An Examination of the impact of transformation of streets into highways on town experience and imagiability of the city

Abstract

The experiencing of a town has a great effect on people in understanding the environment, which he or she passes on a journey. It makes the observer saturated with memories and makes the journey more meaningful. With the advent of new technology the journey that people experienced in the past are no more. The prime objective of a journey has converted from a pleasant experience through the environment, to a time saving voyage from one place to another. This phenomenon has drastically altered our built-environment disregarding the values and identities of different regions. It has resulted in altering of a mental image of people towards a particular city. When cities and towns along a travel route losses its image, the traveler is exposed to a dull and a monotonous movement through the space without evoking feelings or emotions, which would have helped to make the journey more consequential. The travel route, which was a street from the early times, is gradually converting into highways, which are capable of efficient and smooth transit. The transit had made its way through sacrificing the identity 'and the character, which was previously preserved in the built fabric of the street.