CAMINHABILIDADE E POLÍTICAS DE ESTACIONAMENTO: PROPOSTA DE RECONVERSÃO DE USO NA RUA SANTA IFIGÊNIA – SÃO PAULO

Abstract

The improvement of urban walkability is often due to the “renegotiation” of the public spaces usage. The conversion of traffic lanes, or parking lane, in sidewalks, works as a strategy to balance the uses that a street should serve. The difficulty in implementing such projects could be explained by the inertia and influence of the excessive use of the car, even in urban centers, endowed with transport infrastructure to provide other active mobility modes. The experimental mechanisms counter these difficulties, allowing greater speed for innovative proposals and with greater uncertainty tolerance, being easily reversed to the initial conditions
in case of negative results. Santa Ifigênia St., in São Paulo, is a clear example of usage conflicts occurring in the public space: cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, trucks, carters and beggars vie for attention on the street during business hours, every day. This article presents a reconfiguration of urban design: the conversion of public parking spaces into safe and comfortable spaces for walking. The study also brings a strategy for the implementation through the experimental method and discusses its advantages and limitations.