Everyday use of urban street spaces: the spatio-temporal relations between pedestrians and street vendors: a case study in Yuncheng, China

Abstract

In contemporary Chinese cities dynamic street vendors are a common presence, frequently occupying spaces where many people regularly walk, leading to functional changes to the streets. This research aim was to examine the everyday use of urban streets at a micro-scale, to explore spatio-temporal relations between the fixed built environment and the ways in which vendors and pedestrians co-produce walkable space and walking behaviours over time. Using field observation and behaviour mapping, we compared spatio-temporal data and spatial patterns of street activities over four daily periods of three urban street spaces in the medium-sized city of Yuncheng. The results indicate that such activities produce environment-behaviour interactions and socio-spatial relations, which leads to an understanding of how city life occurs. The conclusions suggest that vending is important for giving life to urban areas and increasing residents' physical activity, so that urban governors and designers should consider how to facilitate it better.

Exploring the Associations of Walking Behavior with Neighborhood Environments by Different Life Stages: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Smaller Chinese City

“…This might lead to urban sprawl, but also provide a chance for organic and traditional development. In other words, the built environment in smaller Chinese cities is developed more based on the real-time demands of the residents and there is less control for temporary informal practices, such as street vending [31]. The findings in our study, therefore, may differ from those in large Chinese cities or Western countries.…”

“…The distribution of occupation and living with children for late adolescents were distinct from other two groups. Middle-aged adults tended to have lower educational attainments (e.g., 31.6% had graduated from high school or lower) but higher monthly income, compared to late adolescents and young adults. Table 2 illustrates that the average daily walking duration for all participants almost reached 31-60 min (mean = 2.95) and middle-aged adults walked even more (mean = 3.23).…”

“…The college entrance examination was reinstated in 1977, which led to lower educational attainments in people who were over 40 during the time of our research. In the late 1990s, after the reform, people with higher incomes tended to move out, and the work units were less well-maintained and gradually decreased in number [21,26] According to the understanding above and the age groups used in a study of socio-spatial segregation in China [48], the "working age population" was divided into three life stages (TLS): late adolescents (aged [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], young adults (aged [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], and middle-aged adults (aged . The classification of TLS was discussed and refined twice with the local participants:…”

“…Smaller cities, where most Chinese people spend their lives, seem less important and have attracted less attention with few studies on them. Most concepts and policies regarding walkability that are applied are conceived either to fit the situation of larger cities or to emulate western urban models [30,31]. There is a lack of empirical evidence to clarify context-specific walking behavior in smaller Chinese cities.…”

“…Bourdieu (1984) proposes the term habitus and notes that it can guide people to think, feel and act in specific ways [32]. Different habitus with the local context (e.g., socially, economically and culturally) in developing countries may lead to different walking motivations and behaviors distinct from western ones [13,25,31,33,34]. Moreover, as found by Travlou (2006) and Ward Thompson (2007), playing in a natural environment in childhood was found to be an important factor for engagement in outdoor environments in later life [35,36].…”