Towards Responsive Human Smart Cities

Abstract

This study seeks to highlight a localised and contextualised version of smart spatially just street spaces that reflect the needs of street space users in small rural towns of South Africa where technological advancement is limited. The key objective is to examine spatial justice from the context of street users’ expectations versus experience on street spaces in three small rural towns of Thohoyandou, Musina and Louis Trichardt in the Vhembe District of South Africa. To address this objective, data were collected by administering 500 street intercept questionnaire surveys with non-vehicular street users, conducting semi-structured interviews with eight key experts purposively selected and direct observations. Data were analysed quantitatively through Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Qualitative data analysis was done through thematic analysis. From the findings, it was established that there are statistically significant differences between users’ expectations of safety, accessibility, legibility, variety, maintenance and management and the lived street space experiences. These gaps reveal that users’ expectations on street spaces are not adequately met through street design and management in small rural towns. The study recommends the prioritisation of inclusive, adaptive and user-oriented smart strategies by the local municipalities of small rural towns in the making of human smart cities.