The infrastructure of a location is the structure that supports the integration of the functions of that location. Due to the connective nature of this concept it is often associated with transportation roadways or utilities which themselves fulfill this role. Airports also qualify as infrastructure. We humans make use of the infrastructure at virtually all times of the day and night in one form or another as the electricity we use to power the clock in our rooms has travelled through wiring with an eventual but direct connection to a power-station miles away.
However, however useful infrastructure proves to be, it also touches upon our daily lives in a way that few things can. There is no escaping it in the human environment. Therefore any improvement or erosion of the infrastructure has an immediate impact upon our lives. The degree to which infrastructure is well or poorly implemented also has very great implications. For instance, if a roadway were to be laid without a pavement then few, if any, individuals would choose to walk along it. If a section of roadway is comparatively poorly lit then, all other things being equal, that section of roadway is more vulnerable to deviant or criminal behaviour than a well-lit section of road. If a supermarket is built on a highway with little or no parking accommodation then that supermarket will receive a vastly reduced number of customers.
Sometimes it is easier to arrive at what is ideal through inverting that which one perceives to be flawed. Therefore if congestion is perceived to be a problem and this is caused by a space too cramped to allow a sustained flow then it is only natural that spaciousness sufficient for or in excess of that necessary to ensure sustained flow is representative of that which is ideal. With this in mind I can begin to describe what I consider to be ideal.
In terms of infrastructure I envision a space connecting locations where spaciousness is more than sufficient and where humans and transportation cross paths less often. It is a space where shelter for all seasons is considered, allowing individuals to walk from place to place with little worry of getting wet or of dodging traffic.
The streets are surfaced for either pedestrians or vehicles, as per their designated purpose and rain water flows beneath through cracks. Entire street sections are cast out of thick layers of concrete with large gutter sections pre-cast to cater for the passing of specific utility and communication lines, water, drainage and run-off. Over these wide gutters are placed slabs too heavy for individuals to carry, bolted into place with tiles bolted into them for aesthetics and surface grip. These serve as generously wide pavements.
Pedestrianized areas allow for further embellishment such as tables, benches and playing spaces for kids and adults alike make these areas magnets for social activities, perhaps also sustaining a few shops in the vicinity.
Proper but sensitive lighting at night keeps the area secure against criminal activity while also helping to set the mood for evening socialization.
The reader might consider the above paragraphs to be far fetched or unimportant, perhaps even whimsical, but the above is a response to the current situation where communities are torn apart by an infrastructure clearly designed to cater for vehicles and not humans, where pavements hardly exist and there is no real reason to hang around near one’s home, where lighting is a patchwork job and so are the roads and the pavements, heavily scarred with recurrent public works that sometimes seem to take glee in butchering fresh surfaces. It is a reaction to a situation where cables and wires of various sorts hang onto the sides of buildings and zip between them like the web of a spider long since forsaken. It is also a reaction to the exposure of pedestrians to the elements. It is a reaction to a country forsaken in public planning.
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