Livable Streets

Livable Streets Concept - for whom?

The livable street has the principle of human-centred thinking and emphasizes the equality between cars and pedestrians using the street. Francis (1987), says “The livable streets concept states to create an equitable balance between both the motorist and street pedestrian, bicyclists, vendors etc. users. The striking balance between the economic conduits and placemaking community space, which focuses on safety and comfort.” Urban livability is often a subject to various opinions, as for the residents (can be seen as an interaction between physical social boundaries of environment and personal interaction) and for the assessor (can be seen as depending upon the various variables of the space, with time, place, occasion and purpose).

Conventional Street Design vs Human-centered Street Design

Google Images

Today, many cities are relooking at the advantages of their dense historic forms which were humane, and they are supporting the public realm through pedestrians, bicycling, and public space improvements, thus creating them human-centric. There is a major focus on developing pedestrian-friendly streets with better roadway design concepts. Everyone can be on the streets. Kevin Lynch, an Urbanist argues in his book A Theory of Good City Form (1981) that

“an urban public space has rights of presence, use in action, appropriation, modification and disposition.”

These rights form the public nature of the streets and can show how the public, livable and vital space is.

Walkability on Sidewalks

Sidewalks with pedestrians constitute the most fundamental space in the open public spaces in an urban environment. sidewalks are created to cater to have space for pedestrian movement which is safe from the traffic and where pedestrians can move, stroll, trade, gather and interact within the public sphere beyond the built environments, which contributes to a safer, healthier and active lifestyle. Sidewalks as a whole is an environment where numerous interactions and activities happen simultaneously. The pedestrian, who is at the centre of the sidewalk room, creates the movement in the space to set a scene that is subject to the perspective around. It is a space defined by four planes (Active Design: Shaping the Sidewalk Experience - DCP, 2013)

Sidewalk Plane

Active Street Design, NY Govt, 2005

The concept of sidewalk planes as a room is based on the pedestrian who inhabits and their movement experience in the space, not based on the perspectives of the transport conduits users and space or those who have designed it for the pedestrians.

As stated by Specks (2018), in his book Walkable Cities Rules - “

The walkable city is the rollable city, and when a city works well for people in wheelchairs, it works well for everyone.”

Streets need animation and detail; too many of our streets look tired, dull, and uninviting - not surprising given the automobile orientation.

What are pedestrian needs from walkability – safety, convenience, comfort, and visual experience?

Making them human-centric with the co-existence of the natural environment. Streets are the outdoor spaces we seek for any public purpose (Wagner and Creese, 1968). Livability is determined by a variety of social activities rather than the necessary ones (Gehl, 2013). Streets reduce the lack of social coherence in urban life, as it encourages street activities, playful places, and engages with public amenities.

“While the concept of livable streets should be clear, its realization should be flexible.” - (Appleyard et al., 1981).

Measuring factors for livability on streets Looking at the various measures to study and analyze based on the livability of streets.

● Imageability/Accessibility is the factor of a placemaking that makes the space image and the experience while having a movement across counts, ensure accessibility for multiple users, considering different ages and abilities. This imageability depends on the attractiveness of space that influences, creates emotion from the pedestrian movement.

● Enclosure/Resilience factor relates to the periphery of the built environment formed along the streets which include the canopy, vegetation, and other elementary features on streets.

● Safety measures ensure the efficient design and its consideration towards the stakeholder and the intervention of the quality space concerning the mapping of safety throughout the day.

● Human scale factor refers to the size and proportion of the sidewalk room which forms planes that define the movement, correlating it to the interaction of humans through various senses.

● Transparency/Connectivity is the factor which enables the porosity in and around the space to perceive the objects and the activities.

● Complexity/Continuous variety factor is the visually oriented richness of space that influences the physical environment and the landscape around.

Streets make the surrounding safe, with more functions in and around creating a more accessible and comfortable for all thus increasing the human interaction and makes the community thrive. Urban street’s sidewalk space is nothing in its notion. It is an abstraction. It means something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border it, or border other sidewalks very near it (Jacobs,1992).