How to transform car-dependent city into pedestrian city?

Abstract

The case study of this research is New Belgrade, planned and designed as a Modern city capital for new Yugoslav state and society. Today, it is a part of Belgrade that is trying to use its competitive advantages and redefine its position as a new business and commercial centre. Once empty streets of New Belgrade are today subject of traffic jams and lack of parking. If the sustainable imperative is put as the general and most important goal, then the possibilities of walking in Modern cities must be reconsidered not only as a type of recreation, but as sustainable mode of transport as well. This paper focuses on pedestrian network development in cities of Modern movement. The basics lie in a study of the main artery Boulevard Zoran Djindjic in New Belgrade and its corresponding blocks. The aim is to reassess open spaces of the street and make proposals for improvement in accordance with 5km/h principles. In addition, the research investigates possibilities of creating and transforming car-dependent city into more pedestrian-friendly environment, thus networking with open spaces inside these blocks. The analysis refers to contents of the ground floors and its treatment as potential pedestrian destinations. The second part of analysis is related to mapping the values of these open spaces in order to define urban ambient inside the block, as well as to create secondary destinations and achieve balanced use of space by pedestrians. It will be conducted using the Space Syntax methodology. The aim is to determine the flows of natural movement, conditioned by the spatial configuration of the study area. According to the results, paper will present the proposal of new space configuration. In the final instance, tendency is to increase the intensity of pedestrian movement and improvement of open spaces' quality.