri per l' implementazione degli interventi di trasformazione di segmenti della rete viaria.

Through the implementation of pedestrianisation projects, it is possible to create economically competitive and liveable urban areas, while the security and attractiveness of city centres is significantly increased by the improved accessibility provided by these schemes. After pedestrianisation, likely increases in property values can be interpreted positively; on the other hand, pedestrianisation, if necessary precautions are not taken, can also produce unwelcome consequences. When a pedestrianisation scheme achieves success, property prices rise, and small businesses (if they are tenants rather than owners) may fail to keep up with the inevitable rental increases. Despite increased sales, small businesses, many of whom supply distinctive goods or services, may have to leave the area because they cannot afford these increased costs. In this context, the aim of this article is to analyse the economic effects of a pedestrianisation scheme located on the Asian side of Istanbul, in Kadıköy historic centre and retail zone, by focusing on changes in retail structure during the post-pedestrianisation period. The project began in 2004 and was completed in 2009.  Research in the area was conducted in 2014, and has a tripartite structure: a before and after land-use analysis to identify changes resulting from the pedestrianisation project, a survey involving pedestrians and shopkeepers, and interviews with the Association of the Retailers of the Kadıköy Historic Centre. Our research has shown that in the case of Kadıköy Historic Centre, the success of the pedestrianisation scheme has created a dilemma, namely the replacement of many smaller older businesses with domestic and international chain-stores or eating/drinking facilities as a result of increased shop rents, which entail particular problems for the majority of shopkeepers, who are tenants. Consequently, this has begun to introduce homogeneity into a richly diverse mixture of shops. The current situation might become a major problem if those existing shops which maintain the image and identity of the area are substantially displaced by ‘outside’ retailers who can afford the increased rents. This development is not however an immediate consequence of pedestrianisation, but rather a side-effect of improvements in the local physical environment, and increased economic activity. Awareness of this potential outcome of the pedestrianisation process should therefore oblige planning authorities to take preventive measures to protect the diversity of small individual shops, and hence save the image (and long-term economic future) of the pedestrianised area.

Keywords: revitalization; historic city centres; pedestrianisation; clone towns; commercial gentrification; Istanbul.

Pedestrianisation, the conversion of a vehicular street for pedestrian use, is increasingly being proposed worldwide as a sustainable measure by hegemonic powers. Pedestrianisation can bolster uneven urban development patterns, however social tensions can magnify on the pedestrianised street, where deprived social groups claim the right to the city. This study employs a mixed method approach to examine, within a de Certeausian theoretical framework, the relationship between the governmental strategies promoting pedestrianisation and the tactics of pedestrianised space informal appropriation. Within this context Hong Kong emerges as a revelatory case, it is a city where the extreme scarcity of public open space exacerbates the conflict between social groups interested in this resource. The analysis provides evidence of a discrepancy between expected and actual uses of the pedestrianised streets. Furthermore, this study highlights the need in the context of the global neoliberal city for discussing the theoretical dichotomy of strategies and tactics. This paper argues for pedestrian planning which includes stationary use as a main pedestrianisation objective, as well as for responsive urban design that carefully considers the association between behavioural patterns and spatial features of the pedestrianised street.

Many people believe that nonmotorized modes (walking, cycling, and their variations) have an inferior right to use public roads compared with motor vehicles. This reflects the belief that motor vehicles are more important to society than nonmotorized modes, and that roads are funded by motorists. Pedestrians and cyclists are sometimes forbidden from using a particular public road to avoid delaying motorized traffic.Thats the reason Transportation planning practices are often unintentionally biased toward motorized travel. To quantify the benefits of nonmotorized transportation facility, 300m long stretch of Fazilka city local road was converted into Pedestrian Street. Case study was performed to quantify the direct and indirect benefits of Nonmotorized facilities within the city. Fazilka has an estimated urban populated of 67,424 (2001) and registered motor vehicles 45000 (Appox.) This paper highlights the results of statistical analysis performed amongst the selected visitor of Pedestrian Street through random sampling and importance of nonmotorized facilities for the sustainable development of city.

The street vendor’s (SV) potential mobility in subverting authorities’ hegemony over public space has been theorised within the contexts of urban informality and resistance. Discussions mainly revolve around movement tactics as resistance strategy while evading arrests and confiscations. This negates SV agency and limits understanding mobility in resistance. Using Bunschoten’s metaspace and Cresswell’s aspects of mobility, this paper employs semi-structured interviews with mobile SV, road users and pedestrians in Kano (Nigeria), to describe vendors’ mobile practices and how they delay hostility from the state. Observing the interplay between vendors, users and environment, this paper identifies four types of vendor movement: focused, targeted, sporadic and self-regulatory; and examines how vendors exploit Cresswell’s speed and rhythm in challenging formal urban practice hegemony through continuous operation. The paper also describes how vendors’ movement affects other actors’ mobili...

Les rues piétonnes font aujourd'hui partie des standards des centres-villes des grandes métropoles et villes moyennes en Europe. Cette étude montre l'importance des systèmes d'acteurs à l'échelle de la rue pour déconstruire l'impression de standardisation des processus et des aménagements : attachés à une distinction forte de leur rue par rapport aux autres, ils font pression pour la piétonnisation, développent une expertise en se renseignant sur des expériences étrangères. Cela explique en grande partie les différences dans le paysage urbain de chaque rue piétonne de Lyon, dont le profil de la rue, les revêtements de chaussée et le mobilier urbain relèvent d'un mélange de plusieurs références adapté aux caractéristiques spatiales et fonctionnelles micro-locales. Mots-clés : piétonnisation, rues piétonnes, aménagement urbain, modèles urbains, histoire urbaine. Abstract: Pedestrianisation : a model for uniform city centers ? Lyons case, 1970-1980's. Footstreets are nowadays a standard for the city centers of metropolis and medium-sized cities in

Urban planning has received tremendous public attention in the last few years. Energy cost, environmental issues, traffic congestion and the feeling of lack of belonging in the cities are among the factors that have contributed to the development of pedestrian areas. These public spaces provide opportunities for shopping, entertainment, eating facilities and gatherings where people can experience urban life as pedestrians. Over decades, the concept of pedestrianisation has become part of social urban life in the developed countries. However, developing countries such as Iran have just recently paid attention to pedestrianisation and walking as a mode of transportation. The historic core of Tehran, the capital of Iran, embraces significant tangible and intangible values. For a long time, enhancing the mobility in the area has been the important concern of the urban developers; pedestrianisation is their recently solution to this issue in this site. To study and evaluate this project,...

Au vu de sa faible largeur et de ses vieux pavés, on imagine que la rue Saint-Jean a toujours été piétonne, tant elle est inhospitalière pour tous les autres moyens de transport. Que nenni ! Elle n’est officiellement piétonne que depuis la décision du Conseil Municipal du 12 décembre 1977 et son inauguration le 7 décembre 1978. Cette image du Vieux-Lyon piétonnier ne nous apparaît comme une évidence que depuis quelques décennies : l’occasion d’un retour historique sur la conquête très progressive de cette rue par les piétons.