Creating safe, lively and attractive street spaces in city centres : A case study of Nygatan and Järnagatan in Södertälje

Sammanfattning: Throughout time, cities have been built in different ways and city structures can look different in different places in the world. The urban planning ideal has changed and small narrow alleys in the city have today been replaced by large roads adapted for cars. Streets can function as everything from transport routes to social meeting spaces depending on the design and experience. But the street, and the street space, which is the space that forms the surface between buildings, can today often be forgotten and experienced as tedious for many. In the work towards a more sustainable society, there is a lot that can be done in urban planning, and one of these is to design more attractive, safe and lively street spaces in order to meet the challenges that a growing city brings. Södertälje is a growing municipality in Stockholm County which will face these challenges while expanding. This study therefore aims to investigate Nygatan and Järnagatan in Södertälje's city centre based on their physical design, use and experiences of citizens and officials. This is to produce a basis for the design of a policy for sustainable improvement measures in the work to create a safe, lively and attractive street environment in Södertälje. To achieve the purpose of the study, a literature study was carried out together with the creation of a theoretical framework based on the various theories of Jan Gehl, Jane Jacobs and Warm in the Winter. In the theoretical framework, a model is developed with the five categories of urban form, mobility, environment, social and enjoyment, which were the basis for the various parts of the report. A spatial analysis was performed to obtain a physical description of Nygatan and Järnagatan. In addition, a document study was carried out to investigate which goals and strategies Södertälje municipality has. Furthermore, nine actors in Södertälje municipality were interviewed and a survey was carried out to investigate how the citizens experience and use the two streets in the city centre, whereas 188 citizens participated. The results from the spatial analysis showed that Nygatan had significantly more criteria that were considered poor than Järnagatan had. The interviews indicate that the officials and actors believe that Södertälje has good potential and that the two street spaces can be developed even more, especially Nygatan. The survey showed that citizens consider Nygatan to be a dull street with too much traffic and too little social activities, restaurants/shops and greenery. Järnagatan was experienced in a more positive way, but even there the range of restaurants/shops was poor and more greenery and social activities were desired. Even though a street can fulfil the theoretical criteria that exist, the street space may lack important aspects that can be vital and act as the last piece of the puzzle to make a street safe, lively and attractive. The conclusion is that it is the whole of the street space that makes it successful and that the interaction between different factors matters. A street should both look good, function well and feel good. Finally, different solutions and methods should be tried because no street space is the same. Södertälje is well on its way to exploring the various solutions to create better street space through the projects and events they initiate.