Publicly Accessible Space and Quality of Life: A Tool for Measuring the Openness of Urban Spaces

Abstract

Safety and security are essential components of urban public space management, particularly since September 11, 2001. Although security is necessary for creating and maintaining publicly accessible spaces, making it a top priority is criticized as restricting social interaction, constraining individual liberties, and unjustly excluding certain populations. We argue that a focus on security and control over broader social goals such as openness and liberty can reduce the quality of life for particular individuals and groups. Therefore, this study examines legal, design, and policy tools used to exert social and behavioral control in publicly accessible urban spaces. Based on a review of the relevant literature as well as extensive site visits to public spaces in New York City, we create a comprehensive index that uses 20 separate indicators in four different broad categories to quantify the degree to which the use of a space is controlled. We demonstrate how the tool can be used and summarize the results of several recent applications. We then suggest several potential applications useful in planning practice and for testing theories about public space.