Vibrant streets: characteristics, success factors and contributions to sustainable development

Urban streets serve (1) movement functions: people and vehicles should get safely, comfortably and efficiently to their destinations, (2) place functions: streets are destinations on their own, people come here to access adjacent properties or to carry out activities directly in the street, (3) wider functions such as climate adaption or water management. Stakeholders in various cities worldwide are increasingly focusing on strengthening place functions and designing high quality street spaces that attract people and on-site activities, followed by movement activities in the active modes (walking, cycling, micro vehicles), while minimizing motorized traffic. Vibrant streets are streets for and with people, they contribute to urban planning ambitions for example by improving the economic success of adjacent properties or by strengthening local communities, to transport planning ambitions by supporting with walking and cycling the most sustainable and space-efficient transport modes, and to public health ambitions by increasing physical activity levels. Accordingly, vibrant streets contribute to sustainable development (e.g. SDG 11: “Sustainable Cities and Communities”). Similar to the benefits of vibrant streets, the success factors are interdisciplinary: Only joint efforts of urban and transport planning can achieve the ambitious goal of streets that serve all the three initially introduced functions in a balanced way but with a particular focus on walking, cycling and place activities. This chapter addresses the following main questions: What are the main characteristics of vibrant streets? What are their effects on the environment, the economy and society? What are the most promising strategies to achieve vibrant streets where street users stay for a long time? At the end of the chapter, the main lessons learnt are summarized and avenues for future research are outlined.:1 Vibrant streets as an interdisciplinary chance and challenge 2 Built-environment factors of walking and place activities at street level 2.1 Neighborhood level 2.2 Street level 3 Determinants of individual travel behavior 4 Community building 5 Contributions of vibrant streets to sustainable development 6 Strategies for fostering vibrant streets 7 Good practice examples 8 Avenues for research and planning practice 9 Publication bibliograph