Relevance of Walking and Informal Activities in Urban Space : A Case of Dar es Salaam City , Tanzania

The design discourse mostly in developing world cities tends to commit walking as the concern for transportation purpose. This notion tends to dismiss walking as an extended conception of urban space and take it for granted which allow elements of informal walking fields to emerge. This orients walking in the lines of a mere ‘street sidewalk’ rather than an important element in enhancing urban space in terms of environmental quality, access and use of urban space and everyday life realities. The empirical study in Dar es Salaam show that the gap in walking provision seem to be filled by the informal actors in urban space struggling to create the informal walking spheres in which trading, vending, meeting and recreating take place. Such observations draw a lesson that such informal developed urban activities along the streets and the urban space have not been disassociated from walking. The paper recognizes the essence of such integration of walking with other activities in urban space. It is thus concluded that urban design discourse have to conceive walking, including its contextual elements, as integral component in the field of urban public space that connect with other urban functions rather than isolate it from them.

modes of transport.This indicates that the potentials in walking primarily as significant contributor to mobility and its extended roles in urban space are not exploited adequately in cities' development policies, city planning and design disciplines.This raise questions on to what extent the walking approach have been conceived among professionals in city design and planning disciplines in developing world.

Extensive Approaches of Walking in Urban Context
Walking is viewed as form of movement and everyday life activity in the city and thus a 'social activity' (Shortell, 2016;Mehta, 2008;Wundelich, 2008;Lekule, 2004).Apart from being connected with everyday life activity, the design input can contribute to enhance the walking and integrate it with other activities.Designers are also interested in the sensory effects and environment as a social setting that provides sensory stimulation but also supports the expectations of its users including desirable environment for walking (Makki, Surat, Che-Ani, Farkisch, & Mokhtarian, 2012;Mehta, 2008).The concept of 'walkability' has also been introduced to address the important measure of environment for walking where comprehensive studies and city plans has been done to improve walkability.Transport for London (2004) defines walkability as "the extent to which walking is readily available to the consumer as a safe, connected, accessible and pleasant activity."For New Zealand, it is defined as the extent to which the built environment is walking-friendly (Leather et al, 2011).Walkability measurement may differ based on the definitions and types of measurements used to measure both walking and walkability attributes such as indicator selection, spatial scale, and trip purpose (Tribby, Miller, Brown, Werner, & Smith, 2016).
The aspect of walking as a means of a person interacting with the environment is highly interesting for urban design and at the same time making an impact to the image of the city.Jacobs (1961) claims that, streets and their sidewalks, as the main public spaces, are the most vital organs of the city since it is the street which comes to mind when one thinks of the city.In that case, if a city's streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they (streets) look dull, the city looks dull.Such Jacob's concern is not only inclined to street quality but also its effect to environment for walking.Wundelich (2008) associates walking as an elemental way of perceiving urban places.He notes that when one experiences, he learns about places and develops feelings and thoughts for them.He further emphasises that 'to walk is to experience', and 'to experience is to learn'; which means acting on the given and creating out of the given.The given cannot be known by itself.What can be known is a reality that is a construct of experience, 'a creation of feeling and thought'.Thus, Wundelich (2008) notes that walking is an active mode of perceiving the urban environment assisted by all the senses.'Walking' is also associated with sustainable city development especially for its environmental, economical and social benefits.On environmental perspective, walking may replace substantial car trips, contribute in reduction of car congestion, reduce emission of greenhouse gases, enhance health, stimulate extensive use of urban space and other benefits with broader positive environmental impact to individuals and the community at large.Socially and economically, walking may reduce transportation cost, increase the use of public space, increase retail sale and the like.Such benefits have to make walking regain its importance to urban and city planners who are challenged to create new pedestrian places in car-oriented cities.Therefore, walkable environments have to be integrated in urban planning, not solely as urban architectural and design exponents, but also as interaction and meeting platform, as determinants of human mobility in a car-dependent society (Blaga, 2013;Mrema, 2013: 210;WHO, 2011).
Health analysts view walking as an active activity which can improve the health of the walker (Reyer et al, 2014;Planning Institute Australia, 2003).Such concern has been raised by the growing inactive urban community, especially in the developed world, which are heavily dependent on car transportation.Since the population physical activity volume is important in this case, the walkability indices have to be attained on daily or weekly basis to ensure a health life of the population is achieved.The proper active life gained through the developed habit of walking to a minimum specified index may help the respective population to reduce non-communicable diseases such as obesity, coronary heart diseases and type-2 diabetes (Reyer et al, 2014).Some analysts connect walking with crime and safety (Cibukcu, 2013;Jacobs, 1961).They recognise walking as a facilitator to safety which lead to sustainability of a place.They note that the design which does not integrate the neighbourhood dwellings appropriately with the sidewalks and fail to create intermediate destinations will discourage the need for walking and render the streets empty creating potential environment for crime.Few and isolated walkers on empty streets are likely to be mugged and thus deny the street with inclusive appropriation and control.But when streets are walking friendly with environment encouraging a reasonable walking population, they become safe and fairly crime-free.Jacobs (1961) note that: users on the sidewalk must be there fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in the buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient number.The Jacob's position to ensure safety integrate walking and all other activities for collective appropriation and control of neighbourhood space by all adjoining home owners, business owners and other street users.
Other analysts look at walking as a means to increase retail sale.Walking as engaging, interacting and momentarily taking part in activities along the path especially the trading enhance the retail sale and support local economy by encouraging residents to shop in the nearby areas (Blaga, 2013).Walking make the retail business accessible and form a part of the business.The walking and retail business may form a close relation as they tend to enhance and build on each other.Street vendors, whether walking or stationary, also become part of walking community for the sake of tapping customer among walkers for their business.
Walking is also associated with the concept of 'Shared Space' which does not focus on limiting car traffic and its speeds, but on voluntary behavioural change of all road users, supported by appropriate design and layout of public space with the view to improve safety, mobility and accessibility.The 'shared space' concept has been developed from the increasing contradiction of strictly separation of different modes of movement such as walking, biking and driving.The separation of such space includes extensive use of pedestrian barriers, traffic restriction elements and numerous traffic signs.The installed facilities for traffic restriction contribute to cause stress to traffic users and disrupt the image of public space and the city as a whole.And most importantly, despite strict separation of movement spaces in order to improve safety of users, very little have been recorded on reduction of traffic accidents.It is considered that proper design of shared traffic movements where the traffic rules such as traffic signs and typical traffic engineering elements are eliminated may improve the traffic behaviour of pedestrians and drivers to negotiate in shared space by utilising the informally developed social rules.The concept is built on the findings that when car drivers are more fully aware of and integrated into the pedestrian realm, both pedestrians and drivers are safer (Hamilton-Baillie, 2008;Methorst, Gerlach, Boenke & Leven, 2007).
The perspective on walking as active element of urbanity is numerous as reflected in the discussion above.The walking approach to be adopted in city design should take the extensive dimensions of walking other than a mere means of transport.All the design attributes aimed at promoting walkability in built environment and enhancing the sustainable access and use of urban space have to reflect the concept of walking as complex and heterogeneous activity.

Conceptual Framework
Walking in city is linked to community's nature, norms and values of everyday life, environmental quality of urban spaces, accessibility of places and the extent to which spaces are usable.Whenever the city design does not offer such characters favourably, the negotiated informal elements managed by the community's customs and local norms emerge to fill the gap to capture the missed features in formal design.
Figure 1.The relationship of walking with everyday life, environmental quality, access and use of urban space and the involvement of informal elements to supplement the lack in design

Walking as Everyday Activity
The element of walking as everyday activity elevate its conception beyond mobility aspects where it is no longer a stable and homogeneous activity of a person walking from point 'A' to 'B'.The walking activity is more regarded as multiple and highly mutable action.This identify two main direction of view, that is, walking as means of solving another problems, such as walking as a means of transport, and walking as a self sufficient part of the complex embodied practice of human everyday life (Kärrholm et al, 2014).Along that view, Gehl (2010) notes that man was created to walk and most life's events develop when we walk among other people.He adds

Everyday life Access and Space use
that life in all its diversity unfolds before us when we are on foot.A multitude of valuable social and recreational opportunities naturally emerge when you reinforce life on foot.Gehl observes walking as human natural phenomenon which is performed as part and result of human everyday life.Shortell (2016), assessing actions which necessitate presence of people in streets, views the social actors such as local politicians, worker, protesters, busy commuters, tourists and many more to occupy the city streets as an essential part of their quotidian routine.This everyday mobility on street and public spaces of neighbourhood is such an ubiquitous part of urban life and culture that the design discourse has to recognise and appreciate.

Walking as Means of Access and Space Use
Walking is viewed as practical and social activity, an unquestioned form of movement through the city, an ordinary activity in our everyday life in the city, but it is also increasingly associated with a way of living in a city, a way of extending the social realm beyond, and between, home and work (Shortell, 2016;Mehta, 2008;Wundelich, 2008;Lekule, 2004).In city design discourse, conducive environment for walking is relatively associated with design especially that involving mixed land use, higher density, presence of walking destinations and availability of convenient walking facilities (Kärrholm et al, 2014).Some studies claim the built environment which supports walking should have "3-D"s characteristics, which are: Density, Diversity and Design (Kärrholm et al, 2014;Reyer et al, 2014;Blaga, 2013;Mehta, 2008).With 'Density', the city community is provided in larger population on smaller area to be as close as possible to shorten the distance making the walking feasible.With 'Diversity', the most demanded services such as residences, shopping, recreation, public transport stand, schools, worship places and others are provided within the vicinity to support the walking idea.
With 'Design', the access to various services is made convenient with walking facilities provided appropriately and clear from or supported with other modes of transport.

Environmental Quality as Prerequisite Factor to Walking
Designers mostly emphasise the sensory effects of environment as a social setting that provides users' spatial satisfaction but also support desirable environment for walking (Makki et al, 2012;Mehta, 2008).Walkability, as put forward earlier, may constitute different factors used to measure both walking and walkability attributes such as indicator selection, spatial scale, and trip purpose (Tribby et al, 2016).However, whatever criteria used to determine walkability scale, it has to reflect on the measurable condition by which built environment support or inhibit walking.Further, according to Certeau (1984), walking provision restrained by the predesigned modern conditions may not satisfy the walkers' aspirations.In this way, the walkers may develop creative resistance to repressive modern design to make the city useful, meaningful and expressive to them.This Certeau's notion explains that despite the fact that city designs may influence walking characteristics, walking behaviour in cities will reasonably find its independence and act with more unpredictable measures.This Certeau's contribution reveals the walker's search for quality walking environment to the extent of struggling to bridge the design failure or restrictions.This emphasises the relevance of appropriate design for the overall enhanced city spatial quality where, among other numerous city functions, walking is suitably accommodated.Some analysts see walking as complex and manifold activity where different kinds of walking affect the nature of walking rhythm and the body interaction with the environment.Wundelich (2008) tend to distinguish walking as purposive, discursive and conceptual.Purposive walking is a kind of necessary walking or utilitarian phenomenon.Discursive walking is the type of walking or roaming where destination is not as important as the journey itself.The conceptual walking refers to a way of obtaining new knowledge of the place through walking.
In this way, distinction can be made in terms of how an environment can afford various effects to different types of walking, for instance, environment supporting utilitarian walking may not necessarily support leisure walking and so on.It is also considered now that most concept of design, including the design for walking, has to take into consideration the paradigmatic change such as the ongoing change from modernistic zoning which mostly encouraged separation of function to design for co-existing activities and patterns of shared space which encourage higher densities and mixed land use (Hamilton-Baillie, 2008).Further shift are the change from socially homogenic communities to spaces of hyper-diversity which encourage heterogeneous community engagements.This would not only integrate variety of social classes in walking realm but also develop relatively equal opportunity for all classes to access urban public space.

Informal Aspects
Informal aspects associated with walking are the unregulated and unofficial local elements which are not preconceived as part of intervention to environment by formal design.In this respect, environmental quality, access and space use tend to reflect the real local socio-economic condition, norms, values and the pragmatic response to everyday life requirements of the urban community.

Pedestrians Encounters in Prevailing Walking Conditions
From the more understanding acquired about walking and the context in which it takes place, the perception of walking by designers should be reconsidered especially for developing world cities where resources for provision of conventional facilities for walking are scarce.Despite the deficiency of walking facilities, as observed in Dar es Salaam, the pedestrians have to walk as a part of inevitable urban practice.Given to the situation, the study shows that pedestrians adapt to the prevailing walking settings by consistently negotiating through informal encounters to meet the mobility, social and spatial requirements as noted by some analysts that walking strengthen our social relationship to urban places as well as assisting our understanding of urban social space and thus a social activity (Shortel, 2016;Wundelich, 2008).
The lack of strict traffic guides and restrictions in streets, especially in Sinza where the walking, riding and driving are not separated, is mostly making the pedestrians feel unsafe.Inversely, it can possibly lead pedestrians, riders and drivers to become extra vigilant to avoid confusion among their different roles in the shared movements.These negotiated movements among different modes of travelling reflect rudimentarily the concept of 'shared space' but also the existence of relationship among walking with other urban activities (Hamilton-Baillie, 2008, Methorst et al, 2007).In such state of space, users react to less formal and less planned environment striving to consistently confront the event of the moment among different modes of mobility and space use.This may suggest that commendable lessons can be acquired from the informal movement practices that 'non-design or less-design' is not necessarily 'lack of rational intention for future use'.The study in Sinza and City centre indicates the existence of interaction and awareness among actors in walking sphere where in some instances one group of actors depend on the other, for instance, the pedestrians being customers to petty traders and vice versa.The proper understanding of human and his interaction with environment as well as his cultural, social and economic association with space may lead to less strict professional design which facilitates efficient interaction among human and the immediate environment in space and time.Thinking along this perspective, useful lessons acquired from informal field practices could be adopted as relevant design and planning input to complement the conventional practices, in this case, the relevant walking environment.
The field study area in Sinza and the City centre are observed to attract more purposive walking as a major means of transport making shorter distance within the city.Yet the desire for preconceived design is demanded by actors, especially the pedestrians, who demand amicable relation of walking, riding, driving, parking, vending and positive sensory effect of the environment.This may respond to the claim that the achievement of 3-D's (Density, Diversity and Design) requirements in creation of built environment provide convenient condition for more people to make walking trips than using other modes of transport (Kärrholm et al, 2014;Reyer et al, 2014;Blaga, 2013;Mehta, 2008).Certain walking spaces as well as formal and informal activities developed in public space are among the results of spontaneous reactions to meet the local pragmatic 'design' requirements.The pedestrians, street petty traders, the shop owners and other actors along the street engaged in public activities created a variety of actors in public space along the street portraying the image of urban life and the walking as an integral part.These outcomes concur with Shortell (2016) who associates walking with living in city as well as the means to extend social realm beyond and between home and work.
The empirical findings reveal a paradox where, in City centre, the designed walkways separated from other activities are intruded with other informal activities which assume the relationship with the existing activity in the course of real life and, in Sinza, the un-designed walking system is informally mixed with other related activities.These shared spontaneous development of walking environment between the city centre and Sinza area reflects a certain association of walking with other urban functions.Such walking practice is opposed to normative urban professionals' propensity which over-emphasise walking as a homogeneous, specific and less complex 'social activity'.Most studies denote walking as 'social activity' and a 'sophisticated' connector of human and his environment (Shortell, 2016;Braga, 2013;Gehl, 2010;Wundelich, 2008).With informal activities along the walking routes, the element of employment opportunity, socialising, recreating and trading indicate an exclusive socialization within the walking territory.This implies that when urban activities are favourably connected around walking there is great chance of enhancing vitality and vibrancy of activities.In design situation where variety of activities in urban space are discouraged, as observed in the city centre of Dar es Salaam, the variety of informal activities such as petty trading take over to fill the gap.The survival of informal activities within walking spaces in city centre, despite their disruption to formal design, reflects their importance as supplementary activities to walking and city space use.This remains to be an important lesson to professionals that walking holds an exclusive multi-dimensional factor in urban design which should be spared its position sufficiently.The result may contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emission, car congestion, transport cost and improve the health of the people as well as the general quality of life.This remarkable share of walking as economical, social, environmental and health promoting factor make it an important feature in design and planning for the living environment of urban community.
However, in a situation of cities in developing world where emphasis is mostly put on facilitating motorised mode of mobility, the view of modes of movement as isolated entities should be reoriented towards a wider perception where 'shared space' for movements are possible.This holistic view of movement may enable the city designers, planners and decision makers to handle the issues of mobility and space use holistically and thus reducing the conflicts which primarily arise from solving mobility aspects and the other uses.

Conclusion
The empirical study of walking has revealed the different perception among the designers, pedestrians and other actors within the walking space.The separation of walking with other activities in city centre explains the designer's normative view of walking as distinctive, homogeneous, specific and independent urban activity.However, the pedestrian and petty traders' reactions towards walking space indicate the relationship of walking with trading, socializing and recreating both in city centre, where walking environment is designed, and in Sinza, where walking environment is not designed.The informal activities associated with walking appear to be entertained with the actors in the walking space such as the interdependence between the pedestrians and petty traders.Further, the element of economic and employment opportunity to the petty traders appear to form inherent association of walking space in addressing the socio-economic condition of city inhabitants.The resulting association of walking with multifaceted activities make it a key factor facilitating vibrancy and vitality of urban functions.In this respect, the emerging informal activities associated with walking provide insight to urban professionals on the need for innovative and relevant solutions for walking space with harmonised multifaceted elements especially for developing world cities where walking facilities are rarely realised.Thus, urban design professional inclination and policy orientation for design of walking in cities of developing world should regard it as integral component of urban public space and the extended perspective of socio-economic context.