How Attractive for Walking Are the Main Streets of a Shrinking City?
Department of Human Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 70200 Ostrava, Czech Republic
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Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6060; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156060
Received: 3 July 2020
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Revised: 21 July 2020
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Accepted: 24 July 2020
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Published: 28 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Concepts for Regeneration of Industrial Cities)
This research assesses the way main streets are perceived and used by pedestrians in an industrial, Central-European city—Ostrava in Czechia. The city has recently experienced shrinkage and changing patterns of socio-economic exchange, reason why this research is timely and needed in view of city center regeneration. Four main streets have been purposefully selected for this study. The research methods include questionnaires with street users (n = 297), direct observations of human activities and pedestrian counting. A link between business types and the way the street is experienced emerged. Results also indicate that vacant and unproperly managed spaces negatively affect the desire to walk on main streets. Furthermore, pedestrian volumes coupled with the amount of static activities determined several benchmark conditions for lively street segments. This research provides recommendations for policy-making and design and planning practice for regeneration of industrial city centers undergoing commercial and spatial transformation.
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Keywords:
main streets; walkable environments; liveliness; perception; city center regeneration; industrial city; shrinking city
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MDPI and ACS Style
Istrate, A.-L.; Bosák, V.; Nováček, A.; Slach, O. How Attractive for Walking Are the Main Streets of a Shrinking City? Sustainability 2020, 12, 6060. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156060
AMA Style
Istrate A-L, Bosák V, Nováček A, Slach O. How Attractive for Walking Are the Main Streets of a Shrinking City? Sustainability. 2020; 12(15):6060. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156060
Chicago/Turabian StyleIstrate, Aura-Luciana, Vojtěch Bosák, Alexandr Nováček, and Ondřej Slach. 2020. "How Attractive for Walking Are the Main Streets of a Shrinking City?" Sustainability 12, no. 15: 6060. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156060
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