Healthy Pedestrian Street: Shiraz

The primary aim of creating this path was to improve the physical activities of inhabitants of Shiraz by motivating youth and elders to commute alongside the river, gardens and mountainside landscape.

Healthy Pedestrian Street: Shiraz

by Mohammad Nikkhah

Shiraz, the capital of Fars – Iran, also known as Pars, is a city well known for its great wine, a culture of poetry, literature, and flowers. It is also considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees in the city, such as Eram Garden. Shiraz has also been home to major Jewish and Christian communities.

Today, however, we are not going to talk about broad cultural history, but rather focus on the specific history one place that also conveys a local culture.

Here, I discuss one of the most important issues in our global cities. As we all know walkability is not just about walking and cycling. We are also aiming for sustainable transportation that covers everyone’s mobility needs.

Fig 1: Geographic Area & Site location

Our focus here is about a pedestrian street (fig 1) with the most useful of sports facilities that is aptly named Healthy Pedestrian Street. On this walking and cycling pathway, we can observe playgrounds, sports facilities, sports ground for group activities and so on. One can find food courts less than a kilometer away.

The primary aim of creating this path in 2016, as local authorities clarified, was to improve the physical activities of inhabitants of Shiraz by motivating youth and elders to commute alongside the river, gardens and mountainside landscape. To do this, the pedestrian street was established by the riverside and connected two important nodes and three districts in the city.

It is fair to say that authorities still pay more attention to cars and car-oriented development. For example, in this case, there are two flat car parks at the beginning and the end of the pedestrian street. The metro access point on side of the pathway is a great strength and delivers different transportation modes (fig1), however, the surface railroad and the sound the trains make are an environmental detriment.

In addition, cars can drive besides the pedestrian street though planners and designers considered that access for emergency use only. As is obvious, we need to educate people and encourage them to respect the rules.

Fig 2: Healthy Pedestrian Street in 2001 and 2021

As illustrated (fig2), the area changed by expanding accommodation and decreasing garden spaces that were taken from farmlands or housing (a policy about farmlands in cities suggests removal and purchasing from owners for converted use).

As authorities thought about physical activities, they restored livability to the riverside, by establishing the pedestrian street. In addition to this, regeneration of the area at three phases has brought many effects such as increasing the per capita sports, increasing social interactions, promoting sports culture and strengthening pedestrian life in the city to boost health and physical activity.

What is the difference between this public space and similar cases? In comparison to similar cases, the sports facilities are a welcoming place for the majority of people and people generally enjoy the pedestrian street. Despite its strength, however, we notice some issues. For example, unfortunately, there is no lane for blind people. We can see the need for increased design elements and access for such minority groups.

Fig 3: Photos and their locations

Here are some of the striking features of the Healthy Pedestrian Street:

  • Two children playgrounds approximately 300m2
  • Two physical fitness grounds approximately 700m2
  • Multi-use and/or multi-sport ground approximately 500m2
  • A ping-pong ground approximately 200m2
  • Skateboarding ground approximately 400m2
  • Parkour ground approximately 200m2

Regeneration of the area at three phases has brought many effects such as increasing the per capita sports, increasing social interactions, promoting sports culture and strengthening pedestrian life in the city to boost health and physical activity.

From my point of view, it seems that authorities are not paying enough attention to human-oriented development. I would like to point out that the car parking areas encourage people to travel by private cars from near cities to this pedestrian area just for a walk- also perhaps highlighting the need for such pedestrian zones in other cities .

This pedestrian street offers a unique example in Iran of integrating multiple sports facilities and opportunities for socialization that can be a useful model and example for adaptation in other cities.

Included with this post are some photos from Healthy Pedestrian Street and I thank Miss. Fakhri for some of the photos used in this essay.

Mohammad Nikkhah is a young advocate and interdisciplinary researcher. He is currently doing his Master’s thesis on Vision Zero and the link to urban planning.

Read Isfahan, Iran Correspondent Mohammad’s content here