The City Prosperity Index, CPI, set by UN-Habitat, evaluates urban prosperity according to five parameters as productivity, infrastructure development, environmental sustainability, quality of life, and equity/social inclusion. To a greater or lesser extent, these five factors are represented in the street pattern of every city in the world. Streets have multiple functions as the mobility of people and goods, the supply of energy, water, and information, the collection of waste, the growth of trees, plants, insects or birds, the shadow and sun radiation, the bench where to sit, the place to salute and talk with your neighbors, a playground, or the access to the bakery where you buy the bread. In this sense, streets are public and vibrant spaces, which can perform multiple functions and activities.
The land allocated to streets in cities ranges from the dense grid of Manhattan (36 percent) to the cul-the-sac system of most sub-urban areas (less than 10 percent). Most of prosper cities have a high percentage of land allocated to the street, as Washington D.C (25 percent), Barcelona (33 percent), or Toronto (29 percent). Accordingly, cities core has the opportunity to perform and enhance a vibrant urban life.
Often, when we think about streets, we only see cars moving or parked. Unfortunately, streets have been mostly designed for vehicles. Notwithstanding the above, there is an increasingly growing of factors, which are changing the traditional street pattern. The improvement of public transport in cities core, the new options of mobility as car sharing, scooters or electric bikes, and the restrictions of mobility due to environmental regulations have changed our perception of private cars as an essential good. In fact, in most of the big city’s core, there is a gradual transition from residents who own a car, to residents who rent a car. This situation is already forcing developers to reconsider the need for underground parking in new constructions, or at least to reduce the current standards of parking places per home.
