Urban Trails
Zoya Kuptsova, Rebeca Grinspum

Encouraging diverse use of neighbourhood streets

As people increasingly move towards working from home, locals are relying more heavily on their neighbourhoods to exercise, seek out food and socialise. However parks and suburban centres designed to cater for social needs are not always easily accessible. So how do we enable daily interactions and activities to happen on a street that is much closer to home?

An opportunity exists to support life along streets by designating small spaces for exercise, commerce and social interaction and distributing them across existing cycle path networks. Our proposal looked specifically at Dunning Avenue in Rosebery, with it’s growing
bike network, density and mixture of residential and commercial spaces, and consists of:

Replacing a few parking spaces with:

• Bike pit-stops: replacing one parking space with facilities to pump-tires, bicycle parking and garden planters
• Designated food truck spots: GreenSquare and Rosebery have the density and existing commerce to make these businesses viable

Enhancing the footpath and nature strips adjacent to food-truck and bike pit stops with:

• Jogging paths
• Benches offering rest stops to encourage walking
• Water stations to support exercise and dog walking
• Occasional exercise equipment that may double up as incidental play

As Jane Jacobs once noted, “only diverse surroundings have the practical power of inducing a natural, continuing flow of life and use”. These small interventions could provide for diverse groups of people in order to help sustain an inclusive social street life, supporting more liveable and vibrant neighbourhoods.