Sunday, February 10, 2008

[noakhaliweb] The ground floor: for parking or for people?

The ground floor: for parking or for people?
Maruf Rahman
marufrbd@yahoo.com

Traveling through a section of Dhaka recently, I noticed an
interesting phenomenon. A new building, going up on one side of the
road, was true to the new theory and rules of construction: the
ground floor is left empty and open, for parked cars, while the
upper floors are meant for people (homes, workplaces, shops, etc.).
On the other side of the street were existing buildings, with the
ground floor occupied by shops, and dwellings above. Despite the
poor condition of the footpath, many people were outside, walking
and milling about. The street was lively, with much to see and look
at.
As I continued along, I passed other new buildings where the ground
floor is occupied by car parking. Anyone wishing to access a
service along that portion of the street must first climb up at
least one flight of stairs. A popular restaurant spans the 2nd and
3rd floor of a building, while a handful of cars occupy the ground
floor—and of course still spill out over the footpath. When we
discover that simply vacating the ground floor for car parking isn't
enough, then what—will we keep moving higher and higher up, giving
more and more space to cars? Will we build expensive underground
parking lots for cars, even though we can't provide affordable
housing for all our people?
I thought about my own situation, in a ground floor office with a
constant flow of visitors. The ready access to the street makes it
inviting, and those visitors are the lifeblood of our work. I
thought about the people I know who live or work on the ground
floor, and the shortage of housing for different people's needs, and
the current trends to shift people to the upper levels and reserve
the ground floor for parked cars. Where would we all go, if we are
evicted by car parking?
In shopping malls, and in multi-storey buildings, the shops on the
lower floors command the highest rents. When people walk, they
don't look up; they observe what is at their level. The ground
floor is of great commercial importance, because it is the most
visible and the most accessible. People will only notice upper-
floor shops and businesses if they make an effort, and a further
effort is required—even if there is a lift—to access them. They
will never attain the easy flow of those on the ground floor. Why
give our most valuable commercial real estate to cars?
When we live on the ground floor, or on a lower floor, it is easy
for us to go in and out. If we return home and discover we have
neglected to buy milk or eggs, we can easily go out to the
neighborhood shop. We can visit others, or partake of the street
life. When we live high up in an apartment building, the prospect
of waiting for the lift, and riding it for many floors, is often
enough to convince us to stay home in front of the TV rather than
venturing back out again.
Further, when the ground floor is occupied by parked and moving
cars, there is little room or safety for those on foot. Even on the
footpath, we must always be on the alert for cars driving onto the
footpath to park, or over it to access a building. As we walk
along, we see not shops or restaurants, not signs of human life, but
rather parked cars. Rather than interesting and lively streetscapes
that give us incentive to walk—and inspire affection for our
surroundings—we face steel and cement. When we enter buildings, we
pass not through doors meant for people, but through parking lots
full of cars.
In parks and empty lots, people seeking recreation and enjoyment
must vie for space with the cars. We begin to suspect that the city
was created not for us, but for our vehicles. We are encouraged to
cross streets underground or by bridges, because the street level is
for cars. We are told that our problems will be solved by building
public transit—below ground. Our housing, shops, restaurants, and
workplaces are shifted to the upper floors. As human life at ground
level gives way to cars, we begin to feel that we are the invaders
of the city, and it is cars who fully belong. Certainly this is
evident on many streets, where people are prevented from crossing by
barbed wire, giving a prison-like environment to our streets and a
very clear message to those on foot.
But as we give more and more of our space away to cars, as we
retreat further and further from the streets and the street level in
order to make space for cars, perhaps we should question how much we
gain, and how much we lose, by doing so. One thing should be clear
by now: there can never be enough space for cars. However much we
give them, they will always demand more. No city has solved its
traffic or parking problems by building more roads or providing more
parking; demand always outpaces supply.
But those cities who have reversed the trends, and actively taken
space away from cars and given it back to people, have discovered
that, ironically, their parking and congestion problems actually
lessen. When people can no longer easily park for free throughout
the city, they question the need to take the car for short trips.
When there is less space on the road for cars and more for
pedestrians and cyclists, more people walk and cycle. When we
reassert that the streets are for people, people regain the streets—
and the city.
Perhaps it's all a bit like the schoolyard bully. He demands lunch
money from his peers, and they hand it over. He and his friends
take over the yard, and send everyone else into a corner. The more
you give him, the more he takes. How can we make him stop? Isn't
he ever satisfied? Then one day, the other kids get together and
take him on, and he relents. The kids again get to spend their
lunch money on themselves, and play freely in the yard. They look
at each other, and shrug, and laugh: how could we ever have been so
foolish, to think that he would become satisfied and stop demanding
more? And now that we are back in control, enjoying what always
should have been ours, we are never going back! We will reoccupy
the ground floor, reoccupy our cities, and only give to cars what
extra space we can afford to give away, without losing our rights,
our footpaths, our streets and the most essential parts of our
buildings.


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