Exciting walk-only precincts in Asia, Europe and North-America

Abstract

Walkable places are valuable assets in cities. They have advantages over vehicle-oriented spaces in terms of economic, social, health, energy and environmental perspectives. Walk-only precincts (WoP) have been built in various parts of the world with different degrees of success. City size, and all the urbanization and planning implications that it brings, is not the main determinant to build WoP, as these can be found in large as well as small and medium size cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. However, small and medium size cities are increasingly burdened by the appearance of new commercial centers elsewhere, a lack of funding for urban design and programmatic improvements, and limited spirit of initiative by current precincts' stakeholders. Using the Commercial Revitalization Vibrancy (CRV) theory, this paper compares and contrasts WoP in three pair-wise large and small cities: Shanghai (China) and Macau (SAR of PRC), Lisbon and Figueira da Foz (Portugal), and New York City and Miami Beach in the United States. Field work was conducted in all cities during the last decade and a half. Three conclusions and key findings for the success of this type of precincts are distilled.