Risks and strategies in tackling pedestrianisation process in the development of future sustainable cities

Abstract

Dehumanisation of the public urban spaces, as a side effect of the hypertrophied transport system, has been inherited from the 20th century (often regarded as the age of automobiles) and has manifested in our streets. Precisely the streets have become the main battleground of ideas in search for paths to sustainable future. The concept of street pedestrianisation has boomed in the western world since the 6th decade of the last century and recently, due to the pressing ecological issues, it has received even more attention in the discourse of the city design. Pedestrianisation has been used in a number of cities but with mixed success. Newly created pedestrian routes often became inseparable part of the re-imagined identity of the city, but other times these spaces faced further decline and the idea ended in failure. This report offers an overview of the recent research on the subject of pedestrianisation and the range of criteria that the different fields of research use in analysing it. A review of successful and unsuccessful examples is used to identify if the urban-architectural approach should be used in the interdisciplinary research of the pedestrianisation to provide a robust understanding of this process. Identifying and adopting the relevant criteria of pedestrianisation could not only predetermine the successful outcomes but also expect a wider support of the public to the idea of sustainable future city.