Lawlessness in the Wild West
So I'm in Scottsdale/Phoenix/Chandler/Tempe/Carefree/sprawlicious, Arizona on vacation, so I'm of course spending a good amount of time at strip malls, regional malls, and other such places with large parking lots. It seems like I'm spending more time navigating through these than I do on actual streets. Is this our urban future?
First of all, it's so easy to get lost. Your only sense of landmarks are large anchor stores that dominate one side of the lot. Instead of "Our store is at 33rd and 5th," it's more like "We're right next to the Border at 101 Scottsdale." What would happen if we give the rows of the parking lots street names? You'll always remember where you parked, and stores could give more accurate directions.
Secondly, there is never any clear law of how you should drive within these lots. Who has the right of way? Do you use your turn signals? What's the speed limit? There are no sidewalks leading to your car, so people are just walking willy-nilly all over the place. It's the Wild West I tell you.
If this is indeed the future of the metropolitan area, we need to try and restore some of the pedestrian aspect by taking into consideration how the person, not just the car, interacts with the mall at large. They solve a lot of problems of living, say, in the middle of the desert, but take away a lot of personal interactions that you see on the streets of a traditional city.
First of all, it's so easy to get lost. Your only sense of landmarks are large anchor stores that dominate one side of the lot. Instead of "Our store is at 33rd and 5th," it's more like "We're right next to the Border at 101 Scottsdale." What would happen if we give the rows of the parking lots street names? You'll always remember where you parked, and stores could give more accurate directions.
Secondly, there is never any clear law of how you should drive within these lots. Who has the right of way? Do you use your turn signals? What's the speed limit? There are no sidewalks leading to your car, so people are just walking willy-nilly all over the place. It's the Wild West I tell you.
If this is indeed the future of the metropolitan area, we need to try and restore some of the pedestrian aspect by taking into consideration how the person, not just the car, interacts with the mall at large. They solve a lot of problems of living, say, in the middle of the desert, but take away a lot of personal interactions that you see on the streets of a traditional city.
posted by Aaron at 12:33 PM
0 comments
