Streets have many different forms and scales – from small to large, from local places to spaces of flow. Numerous topics and themes are interwoven with the ways streets are used, interpreted, felt, or described.

This lexicon opens up the spectrum of street vocabulary, looking beyond the currently dominant, technical, mobility-focused approaches.

This is a first version of the Street Lexicon.

A-I

  • Birds – ´Suddenly, I can hear birds signing from my balcony. That is the difference between a street for cars and a street for pedestrians and nature´. In one of the superblocks of Barcelona, an existing street is completely modified into a linear space that looks more as a mixture of a square and a park. Essential intervention was the replacement of car space – driving and parking – for more space for walking and cycling. During the Covid19 pandemic, the signing birds were part of our daily lifes
  • Car – Cars dominated often more than 75% of the available street space, including lanes for driving and parking. Reducing parking space creates a whole range of other possible uses and space for many activities. It is important to assure accessibility for all, for disabled persons and for delivering/ loading and unloading. Herein the curb, design and regulations, plays an important role. – A car is much more than a technological transport mode. a\ I am proud to have this car. It gives me freedom, status, identity. I never could be only ´a simple user of a car´, I must own mine! b\ My Mercedes is bigger than yours. c\ My car is my world: house, office and leisure space in one!
  • Corners – Life: it happen all on the corner! On the corner things comes together, paths and people. Planning the corner, especially the ground floor level, with functions that attract people, makes also streets more vibrant. Cafés, shops, services and restaurants are some examples. To avoid are energy power cluster, parking, empty plots, garages or other functions that does not involve walking or other human activity.
  • Curb (kerb) – A rim, especially of joined stones or concrete, along a street or roadway, forming an edge for a sidewalk. Street parking is organised along the curb. The curb, as space between the driving lanes and the pedestrian area, forms a space of exchanging point. Often it is materialised by hard stone components, like basalt or granite. Concrete is also a well-used material.
  • Cycles of change – Everything is fluid, although sometimes it does not feel so. Each system has its own developing clock (Dupuy 2008 pp242-261) or depreciation period.
  • Details – Details are crucial. Good street design demands special attention to these details. Without a well-designed pavement, stormwater system, and rainwater retention, flowers, bushes, and trees cannot flourish. When every millimetre counts, a culture of street craftsmanship makes all the difference. As well the use of the right materials
  • Entrances – A good Plinth and Ground Floor organisation forms part of a vibrant street. Open and direct entrances towards a street will makes all the difference. – Entrances at Street Level – Interaction between the ground floor (private) space of buildings and the public space of streets is only possible if there is a direct connection between these spaces. Having entrances at the same level of the street is therefore important, as well as having a high density of entrances along one street.
  • Evolution – Networks do evolve by a set of basic mechanisms, as ´Adhesion´, ´preferential attachment´, ´factual approach´ and ´network time´. In addition, also time and rhythms, cycles of change, mobility and traffic systems and networks, regulations and guidelines are important aspects in the network evolution of streets and roads.
  • Eye view – Streets are mainly experienced from on the level of the eye. The position and height of the eyes determine our space in relation to other persons. Distance is crucial to be able to communicate with others. If we are near other persons, it is possible to have a normal conversation, face expressions are noticeable, and dual eye contact. At a distance till 10 meter some communication is still possible, as a greeting or even short talk. However, face expressions are not registered anymore, it is still possible to recognise the person. At longer distances sound and visual communication becomes weaker. Examples show us that of urban places with a dimension of approximate 40 meters feel right for people, as there is still a sense of communication possible.
  • Flexibility / Flexible use – In general street spaces are static in terms of its spatiality. Their ´gross´ space, between buildings/private plots is rigid. But, in their detailed design, streets show a strong capacity to adapt to new uses, technological innovations and natural conditions. – In street projects, functional design approaches do need also a certain degree of openness to handle unforeseen uses and activities. Besides some flexibility and the adaptation possibilities to facilitate temporary/periodical uses and activities, sometimes it is also valuable to look to design streets with a non-specific-function approach.
  • Horse – Horses are still present in some cities. In cities with a strong cultural binding with horses, as Sevilla or Vienna, but also in central touristic spots in other cities. Once, horses were the luxury transport for the elite, for travelling and transport within and between cities. Innovations as the ´diligence’, a carriage with well-sprung stagecoach for passenger transport made it possible to travel long distance with a certain comfort and safety. Later on, horses were also used for collective transport, as for the horse tram. In parallel, horses were also used for freight transport throughout all the city: horses were quite present in the daily rhythms in cities, in: streets, in industrial and harbor areas, in large parks.
  • In-between-space – The in-between-space is a hybrid zone between the public domain of the street and the private space of buildings. It is an area of interaction and transition. It is an area for sitting, talking, watching, selling, communicating, and gardening. A good and functional typology is the gallery, which is often a mix between a private space and a collective/public use.

J-R

  • Language – Street language is an expression of a local culture. Within it carries cultural codes and habits. How we do describe streets does matters for the way how we look and understand this social constructed spaces, as spaces for human activity, for natural areas and mobility flow. As streets are from all of us, we need language that covers both the general audience, as well technical aspect for those professional fields that are involved with street design, planning and maintenance. Providing a good balance is essential for participatory processes.
  • Mobility priority – Shift Priorities In order to have social inclusive, sustainable urban ecology and good accessible streets, it is essential to rebalance the place and use of different mobility modes. Prioritising first pedestrians and cyclists, then public transport and loading goods, and at last individual motorised vehicles.
  • Natural Based Solutions – Street design and planning can be based on natural processes and functioning. With the integrating of ´natural systems´ streets can be made climate proof by the possibility to adapt to sunny, wet of stormy weather conditions.
  • Pavement – The horizontal surface forms the base of a street or road. Materials as asphalt, concrete, granite, basalt or other natural stones, bricks and gravel are common. Often cars dominate the subdivision of the surface, having a distinguishing pavement for driving lanes and parking space. – Pavements can have a historical value, like on the Via Appia or in many streets in historical centres. Often these street pavements can be inconvenience for some persons, especially mobility-limited and blind or visual-limited. Irregularities of the surface and slipperiness in case of rain makes these pavements not adequate anymore. (Calçada Portuguesa).
  • People – Streets without people become just technical spaces. Unfortunately, during large part of the day, streets are often without people.
  • Play – Children like to play on the street.
  • Poerty – Spatial systems with normative regulations tent to exclude poetry from planning and design practices.Pro
  • Pollution – Urban pollution form a serious negative impact in the health of people, as air quality and noise pollution.
  • Proximity – The city of proximity is also called the ’15 minutes’ city, addressed by the theory of the urban researcher Carlos Moreno, based on social equality and sustainable principles. He proposes a spatial planning strategy of proximity grounded on ‘chrono’ (time), in where every daily activity is with a 15 minutes walking or biking distance from your living place. This includes all kind of functions, as: housing, working, basic education, shops and grocery stores, social and cultural centres, bars, restaurants, repair shops, etc. It looks also on daily and weekly rhythms of uses, searching to optimise frequent unused urban spaces, as office space during evening, nights and weekends, school yards out side opening hours, and other (build) spaces. It looks into the urban environments as a thoroughly mis use area, beyond the planning principles of zoning, of functional segregation. – The counter part of this model is the 30 minutes city, where larger urban functions and amenities are organised, as hospitals, universities and museums.
  • Reversable approaches – Everything is temporary, everything can change. It is a matter of the time-scale. Streets can be (temporarily) used differently along the various moments of a day, week or month. Periodical examples are street markets and music events. – Temporary use can be also part of an experimental in an overall urban strategy (tactical urbanism). The power of reversibility makes it often possible to try out street proposals where people are opposed to. It helps to understand the use and value of the temporary organised space. This learned knowledge can be used in future more permanent design of the street space.Daily rhythm – Some says that great cities are those cities that is fun for 8 and 80 year old people. It is about good space for daily rhythms of life. Having the possibility to walk to school, alone, in groups or with your mother or father can be – sometimes without notice it – just wonderful and priceless. Just a matter of pleasant and safe street design, with good pedestrian areas and safe crossings (in this case with a volunteer).
  • Rhythms – a\ Seasons. b\ Day-Week-Month-Year-Decade-Century. – Daily rhythm – Some says that great cities are those cities that is fun for 8 and 80 year old people. It is about good space for daily rhythms of life. Having the possibility to walk to school, alone, in groups or with your mother or father can be – sometimes without notice it – just wonderful and priceless. Just a matter of pleasant and safe street design, with good pedestrian areas and safe crossings (in this case with a volunteer).
  • Road – A kind of street. In general, not in an urban environment, autonomous planned and constructed. Often follows hierarchical planning principle. Focus on monofunctional traffic use.
  • Road diet – Physical measurements that reduces the space of mobility flows and speed, mainly for motorised vehicles. Examples are: reducing the standard width of lanes, the parking width, introducing smaller bottlenecks at entrances of neighbourhoods, etc.

S-Z

  • Sitting – The availability to sit is a crucial factor for walking. Street benches fulfil this demand. Important is a right placement within the pedestrian network. Lighting and trees are also factors can influence the quality and use of the benches, as also the number of benches along a walking path (this has especially a positive effect on elderly persons). People do sit also on other objects, as low walls, stairs, around fountains, on edges of buildings, and on monumental statues. – A sitting place can become a local social place where people do meet for a talk. This can be for everybody, or just for a specific group.
  • Social space – Streets are important social spaces in our daily (healthy) living environment. It is the space where we can meet our friends, neighbours and those that we do not know. It is part of our democratic space and should be therefore always publicly accessible and publicly managed. This included also all technology (traffic signs, video registrations, data measurements collectors for mobility movements and weather information). – Social Space – a\ Every day I say hello to people on the street, with some I have a chat, with others I only know them of daily passing by. b\ There is a relation between the speed of motorised traffic density and the amount of social contacts between neighbourhoods (Appleyard 1981). c\ The street is from all of us! That is often a dilemma. Because it is from everybody, nobody feels real responsible for it.
  • Street – Streets are complex, cultural constructed urban spaces, combining a series of uses, functions and values. – The word street has its origins in the Latin strata (meaning “paved road” – an abbreviation from via strata); it is thus related to stratum and stratification. The first recorded use of word stratæ referring to the road has been made by Eutropius. Ancient Greek stratos means army: Greeks originally built roads to move their armies. Old English applied the word to Roman roads in Britain such as Ermine Street, Watling Street, etc. Later it acquired a dialectical meaning of “straggling village”, which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads and these settlements often became named Stretton. In the Middle Ages, a road was a way people travelled, with street applied specifically to paved ways. – Street, strasse, straat, stretto, gata, gade, ulica, улица, tänav, calle, rue, rua.
  • Street denomination – Street name – a\ Streets of many European cities have names of historical relevant persons, as artists, politics and scientists. Streets are also named by tree or animal types, numbers or letters. b\ There are many names for streets: calle, rua, straat, strasse, allee, path, road, avenue, boulevard, etc..
  • Street patterns – Streets and roads are part of the spatial structure of urban landscapes. Urban areas that are planned and developed ´at once´, show often grid-like street patterns. – Grids (planned) ~ Organic grow (not planned); Network – Streets are elementary components of urban structures, providing many relationships and interaction points.
  • Street life – Vibrant streets are full of life. Streets with people do attract other people. Watching and being seen is one of the key activity and reason why people are on streets. – People also life on streets. Homeless people are found on streets. During day time in search of quite places, in search of some base condition for life. Night time seems to be a matter of surviving.
  • Street type  – Every contemporary street composition – the street section – consist of several spatial base components, which are different ordered and grouped. Not every component is included in every street type. Every street is unique. Elementary components are: traffic space as driving lanes, bus lanes, bicycling lanes, pedestrian area, emergency lanes, public transport stops or stations, crossings or connections with other streets; pedestrian space, including pavement, urban furniture, lighting and trees; building layout consisting of entrances, plinth and plot organisation, building typology, and architecture; parking space, along the main driving lanes or separated parking zones, as well bicycling parking; urban networks, which are often organised underground, as energy systems (electricity cables, gas tubes), drink water system, sewage, telecommunication wires and garbage system; and street information as traffic signs, lights and traffic lines, as well street names, address information codes (numbers, letters), bill boards, advertising, temporal information elements. Beside the static spatial components, dynamics elements contribute to the total picture of a street type, as: people, traffic movements, weather conditions, time moment (day, week, month, year). Also, requirements are needed for emergency services.
  • Traffic evaporation – Reducing urban road capacity can actually decrease total traffic. A landmark research of 100 study locations in the UK (1998) termed this effect ‘traffic evaporation.’ Initially, disruption occurs, but after a settling-in period, traffic volumes dropped by an average of 25%. While outcomes varied, the research found that restricting road space for cars did not simply shift congestion elsewhere, but some traffic did totally disappear. – “Examples of evidence showing reduced urban road capacity can reduce total traffic. Imagine if we closed some roads to cars and traffic congestion actually reduced as a result. This sounds counter-intuitive, yet it is exactly the effect that was revealed by research in the 1990s in a number of cities around the world. This result was described as ‘traffic evaporation’ in the seminal 1998 UK study of 100 locations. The report showed that after a ‘settling in period’, where road capacity was reduced for private cars there was a 25% average overall reduction in traffic. Case-by-case outcomes varied substantially, but in many cases, when you reduce road capacity, existing motor traffic doesn’t just find another route. Some of it ‘disappears’, or ‘evaporates’.”

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