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Somliga gator är somriga gator - En jämförande studie av Sveriges sommargågator

Esaiasson, Vera LU (2019) In LUTVDG/(TVTT-5303)/1-107/2019 VTVM01 20191
Transport and Roads
Abstract
A summer street is created by temporarily closing the car traffic on a street during the summer months. The pedestrians get access to the entire street and the liberated space can be used for activities, greenery, benches, bike parking, art and by restaurants.

During recent years major cities have made the concept known to the general public. My study shows that summer streets have a much longer history and that several smaller municipalities have used the planning tool over two decades. Despite this, there are few studies conducted on the subject. With my thesis I wanted to contribute by spreading knowledge and collecting use-ful information to determine what factors decide whether a summer street is successful or not. The question I... (More)
A summer street is created by temporarily closing the car traffic on a street during the summer months. The pedestrians get access to the entire street and the liberated space can be used for activities, greenery, benches, bike parking, art and by restaurants.

During recent years major cities have made the concept known to the general public. My study shows that summer streets have a much longer history and that several smaller municipalities have used the planning tool over two decades. Despite this, there are few studies conducted on the subject. With my thesis I wanted to contribute by spreading knowledge and collecting use-ful information to determine what factors decide whether a summer street is successful or not. The question I wanted to answer was how widespread the phenomena is in Sweden and which factors contribute to either success or failure.

In my literature study I turned to international research of similar phenomena. I made the choice to view summer streets as a type of temporary urbanism to get a theoretical background for the practical study. By doing so I could conduct a theoretical framework constituting of nine aspects of temporary urbanism that I considered relevant to examine in respect to summer streets. The practical study consisted of interviewing officials and business persons in every municipality where they had discussed a summer street. My results are based on these conversations.

163 municipalities were contacted (all Swedish municipalities with more than 15 000 habitants) and of them, 33 have thought about or implemented a summer street. The design differs a lot though. I have divided the projects into three types based on how active the municipality, business sector and non-profit organisations are. I call them the Restaurant Street, the Activity Road and the Middle Way.

The results also show that the three most important success factors for a summer street are that
- the proposition is related to a strategic plan
- a municipal administration with officials initiates and prepares the proposition
- the street has more restaurants than shops or other businesses.

In regard of the failure factors I found that the three most critical are that
- the business sector isn’t convinced about the idea
- the city is small and has a strong tradition of car usage
- the street has a heavy traffic load.

At the end of the result chapter I discuss how well my hypothesis that summer streets are a form of temporary urbanism is in accordance with my results. The conclusion is that the similarities between summer streets and temporary urbanism are more numbered than the differences and that summer streets therefore can be considered a type of temporary urbanism. With that said there are not only more to be learn by studying the Swedish summer street siblings but also the phenomena in a bigger context. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
I städer finns det, något förenklat, bilgator och gågator. En sommargågata, däremot, är både ock. Den skapas genom att biltrafiken tillfälligt stängs av på en gata under sommarmånaderna vilket ger fotgängare tillgång till hela gaturummet. Den frigjorda ytan kan användas till verksamheter och restauranger som vill flytta ut i gatan, växter, bänkar, spel och lek, cykelställ och konstinstallationer. Hur kommuner väljer att utnyttja sommargågatans potential skiljer sig åt från fall till fall.

De senaste årens uppmärksammade satsningar i storstäderna har gjort begreppet känt i folkmun. Min studie visar dock att konceptet är äldre än så och att många mindre kommuner använt sig av planeringsgreppet sommargågata under lång tid. Trots det finns... (More)
I städer finns det, något förenklat, bilgator och gågator. En sommargågata, däremot, är både ock. Den skapas genom att biltrafiken tillfälligt stängs av på en gata under sommarmånaderna vilket ger fotgängare tillgång till hela gaturummet. Den frigjorda ytan kan användas till verksamheter och restauranger som vill flytta ut i gatan, växter, bänkar, spel och lek, cykelställ och konstinstallationer. Hur kommuner väljer att utnyttja sommargågatans potential skiljer sig åt från fall till fall.

De senaste årens uppmärksammade satsningar i storstäderna har gjort begreppet känt i folkmun. Min studie visar dock att konceptet är äldre än så och att många mindre kommuner använt sig av planeringsgreppet sommargågata under lång tid. Trots det finns det få studier på ämnet. Jag har med min uppsats velat bidra till kunskapsspridning på området och att samla erfarenheter på ett ställe för att försöka avgöra vad som ligger bakom en lyckad respektive misslyckad sommargågata. Svaren jag sökte var hur utbrett fenomenet är i Sverige samt vilka framgångsfaktorer och fallgropar som bör beaktas.

I litteraturstudien vände jag mig till internationell forskning av liknande fenomen. Jag utgick från att sommargågator är en typ av temporär urbanism för att skapa mig en bakgrund till den praktiska studiens upplägg. Litteraturgenomgången mynnade ut i ett teoretiskt ramverk bestå-ende av nio aspekter av temporär urbanism som jag ansåg relevanta att undersöka avseende sommargågatorna. Den praktiska studien bestod av att intervjua tjänstepersoner och näringsidkare i samtliga kommuner som har haft en sommargågata uppe för diskussion. Mina resultat baserar sig sedan på vad som framkom under samtalen.

Av de ingående 163 kommunerna (alla kommuner med ett invånarantal på minst 15 000) har 33 stycken genomfört eller planerat en sommargågata. Utformningen av gatorna skiljer sig mycket åt och jag har därför delat in projekten i tre olika typer beroende på hur aktiva kommunen, det privata näringslivet och ideella krafter varit i arbetet med och på gatan. Jag kallar dem Serveringsstråket, Aktivitetsgatan och Medelvägen.

Resultaten visar också att de tre viktigaste framgångsfaktorerna för en sommargågata är att
- förslaget är förankrat i en strategisk plan
- en kommunal förvaltning med tjänstepersoner initierar och bereder förslaget
- gatan har fler restauranger än butiker eller annan affärsverksamhet.

Vad gäller fallgroparna kom jag fram till att de tre mest kritiska är att
- näringslivet inte är med på tankarna
- staden är liten och har en stark biltradition
- gatan har stor trafikbelastning.

Som avslutning på resultatkapitlet för jag en jämförande diskussion kring hur väl sommargågator stämmer in på begreppet temporär urbanism. Slutsatsen är att likheterna är fler än skillnaderna och att sommargågatan kan anses vara en form av temporär urbanism. Därmed finns det inte bara mer att lära av att studera de svenska syskonen utan även fenomenet i en större kontext. (Less)
Popular Abstract
The idea of summer streets constitutes of the reregulation of a normal car street to a temporary pedestrian street during the summer months. The concept of a temporary redistribution of street space from car traffic to passage by foot is seen all over the world and international examples are ciclovías and open streets. In contrast to these, the Swedish summer street hasn’t been subject for much research before. The purpose of the study is to make the first broad investigation of summer streets in Sweden to examine how widespread the phenomena is and what factors lie behind success and failure. The theoretical background is based on literature concerning temporary urbanism, implying that the Swedish summer street can be considered an... (More)
The idea of summer streets constitutes of the reregulation of a normal car street to a temporary pedestrian street during the summer months. The concept of a temporary redistribution of street space from car traffic to passage by foot is seen all over the world and international examples are ciclovías and open streets. In contrast to these, the Swedish summer street hasn’t been subject for much research before. The purpose of the study is to make the first broad investigation of summer streets in Sweden to examine how widespread the phenomena is and what factors lie behind success and failure. The theoretical background is based on literature concerning temporary urbanism, implying that the Swedish summer street can be considered an example of this movement. The empirical study consisted of interviewing officials in all Swedish municipalities over a certain size that have experience from working on summer streets. The interviews covered failed as well as successful projects.

The study showed that the summer street has a long history in Sweden but that it has experienced a revival the last years and grown in popularity. The examples vary greatly in output and design but through comparison and numeric analysis of the answers from the conducted interviews, I found general aspects that can explain success and failure. Last I compared the theories on temporary urbanism with what I had learned about Swedish summer streets and concluded that they can be defined as a type of temporary urbanism. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Esaiasson, Vera LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Some streets are summer streets - A comparative study of Sweden's summer streets
course
VTVM01 20191
year
type
H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
subject
keywords
Sommargågator, temporär urbanism, tillfällig urbanism, sommarga-tor, flexibel urbanism, tillfällig anvädning
publication/series
LUTVDG/(TVTT-5303)/1-107/2019
report number
336
ISSN
1653-1922
language
Swedish
id
8981318
date added to LUP
2019-06-10 15:29:41
date last changed
2019-06-10 15:53:50
@misc{8981318,
  abstract     = {{A summer street is created by temporarily closing the car traffic on a street during the summer months. The pedestrians get access to the entire street and the liberated space can be used for activities, greenery, benches, bike parking, art and by restaurants. 
 
During recent years major cities have made the concept known to the general public. My study shows that summer streets have a much longer history and that several smaller municipalities have used the planning tool over two decades. Despite this, there are few studies conducted on the subject. With my thesis I wanted to contribute by spreading knowledge and collecting use-ful information to determine what factors decide whether a summer street is successful or not. The question I wanted to answer was how widespread the phenomena is in Sweden and which factors contribute to either success or failure. 

In my literature study I turned to international research of similar phenomena. I made the choice to view summer streets as a type of temporary urbanism to get a theoretical background for the practical study. By doing so I could conduct a theoretical framework constituting of nine aspects of temporary urbanism that I considered relevant to examine in respect to summer streets. The practical study consisted of interviewing officials and business persons in every municipality where they had discussed a summer street. My results are based on these conversations.

163 municipalities were contacted (all Swedish municipalities with more than 15 000 habitants) and of them, 33 have thought about or implemented a summer street. The design differs a lot though. I have divided the projects into three types based on how active the municipality, business sector and non-profit organisations are. I call them the Restaurant Street, the Activity Road and the Middle Way. 

The results also show that the three most important success factors for a summer street are that
- the proposition is related to a strategic plan
- a municipal administration with officials initiates and prepares the proposition 
- the street has more restaurants than shops or other businesses.

In regard of the failure factors I found that the three most critical are that
- the business sector isn’t convinced about the idea
- the city is small and has a strong tradition of car usage 
- the street has a heavy traffic load.

At the end of the result chapter I discuss how well my hypothesis that summer streets are a form of temporary urbanism is in accordance with my results. The conclusion is that the similarities between summer streets and temporary urbanism are more numbered than the differences and that summer streets therefore can be considered a type of temporary urbanism. With that said there are not only more to be learn by studying the Swedish summer street siblings but also the phenomena in a bigger context.}},
  author       = {{Esaiasson, Vera}},
  issn         = {{1653-1922}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{LUTVDG/(TVTT-5303)/1-107/2019}},
  title        = {{Somliga gator är somriga gator - En jämförande studie av Sveriges sommargågator}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}