STREET SPACE FROM THE VIEW OF HUMAN INTERACTION

Abstract

The dramatic increase in automobile transport over the last few decades has often led to the degradation of a basic element of the urban space – streets, the essential part of every urban area – to simple transport corridors. Life in the street is a dramatic stage on which we all are participating actors. The meaning of streets goes beyond the fact that they lead somewhere else and thus hold the city together, but the streetscape has a meaning in and of itself – we are out in the street because we want to be there. Like other components of the urban space, streets have a spatial dimension but, perhaps uniquely, also have their temporal element. In my contribution I would like to characterize a street in a town and its role in the modern way of life. Streets and public spaces are important elements that make up a city. The rapid increase of number of vehicles brought changes in the character and function of the street space. The streets were perceived primarily as a space reserved for transport, to the detriment of its residential, social and aesthetic function. Vehicles in motion and mainly parked cars gradually occupied a larger part of public areas and they do not allow other activities.