ONESQKMMONTREALBEIJING
WALKABILITY | LINA SAFRIOUI
proportionally to the speed of vehicles and the traffic. This is the reason why the narrowest streets in both sites have little or no buffer at all.
Figure 8:A large width street-Beijing
The main thing that undermines that sense of enclosure in both areas of study is the surface of parking lots that we have all over our Cities. Providing an interesting walk appears to be also crucial, indeed people need to be entertained, and nothing interests us more than other humans, signs of people in the neighbourhoods are therefore needed. The notion of “transparency” plays an important role in creating a pleasing walking environment. In fact, both the Plateau and the Beijing site address this aspect of walkability by drawing indoor activities out onto the street. In the Plateau for example, there is a succession of cafes along St. Denis providing outdoor seating, and therefore promoting social interactions and reinforcing the pleasurable aspect of the walking scenery. Similarly, this can be seen in the Beijing site for instance in buildings or institutions such as school playgrounds; where the activity is made visible to the passers-by. However, it might appear challenging in a driving culture with a little amount of money to accomplish all these things. A recent project named PROJECT 180, has been recently developed in many Cities towards the idea of creating a safe walk. what is interesting about it is the fact that it doesn’t require millions, since the planners are not building anything, they are simply re-striping the lands, offering fewer travel lands, two way systems, more parking, and more biking. However, in order to create a walkable neighbourhood, the three other aspects enumerated earlier have to be followed as well. In any case, the best strategy appears to be fixing step by step the downtown first, and that, will inevitably end up affecting the rest of the City.
Figure 9: A large width street-Plateau
In the Beijing site buffer areas involve a layering of parking and vegetation between the road and sidewalk to increase pedestrian protection [FIGURE 8]. In the same way, a large street in the Plateau, St. Laurent, exhibits a similar pattern [FIGURE 9]. By making streets wider we induce traffic, as a matter of fact people change their habits when easier paths are provided. This is why, the presence of buffers more particularly the presence of trees in the street, can be a potential solution, since they cause the cars to move more slowly. In addition to that, they do so much for our health and constitute an important factor in the landscape. Providing a comfortable walk is essential, we need to feel that our backs are covered, we can not fight it, it is in our bones. People are drawn to spaces that have good edges, and if the edges are not being supplied, people will not want to be there. Human scale relates both to the size of buildings in height and width on a street façade as well width of streets. Therefore what is the proper ratio of height to width? Some studies have shown that if this ratio gets beyond one to six, the feeling of enclosure goes away.
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