Shopping Streets Research Articles

Emergency fire evacuation simulation of underground commercial street

High-density built-up areas in cities often enlist the underground realm to provide solution space for transport, shopping and other purposes. The special location, layout, and accessibility of underground structures often generate unique and acute safety-risk concerns. They are inadequately understood and managed and cannot be tackled appropriately by conventional risk assessment and abatement methods. This study focused on evacuating underground commercial streets (UCS) with a heavy concentration of people in Fuzhou city in China. Despite the widespread use of building information modeling (BIM) in construction, it has rarely been applied to studies of underground shopping streets. This study adopted BIM technology as the core method, in conjunction with PyroSim fire and Pathfinder evacuation simulation software. Different fire scenarios in four fire protection zones and the most unfavorable fire sources were set in the model. Based on a calculated number of persons at the start of a fire, different movement paths, stair configuration and exit width were simulated. The choice of escape routes, congestion locations, and slack time windows were identified by the graphical images of the simulation programs. Required safe egress time was compared with available safe egress time, and the number of successful evacuees was reckoned. The effects of three escape-stair forms on evacuee utilization and evacuation rates were evaluated. Their evacuation efficiency was ranked: crossed stair > straight stair > parallel-double stair. The simulation results can optimize building layout design and improve understanding of evacuation-efficiency factors. The findings can contribute to reducing casualties and property losses and improving UCS's fire safety management.

Western Elegance, Yokohama Style: College Fashion, Urban Redevelopment, and the Rise of Feminine Motomachi in Post-1970 Japan / [西洋のエレガンス、横浜流:女子大生のファッションと都市計画の関係 から見る横浜元町における1970年代以降の女性への再編成

Abstract: Motomachi, a small shopping street on the outskirts of Yokohama’s old town, is architecturally designed with a European aesthetic and caters primarily to a clientele of women in their early twenties. This article traces the history of Motomachi’s construction as a site for feminine consumption. It identifies its origins in the late 1970s with three principal actors: the readers of a new genre of magazines targeting young and highly-educated women; economic planners in Yokohama concerned with preserving the traditional civic functions of shopping streets; and the businessmen in Motomachi’s shopping street association interested in remaining economically competitive. Through the pages of the magazine JJ , young women discovered in Motomachi traditional Japanese craftsmanship and “Yokohama traditional” ( Hamatra ) style. Concurrently, city bureaucrats encouraged Motomachi and other shopping streets to revitalize themselves by capitalizing on their heritage, prompting Motomachi’s savvy businessmen to project this demographic’s fantasies onto urban space. Through archival study of planning documents and fashion magazines combined with aesthetic analyses of Hamatra fashion and Motomachi’s architecture, this article shows how urban space can be impregnated with particular gendered and subcultural forms. It also interrogates the political, economic, and gendered origins of local history and how Occidentalism persists despite a discursive rejection of Western norms in favor of Japanese tradition. Lastly, the article argues that Motomachi’s history is also one of the development of neoliberalism in contemporary Japan, and that future research ought not to overlook neoliberalism’s gendered aspects.

Is There Any Future Vision for Local Shopping Streets?

Is There Any Future Vision for Local Shopping Streets?

Intangible Cultural Heritage in Local Shopping Streets: Toronto's West Queen West

Intangible Cultural Heritage in Local Shopping Streets: Toronto's West Queen West

Four Elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage Found in Local Shopping Streets—Taking Toronto’s West Queen West as an Example

Four Elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage Found in Local Shopping Streets—Taking Toronto’s West Queen West as an Example

Linguistic Landscape as a Pedagogy of Reading for English Learning: A Case Study of Shop Names in Sidoarjo City

Learning English does not only occur in the four corners of the classroom, but is possible even within the immediate community of learners. Learning English can be improved through a variety of sources such as the linguistic landscape available. Based on Cenoz and Gorter, LL is particularly on major shopping streets and in commercial areas, which is sometimes the text has only one language, however often has two or more languages (2017). Mainly, in ths research is focused on LL in English language learning as pedagogical resource for young learners. In this case, focusing on senior high school level in Sidoarjo city’s who Javanese as a mother language is. The methodology of this research tha use mix method. Those are qualitative and quantitative method. For the result, the LL in the shop names that written in English is the highest language. Many shop names English language usage as the follows (34%) of the precentage. And the second grade that written in Indonesian languages (30%) score. However, there is no one shop names that written in Javanese. It will be giving a bilingual and trilingual language that used in the shop names written when Javanese language conducted of that. It is a good things that LL can be applied in English language material for learning. Based on the senior high school students’ in Sidoarjo area, there are highest desires can be imply LL in the material of the schools program?

Quantifying the impact of municipal solid waste litter using environmental status index in urban areas

The municipal solid waste litter (MSWL) generation has been a growing concern for urban areas. It causes unpleasant aesthetic environment and health hazardous for pedestrian and residents living nearby. Although several studies related to the impact of littering on beaches and water bodies have been reported, there is insufficient information on MSWL in the urban settings. Therefore, the study was aimed to access the present status of MSWL generation and its management scheme in Nagpur, a tier two city of India. The characterization of MSWL and environmental assessment for five different categories of street was carried out using common weighted (CW) method. An environmental status index (ESI) model was developed to evaluate the existing scenario of MSWL management in urban settings. The MSWL generation rate varied from 1.5 to 4.6 kg per 100 m. The average MSWL generation rate from shopping street (SS), market street (MKS), major street (MS), residential and commercial streets (RCS), open spaces (OS) and hilly terrains streets (HTS) was found to be 62, 82, 53, 47, 78 and 42 kg/month, respectively. The ESI score for SS, MKS, MS, OS and HTS was found to be 382, 448.5, 301, 773.5 and 404, respectively. Further, the collected MSWL data set was analyzed using exploratory data analysis (EDA) to group similar data points together based on their attributes. The application of cluster (K) algorithm was found to be efficient to identify areas or regions with higher MSWL generation rate.

Exploring the impacts of spatial morphology of underground shopping mall atriums on natural lighting performance

ABSTRACT The natural lighting environment in the atrium space of an underground shopping street directly determines the spatial quality of the building. It has a significant impact on the quality of the indoor light environment, people’s mental experience, and the energy consumption of the building. Based on field research, this study combined Radiance and Rhino 7 software to construct realistic scene simulation models of the different shapes for each atrium’s underground shopping street. Daylight factor (DF) and useful daylight illuminance (UDI) were utilized as the evaluation metrics for assessing the natural lighting efficacy of the atriums. Simulation data were further processed and quantitatively analyzed with line charts and quadratic curve fitting methods. The results demonstrate that the DF of an atrium space in underground shopping streets declines rapidly as the height/width ratio (H/W) increases, followed by a gradual weakening trend. Meanwhile, as the aspect ratio (L/W) increases, the peak value of the DF gradually increases. The UDI of the atrium space in an underground shopping street will usually rise first and then fall as the height/width ratio (H/W) increases. Meanwhile, as the aspect ratio (L/W) increases, the UDI peak value gradually decreases. The experiment confirms that DF and UDI atrium space can be effectively improved by adjusting different combinations of the height/width ratio (H/W), aspect ratio (L/W), and lighting glass inclination angle. By doing so, this research provides architects with a theoretical foundation for the spatial morphology design of an atrium.

Site-specific performance on the streets: (In)visible Dancing

According to Patrice Pavis(1998, pp. 337-8), "The key to a site-specific performance is the search for a venue that is often unconventional but has a historical significance and characteristic atmosphere, such as: a freight yard, an abandoned factory, a city block, a courtyard or a suite", in which a classical or contemporary text is incorporated and where the new framework will give the performance with a special charm and unexpected energy." In 2019 I participated as a dancer in a site-specific performance project—— (in)visible Dancing on a street in the city of London, which took place in London's Woolwich Town Centre, in the form of performers bursting onto the high street, crossroads and squares in seemingly improvised, site-specific dance, culminating in a performance by the performers, live musicians. The performance ends with a massive finale featuring the performers, live musicians and passers-by who have learned the steps. The aim of the project was to bring together different sections of the community, from apprentices to local performers and ordinary people, reconnecting them with their shopping streets and each other. This essay may use (in)visible Dancing as an example to analyze the relationship between site-specific performance and society and the city, and also the potential engagement of theatre with geography in the context of the expansion of site-specific performance.

Understanding tour operators’ perception and behaviour towards shopping streets: a qualitative perspective

PurposeThe importance of shopping streets has long been considered a critical aspect of urban tourism. However, limited exploration focuses on the supply side, especially from the tour operator’s (TO) perspective. This paper aims to investigate TOs’ perceptions and attitudes towards packaging Tuanku Abdul Rahman Street (TARS) as an urban shopping spot in Kuala Lumpur.Design/methodology/approachStudy data is gathered through qualitative in-depth interviews among 25 TO managers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The coding process was done manually, followed by qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti version 8 software.FindingsThe results show that the TOs regarded TARS as a must-visit shopping spot for international tourists. They argue that TARS’s competitiveness as a shopping street depends on the supporting infrastructure and safe environment, which are currently neglected by the relevant authorities and jeopardise the sustainability of TARS as a must-visit shopping street in the future.Practical implicationsThis study’s findings generate value-added information on the potential of shopping tourism and TARS as must-visit shopping streets in Malaysia. On the other hand, the TOs’ concern about the lack of supporting infrastructure and unsafe environment generates varying consequences and implications for the individual TOs, tourism policymakers and government-related authorities.Originality/valueThis study offers new insight for urban tourism policymakers, managers and entrepreneurs to capture the attributes of a vibrant shopping street. There is exclusive potential for local tourism operators to take greater responsibility in shopping tourism planning processes and management operations through trustworthy planning partnerships among respective tourism stakeholders related to the shopping street domain.

Visual perception factors on the soundscape of urban shopping streets: Environmental factors

In urban areas, the urge to improve acoustic environments has led to an increasing interest in the soundscape as an alternative approach to address noise pollution issues. Several studies have shown that the soundscape approach can manage the unwanted sound and transform it into resource sound in the areas, while the urban street context is expected to play an important role too. Thus, this study aims to assess visual perception factors on soundscape (appropriateness, calmness, and eventfulness) of urban shopping street as an environmental factors. Data was collected in three urban shopping streets at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia through a soundscape survey (n = 411) according to the ISO12913-2 technical specifications standards. Multiple Linear Regression was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed in three aspects, that are: (1) The interesting, beautiful and harmonious indicators under visual quality of environment dimension were highly preferred by the users. (2) All the soundscape dimensions have significant effects on the predictors. Appropriateness (R2=.454) is the most prominent factor, followed by eventfulness (R2=.298) and calmness (R2=.139). (3) All soundscape dimension has a higher impact on visual perception (β=.536, β=.356, and β=.202) than other predictors by comparing the standardised coefficients. The result from the present study showed that visual perception factors could be helpful indicators for better understanding soundscapes and assist the urban planners, architects and landscape architects in designing conducive acoustic environment of urban shopping streets.

The Social Dimension of Shopping Centres in South Africa

Shopping centres have transformed consumers’ consumption patterns, behaviour, and spatial trips. Consumers’ shopping trips have shifted from traditional shopping streets to shopping centres. Their decision to patronise a shopping centre is generally influenced by a set of attributes that consumers consider commanding them to visit the centre. These attributes or reasons establish a shopping centre’s role in a neighbourhood. This paper aims to analyse consumers’ reasons for visiting shopping centres, their visits companions, and the frequency of their visits to the shopping centres as determinant factors for township shopping centres as entertainment spaces in South Africa. The study contributes to the literature on shopping centres in townships outside of South Africa’s metropolitan areas. A questionnaire survey was employed to acquire data from 390 consumers in Namakgale Crossing using the convenient sampling technique. The study concludes that township shopping centres play an entertainment and social role in addition to their economic role.

Gentrification and Adaptive Reuse: An Exploration of the Design Concept of Sustainable Urban Escape. Case Study: Pos Bloc and Pasar Baru Shopping Street, Jakarta

This research aimed to explore the concept of sustainable urban escape through the lens of gentrification as a tipping point for adaptive reuse. The chaotic backdrop of a fast-paced city addresses a research gap at the intersection of urban culture and interior architecture design. This study revealed how the historical narrative could serve as the foundation for a concept of sustainable urban escape —gentrification, as a subset of adaptive reuse by reclaiming the glory of the past.
 Keywords: sustainable urban escape, adaptive reuse, gentrification

Understanding the capacities of urban street spaces by mapping Melbourne’s parklets

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic, many parklets have been deployed onto kerbside carparking spaces throughout Melbourne, Australia, by street-fronting hospitality businesses, to provide socially-distanced outdoor dining spaces. These temporary parklets provide useful indicators of the varying capacities of urban streets to support street life and commercial activity. By examining the distribution of Melbourne’s parklets, this paper identifies numerous urban design factors that provide capacity for parklets, or inhibit them. The analysis shows parklets thrive on traditional, pedestrian-friendly shopping streets with narrow frontages and good access but low through-traffic. Car-dependent outer-suburban shopping streets and strip shopping centres also support numerous parklets. Key hindrances include commercial streets serving as arterial commuter routes and streets that already have extensive traffic-calming features. Minor side streets can provide parklet capacity, but many design conditions inhibit this. The paper challenges policy-makers, planners and designers to address a variety of impediments to creating more pedestrian-friendly street environments.

Modeling of Parking Violations Using Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Regression: A Case Study for Berlin

Parking violations cause numerous problems, thus affecting daily mobility. Nevertheless, there are no extensive statistics on illegal parking in Germany, implying that the causes of this misconduct are still unexplored. The objective of this paper is to present a count data modeling approach for parking violations based on video footage taken from the windshields of driving vehicles, incorporating spatial data from OpenStreetMap (OSM). The main benefit of this data source is the transferability of the data collection procedure just by installing a recording device in vehicles of municipal services like waste collection. Moreover, the data from OSM are freely available for all cities. To account for excess zero counts in the street segments, a zero-inflated negative binomial distribution model was used to explain the number of violations per 100 m. “Excess” zeros were modeled using the logit part of the model, whereas the remaining counts of parking violations were fitted by the negative binomial model. Much effort was made to present the results of the count data models in an interpretable way. The most intuitive way seemed to be predictions of parking violations per 100 m (incidence rate) for different settings. Incidence rates were predicted for variations in explanatory variables, holding all other variables constant. We found parking violations per 100 m to be highest in main shopping streets. In addition, free parking spaces negatively- and the number of points of interest (such as buildings, craft stores, and shops) positively affected illegal parking.

Exploring the impact of environmental factors on soundscape perception for sustainable and resilient urban environments

The impacts of global climate change are becoming increasingly alarming, highlighting the need for sustainable urbanism practices. The soundscape has been identified as crucial for achieving sustainable development goals. Using an ergo-aesthetic framework, this research aims to investigate the impact of weather conditions and sound levels on soundscape perception in urban shopping streets. Data was collected through a soundscape survey (n = 411) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, based on the ISO12913-2 technical specification standards. The result from multivariate analysis of variance revealed that weather and sound level significantly influenced soundscape perception. Based on analysis of variance, a significant difference in perception was found between low and high levels of loudness, with high levels of loudness having a significantly higher perception. It is observed that users tend to have a stronger preference for an "appropriateness" soundscape in urban shopping streets during cloudy weather conditions based on multiple comparison analysis. The participants generally reported feeling acoustically comfortable with lower temperatures in cloudy weather, possibly due to the increased cloud coverage acting as a form of background noise absorber, thereby enhancing the perceived appropriateness of the soundscape. These findings contribute to understanding soundscapes in creating sustainable and resilient urban environments.

Covid-19 restriction policies and shopping streets.

Policymakers around the world are enforcing mobility restriction policies such as lockdowns, facemask requirements and social distancing to curb the spread of Covid-19. While these policies are effective in preventing the spread of virus, the economic implications are not well understood. We contribute to the literature by examining the impact of these policies on the offline retail sector. Specifically, we measure the effects of these policies on the daily number of shoppers passing by, which we refer to as ‘footfall’, along major shopping streets in Netherlands. We rely on unique proprietary Wifi data to accurately measure footfall. Our findings imply that all these policies attribute to a non-trivial reduction in footfall levels along shopping streets. While lockdowns led to a 50% reduction in footfall along major shopping streets, shopping streets faced with facemask regulations also experience a 25% drop in human traffic. A reduction in footfall translates into a substantial reduction in retail income of between 12% and 25%.

PEOPLE’S AGES AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING ACTIVITIES IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF COMMERCIAL STREETS

Streets are the most public of all city spaces and are utilised by all users. Therefore, activities are vital in persuading people to use the streets and in presenting the image of the city. The relation between people’s ages and the used activities of the commercial streets has declined due to the poor physical environments in the local context. Streets have become progressively unpleasant, unsuitable in terms of functions, and have also become a disagreeable environment. This represents the problem statement of this research. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between activities on commercial streets and the different age groups of the users. This study focuses on the local context of Mawlawi Street, which is one of the major shopping streets in Sulaymaniyah city centre, Iraq. This paper used a quantitative methodology via a survey of users (n = 330). The data were analysed using frequency, mean value, percentage, and chi-square statistics. The results show that cultural activities were the most important for its users, while social activities were the least important, with businesses in the middle. The majority of the users were in the young-adults age category. The research gives a good overview of the types of activities which encourage high street usage, and which activities need to be improved or added.

Estimating Spatiotemporal Contacts Between Individuals in Underground Shopping Streets Based on Multi-Agent Simulation

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exposed the public safety issues. Obtaining inter-individual contact and transmission in the underground spaces is an important issue for simulating and mitigating the spread of the pandemic. Taking the underground shopping streets as an example, this study aimed to verify commercial facilities’ influence on the spatiotemporal distribution of inter-individual contact in the underground space. Based on actual surveillance data, machine learning techniques are adopted to obtain utilizers’ dynamics in underground pedestrian system and shops. Firstly, an entropy maximization approach is adopted to estimate pedestrians’ origin-destination (OD) information. Commercial utilization behaviors at different shops are modeled based on utilizers’ entering frequency and staying duration, which are obtained by re-identifying individuals’ disappearances and appearances at storefronts. Based on observed results, a simulation method is proposed to estimate utilizers’ spatiotemporal contact by recreating their space-time paths in the underground system. Inter-individual contact events and exposure duration are obtained in view of their space-time vectors in passages and shops. A social contact network is established to describe the contact relations between all individuals in the whole system. The exposure duration and weighted clustering coefficients were defined as indicators to measure the contact degree of individual and the social contact network. The simulation results show that the individual and contact graph indicators are similar across time, while the spatial distribution of inter-individual contact within shops and passages are time-varying. Through simulation experiments, the study verified the effects of self-protection and commercial type adjustment measures.

Economic, social and cultural concepts for building a healthy community among residents of a Japanese shopping street

PurposeThis study aims to highlight the value of economics, social relations and culture in building a healthy community by interpreting qualitative data.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative descriptive approach was used between June 2016 and May 2017 and interviews were analysed inductively. Twenty residents of a shopping street in Tohoku, a rural town in north-eastern Japan, participated in this survey. This study focused on the residents’ value of economics, social relations and culture in building a healthy community.FindingsPeople acquired economic benefits in the hope of gaining irreplaceable relationships with customers and residents, including memorable stories and heart-to-heart satisfaction. The narratives reflected not only the ideal aspects of social relations but also realistic and complex aspects, such as feelings of being uncomfortable with strangers, whether they were long-term residents or newcomers. The daily life of the town is a story, which is built based on customs fostered and strengthened through capital bonds.Originality/valueTo build a healthy community, people residing on shopping streets have unique care systems in which multiple glass shop windows make it easier to tell narrative stories, communicate or request assistance, which is very different from knocking on doors in suburban neighbourhoods.