Pedestrians and Users Perception of Shared Space in China (Essay Sample)

CHAPTER ONE
PEDESTRIANS AND USERS PERCEPTION OF SHARED SPACE IN CHINA
1. Abstract
Shared Street is an integration of myriad activities. In Chinese streets, there are series of activities that takes place and the space provided seemingly does not enable many people to achieve their desired goals due to high population within the country. It is important to consider that local businesses along the Chinese streets benefit from adoption of shared streets as indicated in Paradise walk, a commercial street in China. Many pedestrians dominate the streets for leisure; taking advantage of available activities and shops among other social activities that characterize shared space. Overall, the introduction of shared space in the west greatly boosted their economies. In China, the trend has not been fully implemented, the Chinese economy is perceived to expand should the project be fully implemented. The drivers, cyclists and pedestrians ascertained that they get along well with the new urban development and architectural designs. There is need for exuberance as people walk along the Chinese streets; children derive high exposure to what they might not have seen at the tender age. This encourages culture of tolerance in China. People get to know each other, creating communication network that is healthy for country’s development.
Background
It was until 20th century that automotive industry got actively involved in the Chinese streets (J. van Schaick, 2008). Prior to that, the streets were fully composed of cyclist and pedestrians. But through coordination and respect for other street users, the users’ creation of mutual understanding on how best to interrelate within the streets (Wang, 2007). However, when the automobile thrived, the streets were polluted with noise and as well the traffic became a nightmare. This was the point at which necessity enhanced invention of shared space so that street users would be considerate in accomplishing their functional operations within the Chinese territory (Bai, 2012). In comparison, it was realistic that North America and Europe widely used shared space street designs. In spite of all that, cultural perceptions indicated that shared space streets have peculiar and unique context of operability (Yeoh, 2003). In the urban, suburban and rural areas, architectural designs and shared street behavior would be different. Although this is meant to serve the same purpose especially, safety, and user convenience leading to improved quality of life, more concern could be necessary to effectively create better perception of the use of shared space within different areas of consideration (Mieville, 2003).
Adoption shared space policies enhanced creation of social and effective transportation. However, in accessing perceptual outcomes of shared space, it is important to consider pedestrians behavior along the urban streets; where there high pedestrian flow and car traffic respectively for example, in China (J. van Schaick, 2008). The paper targets research literature about shared space in different countries which will be compared to the state of shared space in China. In furtherance, it will lead to findings based on empirical case study. The study will further focus on two upcoming Chinese urban streets; one with, and one without shared space. This is located in Chongqing (Larry Herzberg, 2011).
Introduction
In the developed countries, infrastructural development has been cited as the main influential factor in many countries. For example the economic development in the USA and the UK could be quoted ass superb, this follows adoption of modern shared space that increases businesses and solutions to other facets. Conversely, when investors realised that the road network is effective, people are interacting, socializing and engaging in social activities, it affirms that shared space encourages.
The conventional streets existed within the global scope, although countries like Netherlands and the UK among other countries have adapted better strategies that could encourage implementation of shared space. However, in Netherlands, cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam were ranked among the cities that initially adopted the strategy. The issue of shared space originated from Netherlands, The idea of shared space was integrated after WWII. The study is purposefully designed to greater realisation of the truth behind open space. However, it has got two objectives which include:
To give strategy for creating political recommendation to improve shared space; however, it will also consider modifications of conventional streets.
To testify differences between pedestrians using shared street and conventional streets in both Paradise walk street and Chongqing.
The UK acts as a reference point to the idea of shared space. It was creative to enhance creation of space to walk through. The process also relates to the ways through which could be integrated to create areas whereby the shared space construction had to be sent. The USA declined the integration of pedestrians within the cities. Pedestrians had no rights to cross the roads. The high rate of deaths caused by accident facilitated the process. It conversely increased rent leading to change of job and adoption social routines with necessary transport system in place. Countries that have adopted shared space are characterised by appreciable economic development.
However, in China, shared space is still a vocabulary to many; in fact the term is yet to be included in Chinese dictionaries. The country is faced with unbearable traffic from both automobiles and people (Mieville, 2003). The high rate of obesity identified in China necessitated desire to have an intervention on how best to reduce the pandemic.
The high rate of production in car industry has increased the rate of pollution. This has lead to high rate of interference with climatic conditions leading to unpredictable weather conditions. Chinese streets are marred with vehicle and human population; conventional street could not effectively base the swollen numbers of pedestrians and drivers along the streets of China. This has led to high rate of accidents, but in most cases the victims of accident are limited to specific number, this information is kept beyond the public understanding. Most of the working class Chinese derives pleasure in driving their cars as a way of showing off their wealth. Research indicates that physical exercise would be among the best approaches to curb the menace. This implied that the people had to reduce either or both public and private transport means and resort to walking as a way of exercising for healthy living (Cohn, 2008).
The perception and walking culture enhances and maximises the use of common public space like streets. Many people enjoyed walking through streets due to safety and ability to experience a lot on the way (BanFa, 2012). Adoption of shared street design was derived from this perception which increased influence on social interaction and active transportation. The case study on pedestrian and Users Perception of Shared Space in China is based on Paradise Walk shared street (Bai, 2012). The public space in urban areas in China faced challenges which necessitated the ability to derive a mechanism that could encourage social interaction between the people and businesses along the streets as part of daily routine (Books, 2010). Mid- twentieth century, over 50% of the Chinese population naturally depended on walking to and from work. The technological edge encouraged the production of affordable cars so that most of the people managed to but cars for transportation of the public. Other people bought personal cars so that they could have privacy while travelling to and from work (Fishman, 2005).
However, the vehicle traffic swollen towards the end of the twentieth century, which corresponded to the high population in the country (Wang, 2007). On the same note, the streets in China became dominated by people and vehicles due to high population in China. This necessitated the development of modern city so that the while traffic which include automobile, cyclists and pedestrians could be accommodated (Yeoh, 2003). The traditional city culture is yet to be fully abandoned since the shared street project is yet to be fully adopted in China, with time the new look would dawn with all inclusive road networks. At first it was unique, but later the populace realised how important it was to incorporate shared space along China streets. This commenced the development of modern, and all inclusive shared space for the benefit of the country’s economic development (BanFa, 2012). The problem faced by local transport networks is high traffic congestions for both people and vehicles. Since area of Chongqing is having low gradient, it could be unfavorable for cyclists. This implies that they do not have such culture.
From research perspective, it could be argued that it is sensible that the Chinese urban space traditionally was based on amplification of rural settlements (J. van Schaick, 2008). The city was derived from linear street space system from within the main structure within the city. It could be difficult to find a large open space in western parts of the Chinese city (Gifford, 2011). Any space was meant for specific duties and for distinct functions and programs (Gifford, 2011). For example, markets had been designed to designated areas within distinct days of the week. However, according to research, the main and essence of traditional Chinese architecture and urban design was to ensure that different spaces were arranged into perfect systems (Wang, 2007).
This mainly targeted satisfaction of different requirements of the people. It implied that Chinese space designs and organisations were the basal content of architecture in the country’s traditional and urban design. ...