Fixing our roads can include street vendors

The sidewalk vendors in Colon are back, so it was reported in the papers a few days ago. The reports came just a day or two after headlines announced that the sidewalks of Colon Street have been finally cleared solely for pedestrians to use.

There’s this principle in design called “Desire Path,” and it came to my thoughts when I read the story on street vendors going back to where they used to ply their trade.

Desire paths generally refer to “worn paths where people naturally walk — the beaten path that trails off the sidewalk, usually as a shortcut to a destination.” However, it can also be applied more broadly to solve specific problems that require us to analyze user behavior in certain environments.

Desire paths imply that there exists an unbiased indication of how an environment is actually used by people. This important information can then be applied to the design or redesign of the environment. One of the earliest documentation of a successful application of desire paths is the reconstruction of paths in New York City’s Central Park. In this project, instead of simply repaving the existing paths of the park, planners paved the desire lines that were created over many years by park visitors.

Applying this principle on road and sidewalk management starts with the question: Why do street vendors exist? The answer is simple: Because they have customers who are willing to buy their food and other stuff in that location.

But then, of course, there is the main function of roads and sidewalks to consider. Roads and sidewalks serve to move commuters and pedestrians. Pedestrians, in particular, need appropriate sidewalks. Yet the existence of street vendors also indicate that pedestrians also find the vendors useful and dependable in conveniently providing them with any kind of affordable stuff in small quantities.

I am not about to suggest a balancing of interests here. What I would like to suggest that our local governments do is to look at the task of clearing our roads and sidewalks from the point of view and behavior of their users – the commuters and the pedestrians, and indirectly, the vendors.

Otherwise, things will quickly return to the way they were prior to the clearing operations – unless city governments assign marshals to guard the streets seven days a week, which could be costly.

In the few Asian cities where I’ve been – Tokyo, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Beijing, and Singapore – I observed that street vendors have become an integral feature of these cities. For sure, I and most other foreign tourists have come to love these cities for their cultural features which permanently include street vendors.

Contrast this, for example, to the Makati business district’s western-inspired cosmopolitan urban layout which in most parts exclude street vendors; the tall modern buildings and wide, paved sidewalks are nice to look at but the city actually feels dull and contrived.

No doubt, regulations are needed to prevent pedestrian congestion and keep our streets orderly. That is why in many successful cities where street vending is permitted, restrictions were set on vending time, location, and minimum distances from shop entries, pedestrian crossings, and commuter stops. This definitely requires a lot of imagination and engagement among the different sectors of the community.

We’re quick to praise local government leaders for their political will when they clear public roads and sidewalks from obstructions. But as our experience in Colon Street teaches us, political brawn needs brain to feed it with ideas and imagination that will lead to appropriate and long-lasting solutions.