Our scheme is intended to encourage people, particularly students who are the main users on this route to be more active and walk from concentrated areas of student housing, to University. Socially limiting factors are often due to the pace of life we lead and that people cannot allocate time in their busy lifestyles to reduce use of cars and buses etc. Other limiting factors include weather dependency, to walk comfortably, whether to university or simply to nearest bus stops. Theorists such as Hasselt are supportive of ideas of co-dependency between social and technical changes made to environmental schemes, which our scheme addresses.
There is also a sense of social hierarchy associated with using cars and superiority in social class. Stigmas are still attached with use of public transport, but if the option is removed, society will have to adapt. In theory the buses are so regular, they should be efficient. At peak times they are very congested, which is off-putting, therefore our Travelator system offers an ideal alternative to motivate people, in a less congested environment, and independent means of transport. It is ultimately attempting to make social changes through introduction of technological changes, but in an awareness of their co-dependence.
Our proposal is in opposition to early Modernist ideologies of elimniating walkable urban ares; creating ‘deserts of concrete’ and removing the pedestrian from the street. They wanted to ‘elevate people from street level’, whereas we want to bring people back to street level and make more efficient use of it.
To a point, our proposal is more cohesive with New Urbanist theories ‘a movement that promotes neo-traditional, neighbourhood-based urban design’ (Kelbough), as the emphasis on this is to create a pedestrian-based town centre and to be sustainable and self- sufficient communities.
Generally, New Urbanism is meso- based, and targets neighbourhood areas, the scale of our proposal crosses over more than one neighbourhood, but there is already a natural link with the movement of students between these areas and also the ‘neighbourhoods’ cannot be completely isolated and self-sufficient especially in this social context i.e. dictated by the education system instated and the movement of students within this urban environment.
In support of idea...
‘A concern for the environment is to be integrated into community design in various ways such as through regional and local connections to transit’ (Carter, 2004). Our scheme would work on a local level but hopefully provide a flagship scheme which could be applied on a regional level throughout the city and scope to be applied to further urban/ student areas.
We want to provide ‘An emphasis on public space, which results in an ease of pedestrianised access and the provision of a well-defined and high quality public realm’ (Hulme, 2005, Manchester Council) . The movement of students is definitive of this stretch of Oxford Road and pedestrianising it will be supportive and beneficial to the public context.
