with low-order goods supplied ‘locally’. One way to
cope with commercial strip problems of dispersal,
chaos and traffic congestion is to accept the aggre-
gation of these phenomena and to reassemble
them along built-to-frontage arrangements with car
parking to the side and rear – in effect converting
them to something safer, more compact and more
defined. These improvements include: placing
parking to the rear and sides of the ‘big boxes’, land-
scaping, pedestrianizing and occasionally rebuild-
ing up to the legal edge of the frontage road line;
creating vehicle entry gaps every 60 metres or so;
and varying the shop frontage setback line. Given
that strip shopping is an established pattern of com-
mercial life away from the central business district,
then so long as automobile use in settler societies
remains widespread and cheap, there is no likeli-
hood that the commercial strip units flanking con-
nector roads will fade into obscurity. Perversely
there often arises a need to redeem ‘ghost’ malls and
‘lacklustre’ strips, stiffening their character, remov-
ing their worst dangers, and enhancing their level of
convenience.
Shopping as entertainment has evolved as the
principal family-focused outing from the suburban
home (Bromley and Thomas 1994), the major attraction being to a shopping mall
anchored by a major department store. Design manuals abound, for this is big
business involving immense profits ‘establishing shopping experiences and devel-
opment profits – as the basis for a new way of life’ (Crawford 1986).^66 Adhering
to the principles outlined in box 5.1 as a set of urban social arrangements and
style, attention is directed to the following critical characteristics:
- Connectability: between private car access and car parks, the bus stops, the
taxi stands, and relative to the whole ‘pedestrian’ experience within the mall
and along the strip. - Security:convenience and safety for the parked car, the parked child, parked
purchases, and for the pedestrian browser-shopper – all of which includes the
avoidance of traps and danger corners, the provision of good lighting and
clear signage; - Focus:providing excitement and variety in a way which ties a mall into itself,
but also reaches out and identifies with its urban setting; exhibiting and
exploiting some form of ‘landmark’ along with a department store ‘anchor’;
rendering them appealing upon arrival for the shopping-as-leisure experience. - Visual Identity: introducing an acceptable (usually fake) ‘richness’ along with
a sense of (usually phoney) ‘liveliness’ and a presentation of (largely falsified)
‘variety’ to the mall user.
Urban Growth Management 255Strip commercial: nil-setback, rear parking.
Improving street appearance and enabling
shoppers to car-shuttle between stores
without re-entering the collector road.
See also the ‘Ten Principles Pamphlet’ in
Reinventing America’s Suburban Strips,
Beyard and Pawlukiewicz 2001.