Social Space Ratio: Calculating the Rate of Public Space Activities That Enhance Social Interaction on a Pedestrian Street in Karlstad, Sweden

Karim Najar (), Ola Nylander and William Woxnerud
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Karim Najar: Department of Biotechnology and Health, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden
Ola Nylander: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
William Woxnerud: Independent Researcher, 661 30 Säffle, Sweden

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-46

Abstract: William H. Whyte took on the challenge of assessing the amount of public space in a city based on its carrying capacity, pointing out that popular public spaces offer more room for social activities. However, the absence of qualitative characteristics makes this assessment even more challenging to implement. This study aims to find a method to gauge the carrying capacity of urban public spaces by calculating the social space ratio for pedestrian-only streets in Karlstad, Sweden, and quantifying this relationship. The social space ratio represents the proportion of public spaces that foster social interaction throughout their entire area. The method began by selecting the most relevant conceptual framework for social public spaces and then sought theory-based characteristics to assign to seven social activities on Karlstad’s pedestrian-only streets. The authors performed a comprehensive search of the literature utilizing the PRISMA approach, gathering information from credible references, placemaking toolkits, transportation toolkits, and academic sources. This was performed to determine the weighting factors and effective social areas by evaluating these activities in terms of nine categories of the chosen framework: accessibility, traffic, social infrastructure, security, places to meet, senses and experience, architecture and aesthetics, development and maintenance, and control and programming. We devised a method to calculate the carrying capacity and social space ratio of Karlstad’s pedestrian-only streets, resulting in a ratio of 0.38. The research led to the development of eight quality-control tools to analyze the seven social activities in public places. This innovative approach helps researchers and municipal planners evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of these spaces, contributing significantly to Swedish urban planning and enabling future studies to create a social area factor.

Keywords: social space ratio; social area factor; pedestrian-only streets; weighting factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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