Relevance of Walking and Informal Activities in Urban Space: A Case of Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania

Abstract

The design discourse mostly in developing world cities tends to commit walking as the concern for transportation purpose. This notion tends to dismiss walking as an extended conception of urban space and take it for granted which allow elements of informal walking fields to emerge. This orients walking in the lines of a mere ‘street sidewalk’ rather than an important element in enhancing urban space in terms of environmental quality, access and use of urban space and everyday life realities. The empirical study in Dar es Salaam show that the gap in walking provision seem to be filled by the informal actors in urban space struggling to create the informal walking spheres in which trading, vending, meeting and recreating take place. Such observations draw a lesson that such informal developed urban activities along the streets and the urban space have not been disassociated from walking. The paper recognizes the essence of such integration of walking with other activities in urban space. It is thus concluded that urban design discourse have to conceive walking, including its contextual elements, as integral component in the field of urban public space that connect with other urban functions rather than isolate it from them.