Urban Congestion : Congestrians?

“In great cities, spaces as well as places are designed and built: walking, witnessing, being in public, are as much part of the design and purpose as is being inside to eat, sleep, make shoes or love or music. The word citizen has to do with cities, and the ideal city is organized around citizenship -- around participation in public life.”-Rebecca Solnit

The above picture was taken on Charlotte Street in Port of Spain. It depicts the daily pedes[trian] [congest]ion that occurs on Charlotte Street, in addition to several others, particularly on weekday afternoons when there is an influx of foot-travellers. The city attracts large crowds due to its appealing pull factors (Payne & Jennings, 2003). These include better job opportunities, improved services, protection, enhanced social life, as well as affordable shopping alternatives.

Firstly, the city offers good employment opportunities, as most businesses and government offices are located there e.g. the Ministry of Health, located on Park Street in POS. Thus, majority of the working population of the country tend to be concentrated within the city on a daily basis. Additionally, the city provides better infrastructure and services, such as health care and education. This is evident as health care institutions such as the Port of Spain General Hospital is known to provide better medical care than other health centres across the country. Similarly, the best, most prestigious schools are known to be located within the city, such as St. Joseph’s Convent and Holy Name Convent, in addition to several other surrounding schools, thereby attracting students, as well as potential stakeholders. Furthermore, the city aims to provide a sense of safety- thereby attracting individuals. However, during my POS Place Check, I discovered that, though Port of Spain provides security through its police presence, especially at Independence Square, the majority of individuals who use down-town Port of Spain do not feel a sense of safety. Nevertheless, they venture into the city for other drawing aspects. Another pull factor to the city which is, in my opinion, the most influential, is the opportunity for low cost shopping. This is facilitated by privately owned businesses, whether on a small scale, such as street vendors, or large stores which provide competitive prices that are substantially lower than those at Shopping Malls or even established Markets. As such, individuals are enticed into the city in order to get ‘a better value for your dollar’, as some would say.

Therefore, there is an inflow of these varying groups of people into the city. This is especially evident at peak hours of weekdays i.e. around 3-4pm. At these times, the students belonging to surrounding schools would have been dismissed, and regular government offices which maintain an 8-4pm work schedule would also release its workers. At this time, some also opt for a 'lime' at one of several roadside bars in the city. As such, this results in an overwhelming crowing of people on the street pavements, which poses serious problems of congestion, especially in areas where street vending is practised, as highlighted in my previous post. This forces pedestrians to engage in a series of strategic walking patterns in order to manoeuvre their way either uptown or down-town. From my own experience, I can say this involved all but a combination of dodging people, poles, carts, cars, kids, students and even ducking from flying parcels being tossed through the air from the hand of one truck loader to the hands of another stocker. Sounds tiring right? Most definitely! But nothing short of exciting as I often think of it as an obstacle course. Nevertheless, pedestrian congestion poses a great problem for urban areas as it can lead to conflicts, delays of travel as well as a great hindrance and complication of evacuation procedures (Lopez, 2014).

Urban Congestion

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Congestrians?

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