Pedestrian oriented streets as indispensable places in urban life: A case study in Izmir City (Turkey)

Pedestrian spaces that were initially started with the agoras and forums in the ancient ages were formed by changing within the course of history and after the World War II they became the inevitable spaces of urbanization efforts. This study was carried out to put forward the current status of pedestrian malls in Izmir city by evaluating their design features in terms of quality and quantity and also determine their problems and development opportunities. The method of the study is composed of four main phases as the definition of the subject / problem, data collection, findings and analyses, and evaluation and synthesis. For this purpose, 20 pedestrian oriented streets in Izmir Metropolitan district were chosen as study area and within the scope of the research method, observation and visual analysis studies were conducted in each research space. Also a face to face survey was conducted with 271 users. After a detailed assessment of the data obtained by the study, some suggestions were given for supporting the development of pedestrian spaces. As a result, it has found that pedestrian oriented places regardless of their quality level are indispensable for public and these places are being used very intensively despite all the shortcomings and there is a high level of interest to such places by users. Based on this indispensability, it is essential and necessary to establish the cycle within the planning, designing and usage process in a healthy way, and to put a control mechanism into operation, in administrative dimension. Within this process both local populace and non-governmental organizations should undertake active roles.