Towards a Safer Bromsten : A study of security enhancing and crime preventive measures in the planning of Bromstensstaden

Sammanfattning: Research has shown that there is a relationship between the physical environment in cities and safety and security. The consequences of low safety and security are severe and impact public health and well-being. With increasing crime rates in many neighborhoods in Stockholm, planning with crime prevention in mind becomes increasingly important for improved future sustainability. As the run-down industrial area in Bromsten in the west part of Stockholm has been razed and the new district Bromstensstaden is being built there´s a unique window of opportunity to create circumstances to improve safety and security. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which aspects in the physical environment contribute to unsafety and decreased security for the residents of Bromsten, and to analyze how Bromstensstaden has been planned regarding crime prevention and public safety. The study focuses on the design of the physical environment in the planning process. Social strategies, and future maintenance of the built environment of the district were excluded from the study. 136 residents of Bromsten answered a survey with questions regarding their safety and security in Bromsten and the results show that residents are feeling unsafe to some degree in the neighborhood. This can partly be explained by the increased crime rates in Bromsten and surrounding neighborhoods, but the design of the built environment also plays a part. Places that are unsafe are Bromstensplan, the old industrial area and the walk to Spånga railway. Littering and bad lightning are other aspects that can be improved for enhanced safety and perhaps security. A general unsafety not related to any specific location was also observed. An analysis of the planned Bromstensstaden shows that according to literature and existing research the district is generally well-planned regarding crime prevention. The big parking space next to Mälarbanan has the potential to become an unsafe area, as well as the district´s green areas including the area surrounding the creek that runs through the district. Planning with public safety in mind has been a big priority. Skogsängsvägen will be the main street in the mixed-use neighborhood that will consist of residential buildings with apartments and business premises on the ground floors. The main street will make a safe passage to Spånga Station as there will be human activity in many hours of the day. To further increase human presence, the apartments on the ground floors will have urban front yards. The apartment complexes are planned with partly enclosed collectively shared yards, a measure that has shown to increase the residents feeling of safety, control and belonging. Working with crime prevention in Bromsten will require a variety of efforts, where the design of the physical environment is one important part. The study shows that there are aspects in the physical environment in Bromsten that could be further improved. Razing the old industrial area and building Bromstensstaden will likely make an important contribution to increased safety and security for the residents in Bromsten.