Does Your Main Street or Downtown Have The Right Program Distribution?

As we noted in the previous example, there needs to be a visible sense of activity further down the street for people who are unfamiliar with the area to venture all the way through the main street. If it appears that the remainder of the street is professional services or banks, then pedestrians are unlikely to continue. Even though there may be mostly professional services or banks further down, but some restaurants or retail beyond that, then something needs to be visible that is indicating more activity. This can be difficult for people who are very familiar with the downtown to identify since they know exactly where everything is. Think of this as an exercise in wayfinding to encourage maximum engagement with all of the food & beverage and retail on the main street or in downtown.

I think this is the end of the downtown, I don’t see anything else that is worth walking to. Let’s head back to the car

Oh! What’s that!?!

Something as simple as a colorful sign, bench, or piece of art further along the sidewalk can catch the attention of pedestrians and drawn them down the street. What is shown diagrammatically in the image to the left is intended to illustrate the response that is desired from pedestrians – they see something of interest highlighting the potential for more activity and then walk towards it.

This not only increases the traffic flow to all businesses, but increases the potential for new businesses to take up empty storefronts. Especially with them knowing that an artful strategy has been implemented to increase pedestrian traffic throughout the main street or downtown.