The “Parklets” are authentic extensions of the pavements where meeting places are created. The Bern experience.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himIf cars remain stationary and unused for a good part of their life cycle, why not rethink the places normally used for parking?
Urban mobility: have you ever imagined tables and chairs instead of cars on the sidewalks? That's right: putting up real modular solutions, usually made of wood, capable of hosting public seating or even racks and green spaces. And say goodbye to traffic and wild parking.
Bern is the latest in a long list of cities that have already thought of "Parklet”, That is to say authentic extensions of the sidewalks where meeting places are created to have a coffee, eat a sandwich on a lunch break or simply to relax away from the chaos of the city.
Inspired by San Francisco, in the Swiss city seven car parks have already been transformed into meeting places public. Others will undergo this metamorphosis in the near future. The "parklets" - those already active and those that will soon be - are furnished with wooden tables, umbrellas, benches and sofas.
In practice, it is equipped public areas obtained from the space freed from the parking space of one or more cars: their purpose is to create a welcoming environment all available to the population "to work, read, discuss, consume their food or as a meeting place", explains the commissioner municipal Ursula Wyss, director of civil engineering, transport and the city.
Obviously, in order to be created, the "parklets" must follow specific construction standards, such as minimum measurements in width and length, non-interference with the collection of waste water and free accessibility: the spaces, that is, cannot be acquired and used. for private purposes only by the manufacturer (the area, once set up, could be used by anyone, client or not of the commercial activity).
The owner is also obliged to affix signs indicating the public space characteristic of the "parklet".
Could this be a way to raise awareness of the value of street parking space and reduce vehicular traffic to the benefit of mobility on foot and by bicycle? Most likely, especially in cities like Bern. But would it be feasible here?
Germana Carillo
Parklet, car parks in Bern become meeting places
