Safe Cities and Communities - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 451

cally, compounded houses, or in cases of upper income residences, the permanent
presence of servants, reduced crime opportunities. But from the late nineteenth cen-
tury the built urban fabric displayed few signs of any concerns about safety, other
than those countries having concierges in apartment blocks, since houses opened
straight on the street, or later had low density suburban styles with gardens in front
and large windows. Pioneering investigations by Oscar Newman ( 1972 ) on crime-
ridden public housing complexes in the U.S.A., led to the concept of 'defensible
space', essentially the degree to which local residents are able to exert control over
their surroundings, especially in preventing crime. He argued that many of these
towers were crime-ridden because they had low levels of surveillance, high levels
of anonymity among the residents, and multiple escape routes, all of which led to
limited knowledge and common feelings about other residents, as well as ease of
entry and rapid escape, all contributing to a greater incidence of crime. Coleman
( 1985 ) in Britain also observed similar concentrations of crime in these high density
areas and additionally argued that the lack of maintenance and security on site, and
high levels of incivility between residents also contributed to their higher crime lev-
els. These studies, and the work of Kevin Lynch ( 1960 ) on the 'legibility of cities',
stimulated research in the way in which the design of urban areas contributed to
crime rates, a topic which had been ignored for too long by so many public and pri-
vate developers. The result has been the identification of a series of crime-reducing
features in the both the design and use of buildings and areas in a series of research
articles and books (Wekerle and Whitzman 1995 ). These studies seek to increase
both the awareness of urban environmental features that affect crime, as well as re-
ducing the vulnerability of people in urban areas. They can be summarized in terms
of nine broad categories, although some individual policies within the categories
are often inter-related.

12﻽6﻽2﻽1 Crime and Visibility

Clear sight lines along roads, pathways and entrances should be created to reduce
hiding places for criminals, while masking vegetation, especially around doors,
should also be removed. In the case of routes, more careful designs should reduce
the number of pathways with sharp bends, especially in pedestrian tunnels for road
crossings, or if unavoidable, the bends should be provided with mirrors or metal
sheets to provide vision around corners. At night it is also important to have well-
lit areas, although this as much to increase perception of safety. In this context it
is worth noting that lighting is often focused on roads, rather than pavements or
sidewalks which remain in shadow, the lights should be adjusted to illuminate these
paths, so as to give facial visibility at least 15 ft away. All street lights, especially
those illuminating paths or pedestrian tunnels, should be closely monitored so that
vandalised or burnt-out bulbs can be quickly replaced, since dark places increase
the fear of pedestrians and may attract predators. Bus shelters and small spaces have
often been used as hiding places for those with criminal intent; they should have at
least two transparent sides to ensure that pedestrians are able to see who are in the
shelters to avoid being taken by surprise.