Road landscape as a product: does it satisfy consumers’ aesthetic needs?

Inga Stankevičė,Irina Matijošaitienė,Jaime Ribeiro

doi:10.3846/bjrbe.2014.36

Inga Stankevičė, Irina Matijošaitienė + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3846/bjrbe.2014.36

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Abstract

The contemporary market laws and consumer society impose that road users are regarded to as consumers, and road landscape – as a product. In this context, consumers’ willingness to use the product is equivalent to road users’ willingness to drive on the road. Consumers’ fastidiousness induces to develop road landscape in a way which ensures satisfaction of drivers’ versatile needs, including the aesthetic ones. However, development of desirable-to-drive road landscape remains one of the challenges of land management. Hence, based on the analysis of aesthetic needs of road users, the paper proposes a framework for creation of desirable-to-drive road landscape. The research rests on photofixation, Kansei engineering, regression, correlation and descriptive analyses. The landscape of the main Lithuanian roads was investigated. The results show that the willingness to drive on a road depends on the level of tune of all the elements comprising the roadscape, the amount of positive impression left by the roadscape, roadscape’s pleasurability, level of sophistication, and skittishness. The guidelines for the development of desirable to drive road landscape are proposed, and the map of distribution of roadscape in Lithuania, according to the willingness to drive, is drawn.

Highlights

Mobility is a social spatial habit which is closely related to the respective cultural norms. Lynch (1981) distinguishes two modes of mobility: “pleasurable drive” in a beautiful landscape which can become a good means of spending leisure time; and “just drive” which is based on necessity to move from point A to point B and which, according to the scholar, is a boring and futile waste of time
Based on the analysis of aesthetic needs of road users, the paper proposes a framework for creation of desirable-to-drive road landscape
The observation, evaluation and formation of road landscape from the aesthetic viewpoint of a consumer on the scientific level began in the second half of the 20th century

Summary

Introduction

Mobility is a social spatial habit which is closely related to the respective cultural norms. Lynch (1981) distinguishes two modes of mobility: “pleasurable drive” in a beautiful landscape which can become a good means of spending leisure time; and “just drive” which is based on necessity to move from point A to point B and which, according to the scholar, is a boring and futile waste of time. The motion of pedestrians and vehicles is treated as a physical action, but as the formation of social bonds and identity. Nowadays, this understanding has even lead to the emergence of a new concept – landscape services. The USA, Germany, Great Britain, Australia are the leaders in formation of an aesthetic and pleasurable road landscape. These countries have developed evaluation methods for the roadscape, they have road landscape guidelines and implemented programmes for beautifying this kind of landscape. Attractive roads are chosen based on aspects of structure, territory, traffic and network characteristics of the roads (Augeri et al 2014), but on “non-graspable, sometimes inexplicable internal atmospheric experiences” (Kasemets 2014) as well

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