Why street furniture is perfect for our public spaces landscape

 

There’s constant talk in the UK of a loss of community in towns, villages and cities, with many reminiscing about what it was like in years gone by.

But, how, in the world of social media and smartphones are we able to bring this back? Well, believe in or not, the introduction of more street furniture could be the answer we’re all looking for. But how you may ask, let’s take a look below.

 

Community

With the introduction of street furniture to our towns and cities, the sense of community will only be enhanced. While not viewed as a particularly vital part of society, they can actually be more important than you thought.

Not only attractive, but they’ll give everyone places to sit while out for a walk or waiting for a bus or friend to finish up elsewhere. This then offers the chance to chat with those who are also out and about, rather than simply staring at our screens.

 

Engagement

When we have green spaces, many people get put off when there’s nowhere to sit down for five minutes. When we introduce street furniture it’ll give people the opportunity to do this, meaning they’ll head there more often, thus increasing engagement.

But, not only this, it’ll encourage community projects to create planters and plant trees to re-invigorate the green spaces in these particular areas.

 

Traffic

Not just benches, items such as bollards can also be considered street furniture. These, in turn, help to reduce traffic and make areas much safer.

Preventing cars from accessing points altogether will ensure you can walk around, conducting your daily business with ease. Meanwhile, other styles can also be used to slow down bikes, who are more likely to head on to public pathways.

 

Littering

There’s nothing worse than looking around and seeing masses of litter lining our streets. In some towns and cities across the UK, there has been a spike in fines for those that are littering, showing there’s an increase in those doing it.

But, by introducing more furniture and decoration to our streets and public spaces, it’ll instantly make the areas look more attractive and welcoming. With this comes a sense of pride in the community, which will help to decrease the amount of littering. Also, the introduction of more attractive bins to go alongside these new additions will make it much easier to discard of litter properly in the future.

As you can see, the introduction of street furniture brings a wealth of benefits with it, and with this that sense of community we’ve all been looking for in recent years.