The right to walk in cities, a comparative review of Macau, Lisbon and Las Vegas

• Author: Carlos J.L. Balsas
• Position: Department of Geography and Planning, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA
• Pages: 123-142

The right to walk in cities, a

comparative review of Macau,

Lisbon and Las Vegas

Carlos J.L. Balsas

Department of Geography and Planning, University at Albany,

Albany, New York, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to analyze walking activity and recent efforts at augmenting

walkabilityconditions in the cities of Macau, Lisbonand Las Vegas.

Design/methodology/approach –The methodology consisted mostly of in-loco observations,

pedestriancounts and extensive reviews of the literature,city plans and regulations.

Findings –The findings include the need to properly design, maintain and retrofit pedestrian facilities,

while reducing safetyconflicts among street users as well as the establishment and the nurturing of a culture

of walking.

Research limitations/implications –Afivefold international walkability research agenda with

implications for other cities aroundthe world is established: the value and the need for comparative studies

and best practices;the need for urban design interventions; the cultivationof attractiveness and aesthetics; the

implementationof safety, construction and maintenance criteria;and responsible funding programs.

Practical implications –This paper has twofold implications for stakeholders with direct

responsibilitiesin the design, planning, buildingand maintenance of streets and public spaces, and for those

who simplyuse those places at their own discretion.

Social implications –A succinct set of recommendations includethe need to augment endogeneity, the

need to make cities for people and not for automobiles and commitment to resolving pedestrian safety

concerns.

Originality/value –This paper discusses the factors affectingstreet vibrancy from both a stakeholder’s

and a user’s perspective. The fundamental and inalienable right to walk is analyzed using the WPPFUS

framework(walking levels, purposes, primacy of walking,facilities, unique features and safety concerns).

Keywords Walkability, Transport, Rights, Urban design, Safety

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Interest in walkability research has increased in recent years. It is known that many cities

are privileged places to exercise the right to walk. However, certain cities have been built

with the automobile, and not with the person, as the main urban design element. Such a

design option has had severe consequences for the planning, engineering, building and

management of the built environment in urban areas (Hass-Klau, 2015). The relationship

Earlier versions of this paper were delivered as invited talks at Colloquium and a Department-wide

Lecture Series at the Department of Geography, Planning, Environment at Concordia University,

Montreal, Canada, and at the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts

University in Medford, Massachusetts, in fall 2016. The author would like to thank the organizers for

the invites as well as the participants for their challenging and thoughtful comments and

suggestions.

The right to

walk in cities

123

Received 24 March 2017

Revised 11 May 2017

Accepted 12 May 2017

InternationalJournal of Law in the

BuiltEnvironment

Vol.9 No. 2, 2017

pp. 123-142

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1756-1450

DOI 10.1108/IJLBE-03-2017-0012

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-1450.htm

between land use and transportation has also been studied quiteextensively (Banister, 2005;

Krizek et al., 2009). Nonetheless, most published accounts of that research assume the

inevitability of such a relationship and lack comparative international analyses of current

efforts to create more walkable and human-friendly public places. Building on Lefebvre’s

“right to the city”thesis (Lefebvre,1968, 1996;Mitchell, 2003;Marcuse et al., 2009), this

paper emphasizes the right to walk as a central element in urbanism, urban and

transportation planning and community design. But for that to occur, people have to be

freed from the “tyranny of the automobile”in design standards and regulations (Prytherch,

2012).

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze walking activity and recent efforts at

augmenting walkability conditions in the cities of Macau (Macau SAR), Lisbon (Portugal)

and Las Vegas (USA). Thesecities consciously redesigned their downtown areas to different

extents to make them more pedestrian-friendly. Although such an action might not have

been very difficult in the case of Macau, it took prospective and foresight in the case of

Lisbon, and a conscious realization in the case of Las Vegas.Although the three cities were

pre-selected, and direct comparisons may not be the main goal of the study, the analyses

allow the identificationof a walkability continuum going from the most to the least walkable

(and vice-versa). This is reflected in distance, traffic volumes and the caliber of the roads in

the case of Las Vegas, for which countermeasures to safeguard the physical integrity of

those on foot have been implemented in recent years. Moreover, in an age of increased

connectivity and intensetransference of professional practices among continents,this study

timely raises issues of societalresilience, which have held unique socio-cultural values and

capabilities together,in certain cases, for hundreds of years.

The chosen cities have different spatial patterns. First, Macau’s historic district is

extremely old and compact, and its small-scale urban development in the city center has

high density, high patrimonialvalue and very narrow and winding streets. Second,Lisbon’s

downtown is a new neighborhood completely planned, designed and rebuilt in the

eighteenth centuryaccording to modern urban design patterns. The cityof Lisbon dedicated

a considerable effortto renovate many of its central squares and main streets duringthe late

1990s. Third, Las Vegas, a paradigmaticyoung and postmodern Sunbelt city, was built on a

grid-iron pattern using a superblock scale. Las Vegas represents the typical late

urbanization city of the Sunbeltregion of the USA.

With the exception of Las VegasBoulevard, the main streets examined in this paper are

perhaps the oldest and the most emblematic streets in the three cities. Macau’s streets

leading from the Senado Square to St. Paul’sCathedral are several centuries old and so is the

adjacent built environment. Given that they used to link two critical functions in the

territory (religious and administrative centers), they are also the most walked on and among

the most visited streets in Macau. The Augusta Street is downtown Lisbon’s main street

structuring the whole district and connecting the river Tagus (at the water’s edge) to the

Praça do Rossio and to the Avenida da Liberdade, leadingto Park Eduardo VII (on a plateau

overlooking the center). The Freemont Streetis in the heart of the former downtown casino

cluster and the second most well-knownstreet in Las Vegas, after the Las Vegas Boulevard.

Field work in these cities was carriedout during multiple visits over the past decade. The

methodology consisted mostly of in-loco observations, pedestrian counts and extensive

reviews of the literature, city plans and regulations. Selected streets and squares in specific

neighborhoods in these cities’downtowns were reviewed using the WPPFUS framework

(walking levels, purposes, primacy of walking, facilities, unique features and safety

concerns). This paper usesprimary and secondary data. Primary data were gathered during

observations, and secondary data were found in print publications and on the internet.

IJLBE

9,2

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