In my TEDx Talk on the Transformative Power of Walking I noted the importance of benches in making places for people to be sociable, feel accepted on the street, and to people watch, a very important human activity. I also cited a study completed by New York City’s Department of Transportation that showed that placing benches outside retail stores increased sales volumes by 14 per cent at the adjacent storefronts.
BBC’s Katie Shepherd examines an encouraging trend in North America where municipalities are now encouraging the placement of benches as a welcoming gesture outside of stores. Such actions by individual shop keepers often is the first step (no pun intended) to how to create a more coherent and customer friendly commercial area.
“American cities have an excess of roadway space,” says Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, an urban planning professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The street seats movement aims to reclaim some of that road for the pedestrian” by making public space active and vibrant.
“In Washington, DC, the annual Park(ing) Day celebration, in which businesses and community organisers build temporary parks in metered parking spots, inspired a program to allow permanent parklets to be installed in approved spots along the District’s streets. Inside these new parklets, businesses put out benches and chairs for their customers and the public to use whenever tired feet need a rest.” New York City has two established programs encouraging public seating for transit riders and pedestrians, especially the elderly. In a program called “CityBench” the Department of Transportation reimburses businesses for public bench installation. Over 1,500 benches have been added by storekeepers so far. And, as in the case of New York City, taking out a parking lane of City Street for benches improves businesses’ bottom line.
“Portland runs a “street seat” programme that has inspired eclectic designs – from benches that look like giant lawn chairs to seats that double as planters reminiscent of grassy hillsides. “Community engagement, that’s what made them really popular and really fun,” said Leah Treat, director for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.”
Where is Vancouver’s program supportive of increased seating in commercial areas? Is this something that can be themed or provide a whimsical gesture to the street? Seniors say we don’t have enough benches for the elderly in the commercial areas. Would this be a good place to start?
I have lived on Nanaimo’s downtown waterfront, now, for almost twenty years: back in the early ’60’s when I was building NRGH that would have been the last place I expected to have end up in my dotage!
After living in Mexico City in the latter years of the ’90’s I returned to Nanaimo, where my family lived at the time, with not the slightest intention of making it my home.
And now, 2017, after all these years, here I am. Never would I have thought: there must be something good about the town!
Oooops, I got carried away. The point of all that chatter is: when it’s not raining I walk Nanaimo’s waterfront were there are benches every 100 yards or less. And that’s not the only great things about this little town!
PS 15 of those years sailing the Salish sea, and convenient moorage for my sailboat, had something to do with it!
One part of the city that is chockablock with benches is the high street of Kerrisdale. They are much used and appreciated and don’t appear to suffer from vandalism and graffiti. They are a humanizing element; as are memorium benches. It’s poignant to read inscriptions.
Cineaste Denys Arcand’s grandmother bought him a tombstone to remind him of his mortality. A living memorium bench would have been preferable.
People often put flowers and images where loved ones have been killed by motorists. Maybe they should be permitted to put up benches.
On city sidewalks, sandwich boards should be eliminated. They are hazard. Instead, merchants could install benches. A caveat is that the number of benches, and the advertising on them – the most obnoxious kind of graffiti – should be regulated. Otherwise our commons would be even more splattered by bully businessmen. Bad enough that billboards infect our view everywhere.
Benches are a simple but most effective contribution to urban design and living in the city. When placed well (essentially, anywhere people walk in numbers) they are used well and don’t suffer the vandalism more isolated locations would promote.
Simple benches of simple design using simple materials and having a simple cost are so ubiquitous they are invisible to some urban designers who break their brain trying to elevate customized style over substance, like it was an Olympics gymnastics competition.
Subtlety often has great power.
While we’re at it, how about following the lead of the city that gives store owners a tax break of some kind if they allow public use of their washrooms, giving notice with a sticker in the window– or on a bench outside!
Saves building expensive public washrooms, makes better use of existing washrooms, gives a break to businesses (coffee shops and restaurants especially) where passersby demand access, and deals with another major impediment to pedestrian enjoyment.
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Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
Parks also don’t have enough benches, at least in North Vancouver. Benches seem to pile up in a few parks like Cates while most parks don’t have very few or none. Benches are generally a nice thing to have, but they are essential for seniors who can’t walk for hours without resting and others who need a break from time to time. Without benches some people can’t go for a longer walk. In my opinion any park with graded smooth trails should have a bench every few hundred metres or wherever there is a nice spot to sit.