Placemaking for Development of the Bike and Walk Friendly Community

Abstract

The objective of this research was to develop a community that would be friendly to
walking and using bicycles in daily life. There were three purposes of this research: 1) to study the
model for designing public spaces that would be consistent with the Placemaking principle, 2) to
study the speed of vehicles traveling through the area, 3) to study the people’s public space use
behaviors. Suksabaijai community located in Kalasin city was selected as the study area.
The result of this research shows that: 1) The public space design model that would be
consistent with the Placemaking principle is a community-involved design by incorporating local
identities and art forms suitable for the area, as well as creating common experiences among people
in the community. 2) The comparison of vehicles’ speed traveling through the area shows that
before Placemaking building activity, the vehicles’ average speed was 31.8 kilometers per hour.
During the first week after the intervention, the vehicles’ average speed reduced to 22.6 kilometers
per hour. The vehicles’ average speed was found to increase to 30.4 kilometers per hour six weeks
after the intervention. 3) The study of the public space use behaviors demonstrates that during the
first week after the intervention, the cumulative frequency of area use increased to 93.03%. However,
the cumulative use frequency increased at only 21.78% six weeks after the Placemaking activity.
Bicycle use behavior was found to increase to an average of 2.9 users per day during the first week
after the activity from the average of 1.1 users per day before the activity. The average number of
bicycle users, however, decreased to 1.7 per day six weeks after the intervention. Six weeks after
the Placemaking activity, the speed of the vehicles traveling through the area, public space use
behaviors, and the number of bicycle users were found to be nearly equal to those prior to the
intervention, denoting discontinuity of the changes. Thus, evaluation of the Placemaking activity
should be performed as well as long-term area continuous area improvement for optimal response
to the needs of people in the community.