Look Closely and You Will See, Listen Carefully and You Will Hear: Urban Design and Social Interaction on Streets

Abstract

Streets represent a significant part of the public space in urban areas and cater to our functional, social and leisure needs. The biggest competitive advantage of the neighbourhood commercial street is its ability to support social interaction as a part of the daily routine. Numerous characteristics have been previously associated with good urban design of the street. This paper emphasizes the need for researchers to view the experience of the street especially from the users' perspective. Using extensive behaviour mapping and user interviews this paper focuses on identifying the specific characteristics that support social interaction on neighbourhood commercial streets. The findings expand our understanding of what we consider the realm of design and suggest specific physical and land-use characteristics, and their management that are important in supporting social interaction on neighbourhood commercial streets.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Sidney Brower, Reid Ewing, Guido Francescato, Shenglin Chang and Mary Corbin Sies for their guidance with the research. Thanks also to the editor of this journal and anonymous referees for useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Furthermore, the author is grateful to all the people who participated in the interviews.

Notes

1. Source: US Census Bureau, Year 2000 data.

2. Source: US Census Bureau, Year 2000 data.

3. Source: US Census Bureau, Year 2000 data.