ABSTRACT
Effective space use in modern markets is a key element in their success as it directly or indirectly influences the cost of operation therein. Community market has continued to experience space use conflict with incidences of people operating in areas not specified for trade, especially on market paths. This development project wishes to address the problem of space use to ensure effective functionality of the market, it intends to devise a model of solving conflict in space use by exploring design, circulation and management interventions.
Well-designed spaces accrue many benefits such as security, higher economic returns, better legibility and reduced congestion hence better market functionality.
The project made use of both primary and secondary data. It employed use of questionnaires, interviews, mapping, photography, observation and conduction of literature review as methods of data collection. The data was analyzed by use of SPSS, AutoCAD, GIS and MS Excel softwares after which it was present in different forms including tables, maps, photos and descriptions.
The development project outlines possible courses of action that can be taken to address the space use problem, from this, the best alternative is chosen depending on the pros and cons of each alternative as weighed against the desired goals, proposals detailing the best alternative are eventually made. The project concludes with an implementation framework of the proposed market improvement programmes.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Overview
This chapter gives a summary of the panning research project and the recommendations. It also justifies a planning development project from the recommendations and outlines the locations and assumptions of the project.
The situation in community market is that there is less activity inside the market blocks especially in blocks 4 and 5. Activities intensify at the edge of the blocks and on the paths causing user conflict and so congestion. To make the whole of the block usable, it is recommended that the stalls are designed to facilitate access, this can be done by developing fixed stalls for traders in the market blocks ,with a passage path inside every block where buyers flow interacting with goods on sale.
There a mix up in the various roles being carried out in the different blocks within the market with no defined spaces allocated to them, for instance you find clothes, grains, fruits etc. being sold in a single block or really close to each other and not in an organized way. It is recommended that different market blocks be dedicated to specific uses. For instance block 1 may be food crops such as grains, block 2 clothing etc., this functional separation makes it easier for customers to easily shop without crisscrossing the market causing unnecessary traffic and so congestion, buyers can also easily compare the prices charged by the various traders. Competition among the various traders will also be controlled since licensing and controlling businesses becomes easy as all traders in a market dealing in a certain line of sale can be traced to a certain point. This is important in controlling unauthorized sales in an areas not meant for sale of goods such as paths, hence reducing space use conflict.
Under this program, there are two main infrastructural components in community that the research revealed had an effect in the space use and utilization. These are;
1Renovation of the market flyover bridges - The three fly over bridges in the market were strategically put at market gate one, another at gate two to connect with the retail market and the third at the far edge corner of the market to ferry customers to and from the country bus station. They were put in these places to allow exchange of customer/traders traffic in retail market - community market and the country bus station - community market exchanges. Customer
circulation in the market would also be facilitated by the bridges as they would deliver customers in blocks 1and 2, bridge 2 to blocks 3 and upper block 4 and finally bridge 3 would circulate customers to lower block 4,block 5 and 6 hence serving the whole market. The current state of the bridges is deplorable, with security lights absent, human wastes and street urchins all over the bridges making security of the people who use them unguaranteed. Customers and traders no longer use them, hence don’t serve the purpose they were intended. This cause uneven distribution of customers in the market place. It is recommended that the bridges be renovated and cleaned to enable effective usage by traders and customers.
2Repair of broken perimeter walls – Due to nonfunctional fly over bridges, some traders broke the perimeter walls along landhies road to facilitate easy crossing of customers from the retail market, and the country bus station to community market. This was to make their businesses located near the walls more viable by putting them close to the newly made market gates. This cause uneven customer flow in the various market blocks as customers tend to buy from businesses close to the gates or market paths leaving parts of blocks 4 and 5 that are far from customer reach not viable for trade. Spaces in these blocks are hence not well utilized. It is proposed that the broken parts of the perimeter wall be repaired.
1.2 Facilitation
This is intended to look into the causes of space use conflict as identified by the traders in the research process and try to find remedy solutions for these. For instance, facilitating customer’s access into the market blocks with hardly any customers reaching these points of sale hence making them unviable for trade. This will include the following actions:
Market blocks redesigning– The development project wishes to redesign the market blocks to make them more user friendly by facilitating customers access and to facilitate the effective space use of the whole of the market blocks by opening it up for access by customers. An illustration of the desired action on the market blocks is shown below, this will be backed by a stall redesigning exercise to make them fixed and more spacious.
Market stalls redesigning and classification –The development project intends to redesign the market stalls to make them more spacious and fixed. The idea of making the stalls spacious works on the assumption that well-spaced stalls for traders to accommodate their merchandise accompanied by customers’ ability to access their sales points, i.e. the stalls, will prevent the traders from encroaching into market paths and unauthorized sale spaces. Fixed stalls on the other hand serve the purpose of physical restriction of the traders into the area defined for them,
i.e. the stall, this reduces their chance of overflowing into the market paths as compared to the current situation where no physical restrictions exist. Market blocks reclassification as discussed above will help reduce customer trips in and around the market as customers will be able to get all the shopping they need of a particular genre in one market block and so reduced trips in the market and so reduced congestion caused by such.
1.3 Restriction
This aims at exploring possible physical or institutional restrictions e.g. through by-laws to bar the use of unauthorized space in the markets. Institutional restrictions can come under the management of the market to ensure that the laid down market by-laws are implemented in a comprehensive manner. This development project wishes to explore the Physical restriction mechanism via designing fixed stalls in the various market blocks depending on the nature of business to be conducted in these stalls, the physical encroachment in these stalls will restrict traders from overflowing into spaces not allocated to them compared to when there is no barrier at all. Repair of the broken parts of the perimeter wall to regularize customers’ distribution in the market is also another restrictive measure the development project wishes to undertake.
The above project is chosen based on the research findings that indeed space use conflict exists in community market. Utilization of space is a big factor in determining the cost of operation of various businesses and so their survival as it came out in the research phase of the project. There is therefore need to invoke remedial measures to mend space use conflict to ensure there is free flow of goods and people as well as salvage businesses operating in the market. This will be done through provision of a space use friendly model that maximize space utility and at the same time bridge the customer/trader by facilitating customer’s access to the sales point rather than traders luring customers from market paths. Redevelopment is chosen since its relatively cheap compared to an overhaul of the market, it incorporates three main components that will include design, infrastructure and circulation and the facility management.
The project is located in community market, in the larger community area, Adamawa County. The market sits on a 17 acre piece of land at the edge of the central business district to the east. Its sandwiched between Haile Selassie Avenue, ladhies road, wakulima market and the community bus terminus that ferry commuters to east lands. The development action area will be the entire hawkers market.
By undertaking the above development proposals on community, the project aims to achieve the following:
o To review appropriate space use standards for the effective operation of the market
o To propose planning and design interventions for the effective use of available space in the market.
o To propose an appropriate implementation framework for the proposed reorganization model in the market
The main assumptions of this development project are;
· A redevelopment exercise of the market as above, will influence market trader’s use of space,
· That trader’s behavior can be controlled by redesigning the stalls to ensure maximum space use and ensuring customer traffic circulation in the market.
· That the proposals made herein are separate from any inferences by parties with vested interests and that the proposals are acceptable and owned by all stakeholders.
· That effective space use will improve the operating conditions in the market
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 77 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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