Streets are public spaces
Streets are places where people stay and spend time.
Streets support a wide range of activities and purposes. Many of these activities relate to adjacent land uses and often involve people spending time doing activities such as meeting, eating and drinking, waiting or socialising. This ‘staying’ activity connects strongly with the economic and social functions of streets especially for small businesses, public services and amenities provided for local communities.
Activating a public space can make it feel welcoming to a diverse range of people, and open to a variety of uses. Well-designed and appropriately activated public spaces are key to quality of life for communities across NSW. The NSW Guide to Activation details the preparation, delivery and evaluation of activated public spaces and the benefits these provide.
The ways that we use streets as public spaces is an open subject for public discourse. Kooyoo Street in Griffith is one of many streets that have been reimagined as part of the NSW DPE Streets as Shared Spaces program. These kinds of changes enable people to personally experience how a street may be used differently. Photo: Ginette Guidolin and Griffith City Council.
Designing and operating streets with the human scale in mind helps to support their function as public spaces.
Aligning with this function: