INTRODUCTION
Problem statement
The sidewalk management effectively is a matter of concern for the authorities and the researchers on over the world and in Vietnam The point of view around the world shows that sidewalks are usually for transportation for a long time (Gehl, 1987; Amin, 2008; Dempsey, 2009) Governments in North America and Europe consider the planning and design of sidewalks to serve pedestrians as essential and effective (Loukaitou-Sederis and Ehrenfeucht, 2009) Municipal governments in Vietnam, like in HCMC, also pursues the planning and cleaning of the sidewalks so that it becomes a space serve pedestrians However, in recent years, some cities in the United States have tended to motivate people who using the sidewalk in mixed-use such as commercial, decoration, and public space This trend is called Do-it- yourself urbanism (Douglas, 2019; Talen, 2015) The reality of managing sidewalks in some cities in Vietnam shows that sidewalks are being used for mixed purposes from traffic, commercial, shophouse, social interaction, to the household activities. Therefore, the conflicts of planning of using sidewalks need to be addressed so that cities can manage sidewalks effectively.
Sidewalk can be considered as a public space in some economic contexts However, in most urban studies, the sidewalk is occupied by the means of transportation such as pedestrians, motorbike, or parking lot (Gehl, 1987; Mitchell, 1995; Tiesdell and
Oc, 1998; Amin, 2008; David et al., 2002; Dempsey, 2009) In the last few decades, the public space in urban area in developed countries include parks, recreation, sports facilities, squares, streets, and sidewalk is rarely the authors considered sidewalk as public space (Whyte, 1980; Gehl, 1989; Carr et al., 1992; Cooper- Marcus & Francis, 1998; Banerjee, 2001) However, sidewalk as public space plays a significant role in people’s everyday life in neighborhoods level (Chitraka, 2016; Mehta, 2006; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Andersson, 2016; Holland et al., 2007; Sennett, 1992; Thomas 1991; Lofland, 2017) Some authors pointed out have many roles of sidewalk as public spaces such as social and culture value, economic value and environment settings value, making the urban area an attractive place to live and work (Andersson, 2016; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Chitraka, 2016; Holland et al., 2007; Williams & Green, 2001).
Some scholars have noted that a unique aspect of Asian urbanism is public spaces as streets and sidewalks rather than in open space and squares that often seen used in the Western studies (Heng, 1999; Sassen, 2011; Eidse & Turner, 2014; Nguyen & Han, 2017) The current research on sidewalks only focuses on the socio-cultural aspect related to use and how the activities take place on the sidewalk The household activities on the sidewalk in Asian countries, when some activities that are supposed to take place inside the home or domestic space, but the reversal is that of eating, drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing activities take place outside the house and in public space (Edensor, 1998; Yasmeen, 1996) Concerning commercial activities, some studies added to the property value along the sidewalk (Deacon, 2013; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Rupa, 2015) Meanwhile, in Vietnam, public spaces are often used for domestic use activities while home spaces are often used for commerce (Drummond, 2000) Furthermore, it is essential to note that street frontage is a valued commodity in Vietnamese property considerations, as people could have more spaces for domestic activities or for small business operations (Garnett, 2008; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehren-feucht, 2007) Therefore, it is said that HCMC’s sidewalk was not mingled with any urban cities in the world (Kim,
2012) and people in HCMC use sidewalk for daily life The HCMC’s sidewalk exhibits clearly the diverse urban features with vibrant rhythm from early morning to late night (Kim 2012; Drummond, 2000; Harms, 2009) Public spaces for leisure activities including parks, museums, sports facilities (managed by different levels of the government), and squares such as the area in front of Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and sidewalks also used for recreational activities, especially sports (Drummond, 2000).
Moreover, some authors mention whether the liveliness of sidewalks in cities Vietnam and other countries like South America and parts of Southeast Asia has a positive effect on social and economic (Drummond 2000; Harms 2009; Kim 2012; Eidse 2011) However, a large of studies have organized research on public spaces and sidewalks in Vietnam under socioculture aspects without considering the economic aspects of the sidewalks These studies have shown that when sidewalks as a public space, where people have access and use in social and interaction activities, that people take the benefits There is still a research gap to be addressed the economic impact of the sidewalk and its mechanism Can sidewalks get the same quality as a public space like a park or community playground? How to measure this quality aspect of the sidewalk, and whether the quality of the sidewalk as public space will affect the property value in the neighborhood? This study investigates the impact of the sidewalk economy.
Liveliness is a special concept, it usually found in public space studies and plays a key role in analyzing the use of the sidewalk and its impact on economic activity (Drummond, 2000) The term liveliness may have different meanings, depending on the perspective of the authors and research objective to define and measure the quality of liveliness Mehta (2014) and Kim (2012) have stated that liveliness as a concept that is difficult to define and measure Liveliness is classified into different levels of activity, including the level of participation in activity through use; the level of interaction, communication, trading, and mutual exchange; the level of representation that is determined through the activities taking place outside of their home Therefore,analyzing and defining liveliness of public space, it is always relevant to the people and activities that take place.
When public space is highly liveliness, activities are diverse and interactive Jane Jacob (1961) discusses the liveliness and necessity of this dimension said that the sidewalks can encompass both vitality and diversity The best sidewalks are including diversity of physical characteristics, economic and social activities, and the duration of activities on them is longer, thus contributing to making them more important and more safety When the sidewalk acquires the dimensions of the public space, it is associated with the existence of the liveliness sidewalk In studies of urban planning and design, the vitality of the street brings urban vitality and prosperity.
If the liveliness of the sidewalks creates positive social and economic values, cities must certainly consider the use and management of the sidewalk in cities. According to a social perspective, this study focused only on the activities taking place on the sidewalk in HCMC with the participation of anyone regardless of age, gender, income, and occupation Specifically, participants can come from other places to use the sidewalk and can also be the home-owners that have the sidewalk in front of houses It should be noted that this study does not mention the aspect of ownership and control of the HCMC sidewalk, which means that it does not identify whose sidewalk is owned, who controls it, uses the sidewalk have to pay or not?
According to a social perspective, the first research objective determines the quality of each sidewalk segment in various districts by estimating its liveliness index. Based on the survey and observation participant of the main activities taking place on the sidewalk, the variety of activities, and assess the level of people involved in the above activities measure liveliness index The HCMC sidewalks are possible to generate more liveliness, by programming events, commercial activities, and social activities to occur in the sidewalks frontage of the house during day-time and night- time In order to attract more users to the sidewalk frontage of the house, there is a direct relationship between the property use, the activities, and the products provided need to be emphasized (Shuhana et al., 2004).
According to the home-owners, the sidewalk in HCMC brings to the economic value when sidewalk can become public space, however, economic literature overlooks this value Although there are studies on the use of sidewalks in Vietnam by Vietnamese and foreigner scholars, no studies have evaluated directly estimates the relationship between sidewalk and property value in a mixed-use neighborhood. This gap in current research allows the author to propose a survey and evaluation of this link.
Some studies examine the impacts of street infrastructure and design on property value (Gonzalez-Navarro, 2010; Seo et al., 2018; Fullerton & Villalobos, 2011) The street infrastructure and traffic noise are also considered in some studies about house prices Larsen (2014) compared two groups of houses located in arterial or high traffic streets and collector streets and compared their prices Furthermore, street width is also one of the issues that need to be considered to influence the price of houses (Fullerton & Villalobos, 2011) Xiao (2014) also mentions the dynamic relationship between street layout, street width, and congestion problem and housing prices from 2005 to 2010 in Nanjing, China Some studies proxy sidewalks with variables related to the location or geographic variation (Cho et al., 2008; Shin et al., 2011; Li et al., 2015).
In addition, there are a number of studies related to this topic conducted in Asian countries Recently, Xu et al (2016) considers the relationship between building railway transit systems and commercial value properties in Wuhan, China as a basis for planning Transit Oriented Development (TOD) The same results was found when Deng et al (2016) implemented for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Beijing Therefore, empirical studies do not investigate the direct impact of sidewalk quality on property value This is the research gap that this study need to conduct and this is the main second research objective A large business such as a retail business and a restaurant may also use the sidewalk as a parking space, or store spillover activities, or display area to introduce private enterprises It is important to note that the house adjacent to the sidewalk frontage is a valuable element in Vietnam’s assessments of real estate values, as it provides an opportunity for expanding the scope of a business, increase awareness of business activities taking place inside the shophouse In daily life in the major cities, the large common use of sidewalks in urban areas is probably the most commercially available (Kim 2012; Nguyen & Han 2017).
Research objectives
This study has two main research objectives, with specific research objectives as the following:
Objective 1 To measure the quality of sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension.
Objective 1.1 To specify and construct a commonly used measure of quality for sidewalks, the liveliness index.
Objective 1.2 To investigate the relationships between the conditions of sidewalks and the liveliness index of sidewalks.
Objective 2 To examine the impact sidewalk quality on property values in mixed- use neighborhoods in HCMC.
Objective 2.1 To examine the impact of the liveliness index in each sidewalk- segment on property values.
Objective 2.2 To investigate the impact of sidewalk characteristics on property values.
Objective 2.3 To investigate the impact of use condition of houses adjacent to sidewalks on property value.
Research questions
Belong to the two main research objectives, the specific research questions as the following:
Research question 1 (RQ1) How to measure the quality of the sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension?
RQ1.1 How to specify and construct a commonly used measure of quality for sidewalks, the liveliness index?
RQ1.2 What are the relationships between the conditions of sidewalks and the liveliness index of sidewalks?
Research question 2 (RQ2) What is the impact sidewalk quality on property values in mixed-use neighborhoods in HCMC?
RQ2.1 What is the impact of the liveliness index in each sidewalk-segment on property values?
RQ2.2 What is the impact of sidewalk characteristics on property values?
RQ2.3 What is the impact of the use condition of houses adjacent to sidewalks on property value?
Research methodology and scope
This section summarizes the data and methodology used to investigate the two research objectives and the empirical findings of this thesis.
The primary data for the two research objectives were collected by walk-by observations and direct observations of people engaged in activities on the sidewalk- segments and surveying single-family house buyers to provide some characteristics of a house and housing price Before conducting official data collection, the author collected pretest data by observing users’ behavior and activities taking place on 20 sidewalk-segments in districts 1, Binh Thanh district, District 10, and District 5, and Go Vap District (random sampling); and the author surveyed 10 single-family house buyers to get the main house characteristics when deciding to buy a house Data for the official survey was collected from 283 sidewalk-segments and single-family houses in 13 districts is the data used for analysis and reporting in this thesis.
The two objectives of the thesis use different analysis methods and models The first research objective uses the method of behavior mapping included walk-by observations and direct observations to explain why sidewalk can become public space by capturing liveliness as a quality dimension in HCMC The second research applies the Hedonic pricing model to examine value premiums that sidewalk has on residential property values in mixed-use neighborhood in HCMC.
The scope of works in this research consider only the quality of the sidewalk through the access and use aspects of the sidewalk In this study, the author does not mention the ownership and control aspects of sidewalks because of the complicated problem that exists in reality on HCMC sidewalk The entire study is based on two perspectives including social perspective related to the research objective 1 and home-owner perspective related to the research objective 2.
Research contributions
This research is expected to have some significant contributions the economic literatures in the following:
The first contribution of the thesis clarifies the role of sidewalk in public space in terms of access and use in HCMC In most literature reviews, sidewalk has not been mentioned or evaluated as public space in the world, especially in HCMC (Kim, 2012; Drummond, 2000) Moreover, it can be said that there are many studies on public space but these studies often ignore the role of sidewalk, or not treat sidewalk like other public spaces such as open space, recreational area, public square, commercial center.
The second contribution is to build a formula to calculate the liveliness index on the sidewalk, adding a way to identify and measure the quality of sidewalks anywhere in the world As a result, the author estimated the Liveliness index of each sidewalk- segment as a standard measure of quality of sidewalk when considering sidewalk as public space in HCMC.
The third contribution confirms that the important role of physical characteristics of the sidewalk to determine the quality of the sidewalk through its liveliness The characteristics of the surrounding environment or physical characteristics of sidewalk are places where users can come, use and interact with them.
The fourth contribution of the thesis is to analyze the direct impact of sidewalk on property value based on Hedonic pricing model There are many different studies to measure the impact of public space on property value, however, there are very few studies that directly analyze the effect of sidewalk on property value Therefore, the author uses some literature reviews of public space impact on property value.
The firth contribution of the thesis is to analyze the direct impact of property use conditions on property value This is also a new finding of the thesis when analyzing the characteristics of using houses in HCMC, in particular, houses can be used for rental properties, which can be used for both shelter and business (mixed- use property) The characteristics of frontal houses located the central districts in HCMC are often used for both business and shelter purposes At the same time, these houses will establish mixed-use neighborhood, and they will spillover business activities each other.
The sixth contribution of the thesis is that the spill-over impact of business activities of neighboring houses will also have a positive impact on house prices The shophouse has some features that make it special in HCMC The structure has a height of two to three or more stories, with a narrow faces and a long length The bottom floor is designed to accommodate a commercial enterprise such as a shop, restaurant, while the upper or upper floor is for residential purposes and some areas are completely commercial.
Finally, this pioneering study is expected to provide deep and broad knowledge of the role of consideration of future consequences in the sidewalk effects on economic value as the comprising dependent variable.
Thesis structure
This thesis is article-based, consisting of two separate publications submitted to scientific journals that address different aspects of urban planning and property value The thesis text serves the purpose of integrating the two essays into a collective work, addressing the research objectives The two research objectives are used to structure the essays and are answered collectively in the conclusions chapter.
This thesis is divided into five main chapters:
The first chapter presents the research problem and research gap, and then gives the research objectives and research questions Next, the author outlines the research methodology and gives new contributions of the thesis.
Chapter 2 The thesis research design
Chapter 2 details the research design applied throughout the two essays that comprise the thesis Before presenting the research process, the author will present some key terms used in this study Next, the author shows the research data including the survey area, methods and process to data collection Next, this chapter presents the research methodology in the two research objectives The conceptual framework is presented at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 3 Essay 1- The liveliness of sidewalks in HCMC
Chapter 3 addresses research objective 1 regarding to measure the quality of sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension A summary of Essay 1 on the calculating of liveliness index of sidewalks and the examining the impacts of the physical characteristics of sidewalks on the liveliness index is provided in this chapter.
Chapter 4 Essay 2 – The impacts of sidewalks on property value in mixed-use neighborhood in HCMC
Chapter 4 attempts to present research objective 2 concerning property value Essay
2 are summarized in Chapter 4 Applying hedonic pricing model, essay 2 investigates the impacts of sidewalks on property value in mixed-use neighborhood in HCMC.
Chapter 5 Conclusions, implications and limitations
The final chapter provides the conclusions to address all research objectives with a summary of the results and conclusions from each Also, this chapter postulates some significant theoretical and practical implications for both scholars, urban planners and managers, and home-owners who have motivations to promote the liveliness of sidewalks and usings of sidewalks Finally, in this chapter, some limitations for future studies are presented.
THE RESEARCH DESIGN
Research process
The research process consists of three steps as shown in Figure 2.1 The research overview presented in step 1 includes identification of research gaps and research problems Based on the stated research problem, the thesis outlines the research objectives and research questions, and the research methodology Finally, in this step, data collection and research methodology, variables, and these measures, the model were developed to use in the pilot study.
In the second step, which is the pilot study, the author chooses some main streets in districts according to groups such as groups 1 – district 1, 3, 10; group 2 – district 5,11; group 3 – Phu Nhuan, Go Vap and Tan Binh district The selection of streets based on a convenient sample and does not mention any specific house The author observes the sidewalk of each street, recording the activities, the different happening, the characteristics of those sidewalk users The author observes by walk-by observation method and records by photos and videos During this survey period, the author also cultivated photography experience Based on the testing results help the author better identify the sidewalk physical characteristics, sidewalk activities, current sidewalk management The author takes field notes and was slightly modified data collection methods and used in the main study.
The third step or main study aims data analysis, conclusions, and implications The theoretical contributions of this thesis aim to emphasize the quality of the sidewalk and its impact on property value Also, this study has some practical contributions to provide urban planners and house buyers base on the quality of the sidewalk. Figure
2.1 presents the overview of the research process at the below.
Definition of key terms
Public spaces have significant importance in the people’s everyday life (Chitraka,2016; Mehta, 2006; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Andersson, 2016;
Holland et al., 2007; Sennett, 1992; Thomas 1991; Lofland, 2017) There exist different definitions of public space that could be caused by the authors’ approaches, academic disciplines (Gehl & Matan, 2009) Therefore, it is challenging have a concise the meaning of a public space in one definition Those different definitions of public space can be grouped in terms of issues of ownership, control, access, and use (Mehta, 2014; Mitchell, 1995; Carr et al., 1992; Mandanipour,
1996) There are two group of definition, firstly, a definition of public space in terms of issues of ownership and control that defines the absolute limits of the subject area, and secondly, the definition is based on issues of access and use.
The definition of public space can be bases on access and use such as defined by Carr et al (1992) as “publicly accessible places where people go for group or individual activities” In addition, the authors also state that public space is “the stage upon which the drama of communal life unfolds” Specifically, a public space acts as a stage where people occupying that space at that moment have a dual role to play including the actor and the spectator Public space can be characterized as space for common use, with no restriction to access at least during daylight hours (Brandão, 2017) Furthermore, Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) explain that citizens create meaningful public space by expressing their attitudes, asserting their claims and using it for their own purposes In recent study by Mehta (2014), the author defined public space is an open space for the general public, all people use for active and passive social and community activities, and where everyone must follow the general regulations for use of space Public space can also be the place where one likes to spend more time not doing anything special and enjoy surroundings (Loukaitou & Banerjee, 1998).
The definition brings about everyday public space Public space is the space that is open to the general public where activities in people’ daily life take place in it, and different groups of people, regardless of their gender, age, social class The definition concentrates primarily on the every use of the public space and how the perception of the space might impact its use Specifically, activities in people's daily lives includes social and economic activities occurring on public space and these activities also contribute to development economic and especially property value near public space.
According to the Degree No 171/2013/ND-CP, November 13 2013 on penalties for road administrative traffic offences and rial transport offences, streets are streets within the inner city, which are delimited by red line boundaries under plannings already approved by competent authorities; and sidewalks are part of the urban streets, mainly serving pedestrians and combined with the arrangement of urban street infrastructure along the route.
According to theoretical reviews, the definition of sidewalk depends on the purpose of conceptualization For various purposes, it can be defined by socio-political characteristics However, the term of sidewalk can be judged from two basic perspectives One is to focus on the physical perspectives and design considerations related to this important pedestrian space, to create a safe, comfortable and functional sidewalk; and the other is a social perspective that interprets urban space as a social product and seeks the formation behind the first perspective.
The term liveliness may have different meanings, depending on persperctive of the authors and research objective to define and measure quality of liveliness Mehta
(2014) and Kim (2012) have stated that liveliness as a concept that is difficult to define and measure Liveliness is classified into different levels of activity,including the level of participation in activity through use; level of interaction,communication, trading and mutual exchange; level of representation that is determined through the activities taking place outside of their home Therefore,analyzing and definiting liveliness of public space, it is always relevant to the people and activities that take place At the same time, the liveliness is measured through the flow and movement of pedestrians, and the number of people engaged in various activities, and the existence of all activities or things to do as well (Montgomery, 2006) In this case, a lively street is defined as a place where people engage in many stable and sustainable activities, especially social activities (Mehta, 2006) In Montgomery’s definition (1998), liveliness of the cities refers to the number of people in and around the street (pedestrian flows) that choice to use in different days and hours, various user groups and the number of cultural events and celebrations over the year, the presence of an active street life Those components contribute to formation of a lively and successful street.
Public space, if properly organized, provides the potential for social interaction in everyday life, and as a result, increase our disposition for together (Carr et al.,
1992) Jacob (1961) has introduced the importance of certain degree of contact measuring the quality of sidewalk in the neighborhood Sidewalks are social venue where people can encounter When sidewalks are full of people with whom, a certain degree of contact is useful and enjoyable On the other hand, an attractive public space can add to its public acceptability and improve social relationships of communities that related to facilitate individual relationships in them, and finally leading to liveliness in urban life.
Property value refers to the value of a property based on the price agreed by the buyer and seller According to economic theory, the value of an real estate converges at the point where supply factors meet demand factors (Varian, 1992). What buyers are willing to pay for property depends on a number of characteristics, including how motivated they are to make a purchase, their negotiation skills and the status of other properties in the area The some of characteristics that buyers can rely on includes the structural characteristics of house, amenities, neighborhood characteristics, and natural environment (Rosen, 1974).
The property value in this study is focused on the transaction price of real estate in the survey period in 2018-2019 The transaction price reflects the agreed price between buyer and seller Moreover, this value explains the price that the buyer is willing to pay for the property associated with its characteristics This study does not take into the changes in real estate prices over time and does not make comparative price analyzes when having fluctuation to different house characteristics.
The terminology of neighborhood is widely used by researchers and practitioners and they have different points of view for this term Based on each empirical study, this term is precisely defined Dover and King (2012) refer to neighborhood measures as vary in density, population size, use of integration and type of housing units and these parameters are strongly influenced by climate conditions, economic conditions and location conditions A neighborhood will meet people with different needs such as housing, shopping, work, recreation areas and in a compact, complete and connected form, will development into more sustainable and satisfying built environment Therefore, the neighborhood terminology does not refer to single-use developments, disconnected, and isolated.
A neighborhood is a collection of service-sharing people and some levels of engagement in a geographically limited place There are three important words for neighborhood expression as people, place and cohesion Specifically, the place and community are terms that need to be clarified to distinguish it from the neighborhood The community also mentions a group of people who agree on values, beliefs, circumstances, interests and culture regardless of geographical boundaries (Chaskin 1997; Keller 1968).
The previous urban planning literatures provide insight into the conceptual nature of a neighborhood Schwanke et al (2003) considers the neighborhood as a centralized area for housing, employment, retail and other civilian locations and establishes an environment for people to identify social and economics attitudes, lifestyles, and institutions Congress for the New Urbanism (2001) argues that a neighborhood should be compact, pedestrian-friendly as a basic module for transit corridors and mixed-use In the study of Farr (2012) based on the original study of Perry (1929), all of these functions of a neighborhood must be within a five-minute walking distance, approximately 400 meters, and covered area equivalent to 50.6 to 64.8 ha.
The term mix in common points for a unified that consists of diversity and many different elements combined Song & Knaap (2003, 2004) and Koster & Rouwendal
(2012) distinguish the term mix in different land sectors in urban areas They classify land use into government and public institutions, entertainment, commerce, industry, and of course residential areas The combination and distribution of different facilities in an area determines the nature of the mix as residential land use combined with retail and public areas in urban area.
In summary, the mixed-use neighborhood in this study is a place with a geographic surrounding that meets the various daily needs of people, responds to work, and to live as single residential house Therefore, mixed-use neighborhood relative balance between jobs and single family residential, commercial, public institutional, industrial, public parks and leisure Residents living in these neighborhoods could access, use and participant in daily activities includes restaurants, pubs, parks, libraries, department stores, government buildings, post offices, butchers, banks, pharmacies, local schools, theatres, and places of worship.
Many researchers and authors have presented various definitions of home Allsopp
Construction of theoretical framework
As the main objective of this research is to determines the impact of sidewalk liveliness, an intangible feature, on property values, the author must conduct two separate interdisciplinary studies into the creation of sidewalk liveliness and into its effects on the housing prices The first study is to be built upon the vast planning and urban design literature dated in the 60s with canonical works by Barkers(1968),
Canter (1977), and Gibson (1979) This body of literature focuses on public places, placemaking, human behaviors, and their interaction The second study is to be guided by the hedonic pricing theory, which sheds light on the mechanism underlying housing prices When buying a house, buyers rely on a bundle of amenities to make their decision and those amenities affect the property value. Therefore, the author presents the two main theories in this section and the according conceptual model.
2.3.1 Theory of the place and human behavior
This sub-section attempts to briefly discuss three important urban design and planning theories as a theoretical basis for the first investigation The three theories are indicative of the human capability to adapt to the environment where people choose to perform specific actions or activities These theories are integrated to derive the factors that influence the behavior and activity choices of the public life participants on the sidewalk These theories include one of Barker’s behavior settings in 1968, Canter’s (1977) theory of place, and the theory of environmental affordability of Gibson (1979) All three theories have overlapping concepts Barker
(1968) contends that the effective interaction between human behavior and physical settings is the attributes including a specific layout of the environment, a regular activity on it, and a uniform relationship between two attributes Furthermore, the physical environment has a great influence on human behavior and at the same time, human behavior will affect and change the environment.
Canter (1977) and Gibson (1979) separately advance the behavior setting theory to construct ecological psychology, a set of theories and ideas that explain the human behaviors in different settings Canter argues that the location is defined and understood as the physical characteristics of the place, the activities in it and the meaning that they hold for people He also suggests that our understanding of a setting depends on what we do in places and how we feel about them Gibson suggests that the physical environmental attributes (settings) that people use them for some activities He adds the characteristics and configurations of objects that are not only capable of behavior but also aesthetic experience By physically changing a setting, the authors can change its affordability.
Those theories allow for a reasonable assumption of the importance of the human behaviors in public space which may include the sidewalk in the Vietnamese context Therefore, the author postulates the possible relationship between the sidewalk characteristics in mixed-use neighborhoods in Ho Chi Minh City and the behaviors and activities of sidewalk life participants.
This sub-section addresses the common economic theory of pricing mechanism to explain why both tangible and intangible features of sidewalks may influence property prices Rosen (1974) develops the theoretical support for the application of the hedonic pricing model to property value appraisal He proposes an explanation of the implicit market that describes the working of markets for differentiated goods and provided the hedonic valuation into standard economic theory Inspired by the work of Houthakker (1952), Becker (1965), Muth (1966), and Lancaster (1966), Rosen showed equilibrium the hedonic price function from the demand and supply side, that derived the bid function starts to analyze based on maximizing the utility of consumer and produce a maximizing profit of manufacturers A combination of attributes of goods in the market is represented as a differentiated commodity. Obviously, a vector on the market represents a distinct commodity, the author will rely on the derive prices and a number of attributes related to each commodity to estimate implicit prices.
Rosen’s theoretical foundation leads to a two-step approach: (1) estimating a hedonic equation by regressing the price of a commodity or good on its attributes,
(2) deriving the implicit price of a characteristic (the inverse demand curve or the marginal willingness to pay function) as the partial derivative of each property mentioned in the hedonic function In the second stage, the estimated marginal bid and marginal offer functions should apply the estimated marginal hedonic price as an endogenous variable while considering using individual seller’s attributes that affect offer as instrument variable However, determining this inverse demand function poses some problems because it depends on the assumptions made on the supply side of the implicit market for the characteristics If the supply curve is completely elastic or fixed, the marginal price of the characteristics becomes exogenous in the estimate of the inverse demand function.
Overview of sidewalk in HCMC
2.4.1 The history of sidewalk development in HCMC
Sidewalk in HCMC was formed 300 years ago, and since then the activities on sidewalk have remained the same The city has gone through a remarkable succession of political and economic regime changes: colonial, postcolonial nationalist, socialist, and market transition In the history, there are distinction this area as French colonial Saigon in the East and Chinese Cholon in the West This distinction was maintained and increased through urban design and planning that assigned different roles for the two towns and limited construction in the five-kilometer zone between them The two areas did officially merge into Saigon-Cholon in 1931. Saigon was designated to be the administrative capital while Cholon was the industrial or commercial area (Wright, 1991).
Prior to the merge, their functions are seperate By the late nineteenth century, Saigon represented the efforts of French colonizers on communicating to the world the grandeur of its Haussman-esque urban planning, the strength of its empire (Kim,
2014) Defined by its grid plan, roundabouts, and grand boulevards, Saigon was later designated the French colonial administrative center in 1931 Both theHaussmann- esque boulevards in Saigon and the narrow sidewalks of Cholon host vibrant sidewalk life that has evolved over regime changes The history shows how sidewalk practices have had a vibrant life of their own deviating from official city plans and regulations.
For much of its history, HCMC ’s place as a trading center made it a site for migrants and refugees.
Prior to 1975, urbanization in Saigon was fast but brought about a number of socio- economic reversals, especially the increasing flood of immigrants (Anh et al., 1996; Boothroyd & Nam, 2000) The poor people in the city lived in cramped apartments and backward infrastructure In suburban, sidewalks are not considered at this stage, and sidewalk economics has become a major source of income for poor workers. Since 1975, the city has faced the old sidewalk planning from colonial Frence which no longer meets the needs of the growing population and personal vehicles, as a result the sidewalk use has become more flexible (Pham, 2016) The nature of this space in society creates commerce and culture value, attracts slow pedestrians, as well as operates more activities on it These characteristics of sidewalks look more lively and messy (Kim, 2016).
Sidewalks in HCMC have been encroached to use for many different purposes, affecting traffic safety when pedestrians have to walk along the road with motor vehicles, this is the causes of congestion on many roads Environmental sanitation problem along roads is also affected by the littering of citizen The messy conditions and urban landscape are threaten when sidewalks used with different purposes There are many legal documents issued to manage the use of sidewalks for more than 30 years, but the sidewalk disorder is still widespread in HCMC. Sidewalks can be as public spaces in some countries, so it relates to this city’s social and economic issues Furthermore, sidewalk activities took place throughout the history of a city Therefore, it is impossible to separate or ignore economic and social issues related to sidewalks.
The sidewalk of HCMC has many different functions, which creates a lively sidewalk of the city Specifical fuctions include the following:
• Function of ensuring pedestrian safety.
• Layout space for green trees and urban technical infrastructure.
In terms of urban design and planning, a sidewalk considered to be liveliness includes all the functions listed above If only understanding sidewalks is simply a space for people to walk and install technical infrastructure, if other functions are overlooked or even excluded from the sidewalk space, it will create a the conflict because even if excluded, those functions still exist.
2.4.3 The characteristics impacts on using sidewalk in HCMC
Some characteristics affecting sidewalk use could include natural, historical, cultural- social, economic, transport characteristics, and urban management and policies problem (Nguyen et al., 2017).
Natural characteristics that have a major impact on the use of sidewalks by people, especially the temperature factor affect the comfort of users them (Hui & Jiang,
2014) In addition, wind and rain are also one of the natural factors affecting the comfort of people when moving in urban transition spaces, including sidewalks (Kray et al., 2013).
In 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Dinh Province and was officially renamed HCMC In the 19th century, big boulevards such as Cartinat (Dong Khoi),Charner (Le Loi), and Bonard (Le Loi) were built in Saigon and along two-sides of boulevards formed the commercial store of the French, Chinese and Indians and theVietnamese, which created commercial activities lively (Nguyen, 2018) People from Europeans to rich Vietnamese chose the ideal pubs and food shop along the sidewalk of Cartina Street (Dong Khoi) to drinking and crowding with others A large of the French activities took place the street and sidewalk from the early morning to night, they considered street as their home, and they just returned their home at midnight and to sleep (Nam, 2018) Conversely, the Chinese in Cholon focused on business, they were willing to live in the cramped, inconvenient conditions, their house can both live and business – home-based business The cultural features still exist in HCMC today.
HCMC ’s informal economy has a thick history from the feudal times, but until now the official definition of informality did not occur in any Vietnamese regulation text, there are also no current policies targeting the informal sector (Razafindrakoto & Roubaud, 2010) There are two activities of informal sectors on HCMC’s sidewalks including: vending and household activities Kim (2012) said that it was interesting to find that so many activities of life can be nurtured in such a public space The low- income people and immigrants use of sidewalks to do business Moreover, vending activities are still compliant with consumer habits, utility, affordability of the majority of people in the city, and it is also considered the effective livelihoods of many poor households However, a number of vendors think that the sidewalks belong to the landlord of the street facing houses, therefore, they have to pay monthly rent to the landlord.
Sidewalk is a place to create advantage conditions for economic activities of urban people According to Kim (2014), there are more than 3,800 sidewalk activities in 6 wards in HCMC, and conducted interviews with 250 street vendors, resulting in over 150 sidewalk activities in the city center of HCMC (District 1 and District 5). The author also said that many studies have proved that the sidewalk economy is an important part of social security when providing 20 jobs for the city Besides, the sidewalk economy has contributed to creating urban souls, reflecting the characteristics of the economy - culture - society of that city This has great implications for the tourism economy, because tourists, especially foreigners, tend to want to explore the cultural characteristics of the cities when they visit From the sidewalk economy as service and cuisine have contributed to attracting tourism economy.
Vietnam, especially in HCMC, has a large number of personal motorcycles Urban people could stop, park, or climb on sidewalks because they easy access to the services of the sidewalk economy In addition, the sidewalk of HCMC in particular is used to park motorbikes for customers front of their shophouse.
2.4.4 The current situation of using sidewalk in HCMC
HCMC currently has a total of 4,869 roads with a width of 5.0m or more, with a total length of 4,044km administered by the Department of Transport and People’s Committees of districts With a total of 4,869 roads with 2,598 roads without sidewalks with a length of 2,074.64km (accounting for 51.3%) and 2,271 roads with sidewalks with a length of 1,969.36 km (accounting for 48.7%) The 2,271 routes with sidewalks with 772 roads with sidewalks of 3m or more with a length of 451,04km (accounting for 27.47%) and 1,499 roads with sidewalks smaller than 3m with a length of 1,428, 32km (accounting for 72.53%) Therefore, there are more than half of the roads in the city without sidewalks leading to the situation of stopping parking on the road on these roads.
Population density and road density vary between districts in the city Districts with high population density but low road density include Districts 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh and Go Vap These are the districts with high levels of using sidewalk complexity, the assumption that the degree of complexity is proportional to population density and inversely proportional to the road density in the district. However, many districts have high current visitors like District 1, District 5, the level of complexity will also increase Localities with high road density and low population density include District 2 and five suburban towns The complexity of using sidewalk in these districts is lower or concentrated only in certain areas.
According to Nguyen et al (2017), HCMC currently has 90-94 percent of personal motorbikes parked on the sidewalk, and shophouses use sidewalks to park motorcycles for their customer About 21-26 percent of shops display goods on sidewalks Most shophouses use the 1 meter width of sidewalk, about 63 percent, 1-
1.5 meter width of sidewalk accounts for 24 percent The number of restaurants change during the day, and increase in the evenings On average, the 28 percent of restaurants use cooking stoves on sidewalks The highest rate in the evening.
In an average sidewalk section of about 38m there is usually a hawker, especially 69% of street vendors sell food or beverage close to the constructions in the weekdays Similarly, street vendors use stoves and tables and chairs on the sidewalk, especially increasing in the evenings (43 percent of sidewalk vendors in the evening and weekdays and 48 hawkers eating and drinking at the weekends to display tables and chairs on the sidewalk.
2.4.5 The legal documents on managing and using sidewalk
The housing market in HCMC
2.5.1 The characteristics of housing market in HCMC
An understanding of the salient features of the residential.market in HCMC will provide a context for the regression analysis models Currently, HCMC is attracting a great deal of foreign investment in real estate, so the real.estate market is often dominated by a few developers and major speculators The commercial banking system along with the government housing finance system plays an important role in meeting the housing needs of the people (Ng, 2006) Culturally, people’s psychology seems to be willing to pay for housing ownership The house is an asset that even requires them to desire to own it, especially individual houses.
In addition, it is estimated that, HCMC has grown on average by more than 300,000 annually The large number of people immigrates to HCMC for many purposes as study, work, business investment, use of high quality social infrastructure services have created a great pressure on housing demand Therefore, the demand of new housing are needed each year at least 80,000-100,000 houses That leads to the constant increase in land prices, so low incomes and real housing needs people will not be able to afford house Controlled supply lead to strong absorption of Central
Residential Market CBD area is restricted to develop new residential projects until
2020, according to recent masterplan amendment of the city Similarly, for CBD fringe, new residential.projects would also be carefully approved subject to improvement of the infrastructure system It is resulted in optimistic.absorption in Central Residential Market Until 1Q19, the inventory of luxury and high-end products is around 1,300 units in CBD while that of high-end and mid-end apartments inventory of 11 districts in CBD fringe are about 5,900 units (Vietvalues, 2019).
In Vietnam, the government is actually the sole owner of the land, all the land on the market is a citizen’s only right to use, not ownership, so the use of land on the market is essentially a land leases In the total real estate transactions in HCMC, the majority real estate transactions are single-family housing, large in both transaction volume and market price Increasing demand for luxury real estate has led to an increase in housing prices in recent years This is detrimental to the medium market by raising the overall price level causing oversupply and therefore, the government will regulate making prices more affordable In housing finance, banking institutions (commercial banks, financial companies) are by far the largest primary market lenders in the financing of the purchase of residential real estate.
In order to establish rights to individual.houses, Department of Natural Resources and Environment HCMC will issue Certificates of land use.rights, ownership of house and other properties associated with land The duration of ownership term of the land use rights forresidential housing is permanent.Transactions related to land and housing in HCMC are based on the Land Law, 2013 The time to complete a single house transaction is about 3 weeks and the transaction process is quite simple from setting up a purchase contract, fulfill tax obligations, and transfer land use rights to new owner.
2.5.2 The house price in HCMC
There are several ways to determine the house price as below:
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee issues the land price lists in HCMC every five years The land price list in the most recent is the period of 2020-2024 according to Decision No 02/2020/QD-UBND dated January 16, 2020 This price list is aggregated by district and streets of each district, and unit prices as million dong per square meter Specifically, when calculating the price of a house, we can calculate by determining the area of land multiplied by the prescribed unit price corresponding to the street on which the property is located Because the issuance period is so long in 5 years, this price is often do not reflect the market price of the house Therefore, the this price is only used for the purpose of calculating land use tax that the buyer must pay when making the transaction.
The house price in transaction contract
When conducting a transaction, it is necessary to formulate a transaction contract which is regarded as a commitment between the buyer and the seller This contract is made by a notary office The goverment will base on the contractual transaction price to calculate the land use tax by the buyer and seller However, there are currently no regulations to record how much is suitable Therefore, buyers and sellers often agree to record a lowest house price that not the actual transaction price According to the author’s observation, the contractual transaction price is usually the lowest price but is not lower than the price prescribed by the People’s Committee above This means that the tax paid by the buyer or seller is lower than its actually Therefore, this price does not reflect the real transaction price.
The transaction price refers to the value of a property based on the price agreed by the buyer and seller, which reflecting the current transaction situation There have been many housing transactions in the real estate market in recent years However,having no company or stated-office has collected data on the transaction prices of real estate Although, this price reflects the real situation of real estate market fluctuations According to the author, the sources that can collect this price are directly from the buyer or seller, the broker dealing with the house, and the notary office Therefore, collecting this price requires a lot of time, need a large relationship with the relevant departments, expensive data collection costs.
In summary, in this study, the author uses the transaction prices Because this price is high accuracy and reflects the exactly situation of the real estate market at the time of the survey Therefore, the research results to be highly significant.
Data samples and data collections
The study area for this research pertains to HCMC, Southern of Vietnam HCMC, formerly known as Saigon, is a rapidly growing city and is regarded as Vietnam's economic, cultural, scientific and technological center Playing an important role in the Vietnamese economy, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 achieved a growth of 8.3% compared to 2017, reaching 57 billion USD, contributing over 23% to national economy Thanks to its convenient geographical location, HCMC has become an important transport hub of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, including roads, railways, waterways and airways The total area of HCMC is 2,056 km2 and the population was nearly 8,7 million in the study period (General Statistics Office,
2019) The urban area is 140 km2 including 19 districts and the rural area is 1,916 km2 accounts for more than three quarters, including 5 districts and 98 communes.
The geographical map of HCMC is divided into a main urban area with 4 surrounding satellite urban areas, specifically as follows: Urban area center will consist of thirteen main districts as District 1, District 3, District 4, District 5, District 6, District 8, District 10, District 11, Phu Nhuan District, Binh Thanh District, Go Vap District, Tan Binh District, Tan Phu District; Northern urban area as Hoc Mon District, District 12, Cu Chi District; Southern urban area as District 7, Nha
Be District, Can Gio District; Western urban area as Binh Chanh District, Binh TanDistrict; Eastern urban area as District 2, District 9, Thu Duc Data for this study is collected from thirteen of the districts in Figure 2.2 Specifically, data were collected from eleventh districts in the urban center and added two districts in theEastern and Western urban areas.
The author selects the survey area for this research based on the history of the use in HCMC streets and sidewalks associated with socio-cultural activities, commercial activities This research use data collected from historical published reports, newspaper archives, and photos that taken of the sidewalks on the specific streets in HCMC Therefore, the author devided by 4 groups including (1) Sai Gon area: district
1, district 3, district 10; (2) Cholon area: district 5, district 6, and district 11; (3) TheNorth and West urban areas: Binh Thanh, Tan Binh, Tan Phu, Go Vap, Phu Nhuan district; (4) suburban districts: Binh Tan district, district 9.
Figure 2.2 Study area and data used.
HCMC currently has a total of 4,869 streets have a width of 5.0 meter or more, with a total length of 4,044 kilometer administered by the Department of Transport and
People's Committees of districts According to the Department of Transport in 2017, there are 2,598 streets with a length of 2,074 kilometer without sidewalks, and the remaining 2,271 streets with sidewalks, there are only 772 streets with sidewalks of
3 meter or more with a length of 451 kilometer As a result, more than half of the street does not have sidewalks, leading to a situation of stopping parking on the road, traffic jams, safe on walkability for pedestrian and business conditions for housing Another unique point, motorcyclists often ride on sidewalks during rush hour, causing the sidewalk’s surface to be seriously damaged.
The traffic safety problem and noise and air pollution of urban residents when participating in transportation are also concerning Most people in HCMC use motorbikes as their main means of transportation In order to ensure traffic safety and reduce traffic congestion at rush hours, 700 cameras have been installed to monitor traffic streets Although, the ratio of road length on the current traffic volume of HCMC is 6,843 meter per camera and there are up to 1,400 intersections, so the number of current traffic surveillance cameras is still insufficient On the other hand, noise and air pollution can be an annoying feature for mixed-use neighborhoods near major roads Commercial areas, which may include retail and wholesale businesses, are usually located on main roads in HCMC.
The study focuses on residential properties because such data are more readily available However, these transactional data are normally highly sensitive and not open the public It is very difficult to acquire comprehensive transactional data from the local government during the fieldwork in this research Thus, this research do not collect data from the local government, the author use data that supplied by the local real estate brokers and companies, and magazines of real estate transaction. Thus, the selling prices of single-family house along sidewalk in mixed-use neighborhood were collected.
The data was collected in thirteen districts in HCMC according to non-probability sampling methods, namely convenience sample In this method, sample units are selected at one location and at a given time At the same time, this method is also easy to assemble the survey sample unit The process to collect data in the study area as the blow:
Step 1 Collectting information about the transaction prices of houses in the 2018-
2019 survey period The houses with sidewalks in front of houses, or houses in alleys larger than 3 meters or distance to the sidewalk less than 300 meters are prefered.
Step 2 Collectting detailed the structure characteristics of the house based on information provided by the landlord, broker, or the notary office.
Step 3 Using GIS to navigate location of the house, and measure distances to CBD, and other amenities such as markets, hospitals, schools, supermarkets, train tracks, bus stations, airports , train station, ect.
Step 4 Field surveying and collectting of information regarding the sidewalk and physical characteristics of the house by participant observations method, visual method as the following:
Physical characteristics of sidewalks: sidewalk width, sidewalk quality, sidewalk furniture, street width, one-way street or two-way street.
Observe the activities taking place on the sidewalk: walking, standing, sitting, talking, playing.
Observe the characteristics of the participants on that sidewalk: age, gender
Survey conditions use of house and neighborhood: rental property, mixed-use property, spillover.
Methodology
The first essay employed the mixed-method research design which is the combination of qualitative and quantitative approach to collect and analyze data(Tashakkori
Creswell, 2007) In recent years, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods becomes common in research (Bryman, 2006) because mixed-method design can provide detailed and comprehensive data in order to achieve the research objectives and answer the research questions In other words, the approach helps the researcher answer questions that cannot be answered using only qualitative or qualitative methods alone In addition, this essay most appropriately employed the exploratory model, exploratory design begins with the qualitative phase, followed by quantitative data collection and analysis When using exploratory design, we are usually trying to see if our quantitative data can generalize our qualitative findings. This method was used in order to obtain a clearer picture and video from the qualitative data, and then to use the quantitative data to provide better analyzing of the study in question.
Figure 2.3 The exploratory research design.
(Source: Tashakkori & Creswell, 2007) 2.7.2 Hedonic pricing model (Essay 2)
Sidewalk as public space in HCMC This essay investigates the impact of sidewalks on property values in mixed-use neighborhood in HCMC by using the hedonic pricing model The “hedonic” is explained as the distinct characteristic of the attributes of differentiated goods, and the definition of utility is based on the benefits of the attributes bring to the buyer The hedonic price function as, P = P(z), where the housing price, P, is the vector of values in the function, z presents these characteristics.
The basic hypothesis of hedonic models of property valuation is that property value can be considered to be willing to pay for some characteristics of the home.Freeman (1979) argues that property value can be considered a function of its characteristics, such as structural, locational, and neighborhood characteristics.Structural characteristics introduce physical properties of real estate such as land area,building area, building age, number of bedrooms, number of living rooms.Neighborhoods are mentioned as population density, the standard of living of the people, the issue of employment and job, the crime perminant Location characteristics represent different land uses and facilities in parks, schools,hospitals, bus stations, highways, markets, and supermarkets.
Conceptual framework
This sub-section aims at organizing the previous theoretical literatures, findings from their empirical studies, and the author’s research hypotheses in the conceptual framework The framework can be divided into two branches corresponding to two research objectives In the scope of the first research objective, the author constructs the sidewalk liveliness index and then identify the impact of sidewalk characteristics on it The process is delineated by Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.4 Conceptual framework (Source: Author’s figure)
The conceptual framework demonstrates that quality of sidewalk affects the behaviors of participants of sidewalk activities, which in turn affects the sidewalk liveliness It is noted that the liveliness dimension measures of quality of sidewalk based on social perspective An indispensable factor in urban form when considering a public space is physical settings suggested that factors – characteristics of the sidewalk The sidewalk characteristics mentioned in this study include sidewalk width, sidewalk quality, sidewalk material, sidewalk furniture, the width of street front, and especially the present of mixed-use neighborhood These characteristics of the sidewalk influence a user’s behavior which also depend on the user’s activities The liveliness of sidewalk in mixed-use neighborhood is defined as the presence of commercial and social activities, and measured by the number of people, the number of activity occurring on each sidewalk-segment, depends on the overall quality of the sidewalk Based on the role of public space, special emphasis is placed on the economic role of public space, according to the liveliness index as the quality dimension of sidewalk This is the complete the research objective 1.1 and 1.2.
Commercial activities are the activities of standing, sitting, staying and moving around of a person to produce, distribute and consume goods and services in an outdoor place on the sidewalk within the 50 meters sidewalk-segment in an extended period of 15 seconds Commercial activities involve money or the exchange of goods and services In addition, social activities are community activities and domestic use activities and interactions between two or more people actively or passively participate.
Secondly, this research investigate the impact of sidewalks on property value by hedonic pricing model based on home-owner perspective Following the hedonic pricing model, the study examine the impact of structure characteristics of house(objective 2.1), the liveliness index and physical characteristics of sidewalk(objective 2.2), and the property use conditions (objective 2.3) on property value inHCMC, respectively Structural characteristics refer to the qualities of a dwelling such as lot size, floor size, number of rooms, the width of the frontage of house.Locational characteristics represent as the distance to centre business district(CBD), distance to nearest of hospitals, schools, markets, shopping centers.Liveliness index in each sidewalk-segment is calculated in research objective 1.1 and the physical characteristics of sidewalk consits of sidewalk width, distance to sidewalk, sidewalk surface quality, sidewalk furnitures The property use conditions are mentioned as the proxy of the neighborhood characteristics It is noted that some concepts are rental property, mixed-use property, and shophouse spill-over Specifically, the house could use only shelter, only small business or the combination of those.
Summary
In this chapter, the author stated that the key concepts and research design will be applied to explain the results in chapter 3 and chapter 4 Throughout the dissertation analysis process, HCMC sidewalk is set in the context of mixed-use neighborhood.
In this chapter, research data and methodology are developed and proposed Also in this chapter, the author clarifies the research process, which includes three main steps as literature review, data collection, and main studies results and implications.Finally, the conceptual framework shows the specific research objectives that conducts in chapter 3 and chapter 4.
THE LIVELINESS OF SIDEWALKS IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Introduction
In most urban studies, the sidewalk derives from the proper allocation of transportation such as pedestrians, automobike, or parking lot and at the same time provides space for various modes of transport within the city (Gehl, 1987; Mitchell, 1995; Tiesdell and Oc, 1998; Amin, 2008; David et al., 2002; Dempsey, 2009). Historically, the first sidewalk emerged in what is now Turkey, around 2000 BC. Haussmann’s large boulevard in Paris separated the pedestrians from the horses on the streets that were filtered to provide great protection and pedestrians (Loukaitou- Sederis and Ehrenfeucht, 2009) Moreover, Jacobs (1961) first emphasized the social role of sidewalks in New York City and the author argues that sidewalks are not only used for pedestrians, but must be recognized as public spaces through life street and social interaction Primarily, sidewalk studies focus on particular element in terms of social interaction and property rights or regulations (Montgomery, 1998; Farida, 2013; Kim, 2012; Mehta, 2014) Sidewalks are an additional typology of public space undervalued within the public space discourse (Deacon, 2013). However, few comprehensive sidewalk studies exist to establish that sidewalk as public space.
Public space has been definded as “publicly accessible places where people go for group or individual activities” (Carr et al., 1992) Specifically, a public space acts as a stage where people occupying that space at that moment have a dual role to play including the actor and the spectator Public space can be characterized as space for common use, with no restriction to access (Brandão, 2017) The term public space in this study is used to refer to the access, use of the space rather than its ownership and control Therefore, public space is the space that is open to the general public where activities in people’ daily life take place in it, and the possibility of allowing different groups of people, related to their gender, age, ethnicity, social class could access and use it.
Public space in neighborhoods level plays a significant role in people’s everyday life (Chitraka, 2016; Mehta, 2006; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Andersson,
2016; Holland et al., 2007; Sennett, 1992; Thomas 1991; Lofland, 2017) Some authors pointed out public spaces facilitate social and cultural capital, economic development and the environment that are well maintained, making the urban area an attractive place to live and work (Andersson, 2016; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Chitraka, 2016; Holland et al., 2007; Williams & Green, 2001).
In the last few decades, urban areas have been witnessed expansion in public open spaces in the neighborhood such as parks, recreation, sports facilities, squares, streets, ect (Banerjee, 2001) At the same time, there is a growing demand and focus on the investment and use of new streets, sidewalks, squares, shopping centers, and other public spaces in cities (Whyte, 1980; Gehl, 1989; Carr et al., 1992; Cooper-Marcus & Francis, 1998) For example, retailer shops usually place sign board along sidewalks that attracted consumers or pedestrians into their stores and increase sales and profits (Deacon, 2013) Therefore, public space has many important implications for not only social life but also economic activities.
Jacob (1961) considered the sidewalks and street are an important part of open public space and the most important symbols of the public realm in a large of major cities around the world People depend on sidewalks for social interactions, recreational activities, and commercial activities (Mehta, 2014; Banerjee, 2001). Sidewalks serve as public space for the city as groups of people migrate through sidewalks exchanging social interaction (Deacon, 2013) Some scholars argue that sidewalks are a social space, not just a place for transportation or pedestrian (Jacobs, 1961; Gehl, 1987; Loukaitou- Sederis & Banerjee, 1998; Hass-Klau et al.,
1999) However, not all sidewalks have the same function for social and economic activities Some sidewalks will certainly be more lively and busier than others.
Sidewalk in HCMC can become public space because there occurs diversity activities, not just for transportation, and therefore attracts a large number of people come on It is said that HCMC ’s sidewalk was not mingled with any urban cities in the world (Kim, 2012) and people in HCMC use sidewalk for daily life The HCMC’s sidewalk exhibits clearly the diverse urban features with vibrant rhythm from early morning to late night (Kim 2012; Drummond, 2000; Harms, 2009). Rama (2018) points out the Vietnam’s sidewalks tell a lot about the nature of urban life from the infrastructure to the relationship between people Especially, HCMC ’s sidewalks do not only serve as a place to accommodate the need of pedestrians, parking lots for motorcycles They also accommodate activities of household which commonly performed inside home such as men playing chess, children playing, and women talking with others, etc (Kurten, 2008; Kurfurst, 2012; Koh, 2007) These specific activities make HCMC’s sidewalk lively.
This research objective measures the quality of sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension The focus is to specify and construct a commonly used measure of quality for sidewalks – the liveliness index, and to determine relationships between the physical conditions of sidewalks and the liveliness index of sidewalks on mixed-use neighborhood Based on social perspectives and public space definition, this study only focused on the concept of access and use, this study does not mention the concept of ownership and control of sidewalk In terms of access and use, the study applyes the theory based on environment settings combined with behavioral analysis of usage and sets of activities on the same location or area through mixed-method using qualitative and quantitative methods This research is conducted in HCMC by examining 270 sidewalk-segments in front of single-family houses in mixed-use neighborhoods By employing participant observation and survey, the author will record physical characteristics of the sidewalk, uses and activities on sidewalk.
Literature review
The term behavioral installation was first proposed by Barker (1968) to describe the complex combination of human behavior and physical settings This concept is also considered by Lang (1987) as the relationship between the physical environment (setting) and the types of human behavior that occur in it A behavioral set consists entirely of attributes including a specific layout of the environment, a regular activity on it, and a uniform relationship between two attributes (Barker, 1968; Lang, 1987).
The physical environment has a great influence on human behavior and at the same time, human behavior will affect and change the environment The relationship between physical environment and human behavior is really clear When the environment changes, behavior also changes Behavioral settings involve a number of other concepts in social science and environmental and behavioral areas.
The theory of place coined by Canter (1977) adds another aspect to the concept of behavior set in environmental settings An urban environment is a place consisting of three dimensions including form, activity and imagination According to the author, the location is defined and understood as the physical characteristics of the place, the activities in it and the meaning that they hold for people Therefore, in essence, the author suggests that our understanding of a setting depends on what we do in places and how we feel about them.
Figure 3.1 Sense of place model (Canter, 1977)
Affordances theory states that the world is perceived not only in terms of object shape and spatial relationship, but also on the ability of objects to human actions (affordability) This means that human awareness in relation to space and the ability of objects will motivate action Gibson (1979) - an American psychologist - has a great influence in changing the way we consider visual perception According to his theory, environmental awareness certainly leads to a number of action processes. Affordances are felt in a direct way that immediately without feeling processing.
Gibson (1979) refers to the physical environmental attributes (settings) that people use them for some activities Gibson continued to develop Barker’s (1968) theory of behavior setting by suggesting that physical properties are characteristics and configurations of objects that are not only capable of behavior but also aesthetic experience By physically changing a setting, the authors can change its affordability Although the affordability of an object or context does not change, due to the difference of each person’s individual needs, cultural attributes and cognitive backgrounds, the usefulness and meaning of the affordability are also change (Lang,
1987) Besides, based on the idea of behavioral settings, it can be seen that the different affordability of the object or the settings does not mean relying on it to attract human activities.
3.2.2 The role of sidewalk as public space
Public space has a number of different role in urban development (Jacob, 1961; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Song, 2012) Public space has a functional role to provide unique public places that enhance the convenience, the enjoyment, and the social experiences of the residents, employees and visitors to the city (Mehta, 2006; Mayer, 2005; Sennett, 1992; Thomas 1991; Lofland, 2017) A number of authors pointed out public spaces facilitate social and cultural capital, economic development and the environment that are well maintained, making the urban an attractive place in which to live and work (Andersson, 2016; Loukaitou- Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009; Chitraka, 2016; Holland et al., 2007; Williams & Green, 2001) A specific discussion will be provided on the various roles of public space and particularly focusing on economic, social roles In addition, the sidewalk can be considered as a type of public space, so the author uses the role of public space and consider sidewalk also has these roles.
The economic value of public space
Good public spaces are essential in the economic development of cities (Jacob, 1961; Rupa, 2015; Holland et al., 2007; Andersson, 2016; Mehta, 2014; Loukaitou- Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009) According to Jacobs (1961), the street is the décor of a “sidewalk ballet” which determines the security, social cohesion and economic development of cities, and public space where can trade and commercial activities take place Public space improvement is considered for its economic values by creating high returns on investment, producing local competitive advantages and raising prestige, responding to demands of local businesses, reducing management, maintenance energy and security costs, providing benefits to local workers, and increasing value and marketability of residential and commercial property (Williams
& Green, 2001) It is important for the people who use the public space on the basis of everyday needs and the tourists or commuters who occasionally access and use it.
These spaces are the prime locations where visitors, everyday users can experience the real feel and culture of the city (Zukin, 1995).
A high-quality public space can have a significant impact on commercial activities including benefits of urban corporations (Rupa, 2015; Andersson, 2016; Mehta, 2014; Loukaitou-Sideris & Ehrenfeucht, 2009) The presence of good parks, squares, gardens and other public spaces becomes a vital business and marketing tool. Because public spaces offer well-designed, well-managed, lively and inclusive, safety and comfort, the companies may attract customers, employees and services (Mehta, 2014; Deacon, 2013) For retailers, a high-quality public environment can improve their revenues by attracting more people into the retail area (DoE and ATCM, 1997) Moreover, some companies also place advertisement signs or sign board on the sidewalk, outside of the commercial establishments to help draw pedestrians into their businesses and increase foot traffic to head to higher sales and profits (Deacon, 2013).
The well-managed public spaces have a positive impact on the property prices of nearby domestic assets (Russell, 2011; Pollock, 2014) Residents appreciate public green spaces and they are likely to use those spaces for recreational activities regardless of whether or not their homes backed on to them Restoration of the park helped to stabilize commercial and residential property values adjacent to the park. Apartments with a park view command a higher price than those without (Park, 2017; Xiao, 2017; Chen, 2017) Especially, good public landscape also offers clear benefits to the local economy in terms of stimulating house prices, since house- buyers are willing to pay to be near green space (Wu, 2017; Song, 2012; Czembrowski, 2016; Franco & Mcdonald, 2018).
The social value of public space
Public space has important contributions for social life of urban people Public space meets basic needs related to survival, communication and entertainment(Mehta, 2014) Public spaces will create opportunities for individuals and the whole community to develop relationships, opportunities to interact with the community and will make people’s lives enrich Moreover, Thomas (1991) explained that the public space contributes to society values in some aspects such as the place where public life takes place and people could meet different social groups Moreover, the public space is also the representative image of the urban area, which attracts people to participate in activities.
The physical characteristics of public space will create where people could interactions and interpersonal interactions take place in different societies The social role of public space is addressed through consideration of people using and participating in activities that take place in that space Therefore, public space is closely related to its physical and social role A number of empirical studies have shown that social interaction and the promotion of a sense of community completely opt for the physical settings of public space (David et al., 2002; Garcia- Ramon et al., 2004; Dempsey, 2009; and Peters, 2011) Public spaces provide common ground and establish processes of social exchange and interaction between people and meaningful people with such spaces in their role in social integration (Peter, 2011).
Public spaces play a vital role in the social development of people on various levels, from small neighborhood parks to large city center squares They are places of great value where people of different backgrounds come together and pick up new ideas by merely being spectators Public spaces provide space in which people can come in contact with the social interaction among neighbors (Rupa, 2015; and Chitrakar,
2016) This is a space that gives people many new things, vibrant things, which can be a place for learning and inspiring Public space is not only a place, but also a space to gather a number of experiences Public space is also where people many regularly meet their friends and it could be an everyday space of community activities, thus, public space enhances personal growth with communication skills(Low, 2000; Sennett, 1992; and Gallacher, 2005).
Furthermore, the social value relates to the perception of public space, which may be expressed in terms of how people interpret the space and give meaning to it, and how such meaning helps develop a sense of community Public space not only creates opportunities for people to experience new cultures, but also provides opportunities to communicate, meet people from different cultures, races, and ages, even different genders (Amin, 2008; Rupa, 2015) More specifically, people come from different cultures will have different cultures, different languages, different beliefs, and thus will determine different human behaviors When these people come to the public space, these cultures can be shared and experienced This is an opportunity to form a space for communication between people in society, which will make the space more lively.
Methodology
A mixed method research design combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods in data collection and analysis As stated in the introduction, the primary objective for this study was to determine what physical or environmental characteristics of neighborhood mixed-use sidewalks support commercial and social activities in nature In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected,analyzed and presented simultaneously As part of a mixed-method strategy, the survey used a multi-method survey that covered a variety of techniques to collect data, including participant observation, video recording, direct observation (with field notes and photographs), counting people to collect data on user’s behavior on mixed- use neighborhood Structured visual surveys and other quantitative techniques provided data that could be analyzed using quantitative methods.The sidewalk- segments were studied over eight months in good weather using three types of structured and unstructured observations.
A mixed-method research design matrix in Table 3.1 was used to guide this research Table 3.1 indicates an overview of data requirement, data collection methods and data analysis techniques to answer the research questions in a bid to achieve the research main objective.
Table 3.1 Data requirement and methods
Questions Data collected Source Methods
What are the physical characteristics of sidewalk? Observed physical characteristics of sidewalk field observation Comparative analysis
What are the uses and activities on the sidewalk?
Observed sidewalk uses and activities
Field observation, photos, and videos
Do activities vary at difference time of the day? Number of activities field observation Mapping
Where are of commercial and social activities?
Activities on sidewalk-segments field observation classification and mapping
What impact does physical chacteristics quality has on resident’s usage of sidewalk?
Number of activities field observation Inductive
What are the impact of the physical characteristics of sidewalk on liveliness index in each sidewalk- segment?
Physical characteristics, liveliness index result of analysis and literature review
Source: Author’s figuration Participant observation
Participant observation method is a method used to test non-verbal emotions, determine who interacts with whom, capture how participants interact with each other and check how much time they spend on different activities (Schmuck et al., 1997).
In recent years, researchers have used this method to collect data related to participant attributes, psychological activities and developments A prominent feature of this method is that focusing on analyzing the participants’ behaviors and discussing more later on problems that occur during the survey, more than rely solely on participants’ explanations of what they do and why they did it.
In qualitative research, video recording is a link between qualitative analysis and conversational analysis or recorded activities (Hindmarsh & Heath, 1998) This method is used by researchers to evaluate the nonverbal sequence of detailed behaviors of the conversation occurred, and nonverbal activities or behaviors that are difficult to observe in the reality An important point before implementing the video recording, the researcher connect the relationship with the participants to observe and record Researchers may not be present at the time of data collection, however, research assistants must be experienced and able to capture the participant behaviors and interests.
This study emphasizes visual research in field research The images used in the study were taken by the researchers themselves Such images may be generated by the social researcher (typically still photographs or videotape today) or uncovered by them in the archive or during the course of fieldwork, thus combining both approaches.
Regression analysis related estimation approaches is common in OLS models.
�i���i����i����i = �0 + ���i�������ℎ��i���� i + 4i where, livelinessindex i is the liveliness index on each sidewalk-segment i; �0 is a constant; �i�������ℎ��i���� i are k physical characteristics of sidewalk-segment i, in addition, the physical characteristics of sidewalks include sidewalk width, sidewalk surface, sidewalk material, sidewalk furniture, street width, one-way street, street with barriers; 4i is independent but heteroscedastically distributed error term for sidewalk-segment i.
3.3.2 The study areas and data collection
This study adopts a mixed-method research design It measures the quality of sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension More specifically, it investigate the impact of physical characteristics of sidewalk on liveliness index in each sidewalk-segment by flow of people participate in commercial and social activity patterns, and diversity of these activities occuring in the HCMC As emphasized by Gehl (2010) and Voltolini (2006), activities contribute significantly to the liveliness of public spaces, in particular helping to create the capacity for passive and proactive social advertising and social interaction.
This study focuses on sidewalks in front of house in mixed-use neighborhood in 13 districts of HCMC There are 24 districts in HCMC, however, the author chose these 13 districts based on the history of sidewalk formation and use as described in chapter
2 The characteristics of each district are different in terms of sidewalk characteristics, population, transportation, and other urban amenities The sidewalk in front of the house being studied is the main roads in a mixed residential area and is considered safe They are well served by major transit and are relatively better places for people to walk in the neighborhood, shopping, dining and finding other entertainment The mixed-use neigborhood occurs that most neighborhoods have some type of retail at the street level to serve daily needs, shophouse, and some office space is usually in upper-floor buildings There is a variety of commercial establishments, some small independently owned or local chains, and some chain stores.
The sidewalks were divided into segments of approximately 50 meter in length,which “sidewalk-segments” The collected data totals 270 sidewalk-segments in front of single-family houses on mixed-use streets Those houses may have the first floor having mix use of residential and/or commercial purposes Some of the typical commercial activities may include clothing stores, shoe stores, jewelry stores, bakeries, supermarkets, sidewalk cafés, restaurants, and other types of food outlets. The 50 meters sidewalk-segment was selected to allow the researcher to observe on- going activities at any time of the day Based on the physical characteristics variations to determine the exact size of each sidewalk-segment Field surveys are conducted without integral maps, photos and videos The characteristics documented included the ground-floor uses, sidewalk width, sidewalk surface, sidewalk material, locations of planters, trees, lighting, recycle bin and public or private seats Where are those segments? How did you sample them?
For each of the 270 sidewalk-segments, to record the number of people engaged in commercial and social activities, the specific location, the kind of activities, flow of people, and its relation with the physical characteristics on sidewalk need to behavior mapping of ongoing activities The recording of sidewalk activities is based on walk- by observations, photos, videos and field notes step by step and is performed simultaneously by two paticipants to ensure greater accuracy and reliability The author also is collected to 1418 photos and 548 videos in this study. During the observation, the two paticipants slowly walked along each sidewalk- segments, one observer took snapshots to record patterns of activity along the edge, while others recorded counting and field notes.
Observation Period Data were collected on days from beginning January through late June in 2019 While the cloud cover and wind conditions varied during the observations, no observations were made when it was raining Because when it rains and does not good weather, most activities on the sidewalk do not take place and there are few people left on the sidewalk Observations were carried out between 6:00 AM to 5:59 PM in the day-time, this is also the time for activities to take place during the morning and afternoon, and 6:00 PM to midnight in the night- time that time is when night activities take place during the evening Data spread out on weekdays and weekends Streets and sidewalk-segments were surveyed randomly Each segment was observed for 5-10 minutes Structured direct observations were used to record the location and number of people, to identify the activities they engaged in various sidewalk-segments Unstructured direct observations were used to identify how people engaged with the characteristics of the sidewalk.
The behavior mapping allows the researcher to understand the relationship between the temporal and spatial patterns of physical or environment settings and human behavior - to test how people use the sidewalk (Bechtel & Zeisel, 1987) It provides information on what people have done on the sidewalk and where they walked, sat, stand, crowded and conversation, and the means they use, as part of functional daily activities to contribute commercial and social value.
Behavioral mapping is used to systematically record location-based human activity observations, using maps, photographs or videos Participant observation is to identify locational or temporal patterns of behaviors In addition, behavioral maps are used to record observable characteristics, movements and activities, including the activites of people, whether people are alone or with others, what what they are doing, the time spent in fixed locations and environmental context or physical characteristics When combined with other data collection methods, behavioral mapping can be a useful tool for studying environmental behavior.
Findings and discussions
For data analysis purposes and to be able to measure the quality of sidewalk in HCMC by capturing sidewalk liveliness as a quality dimension, each of the 270 sidewalk segments is assessed for the physical characteristics of sidewalk and user’s behavior refers to the number of people participating in commercial and social activities that research focuses on In particular, for the each of the sidewalk segment, the sidewalk width is recorded in meters, and the types of activities taking place on it.The study was conducted in the following analysis Firstly, the research analyzes the impact of the physical characteristics of the sidewalk on the number of people involve to the sidewalk Secondly, the study performed behavioral mapping over the activities taking place on the sidewalk-segments during the day-time and night-time and compared the differences between them Thirdly, the author calculates the liveliness index based on three main parameters as vitality of use, the temporal diversity of use, and diversity of activities on the each sidewalk-segments, and according to different districts The computation of the Liveliness index takes into account the quality of each sidewalk-segment and by different districts Finally, the author analyzes the relationship between the physical characteristics of sidewalk and liveliness index.
3.4.1 Descriptive statistics of physical characteristics of sidewalk
The observations conducted confirmed that physical characteristics play an important role in attracting many people to the sidewalk.
SW_width % sidewalk-segment % of people
In the survey sample, sidewalk width is divided into 3 different groups according to Decision No 74/2008/QD-UBND dated 23 October 2008 about Promulgating the Regulation on management and use of roads and sidewalks in HCMC In 270 sidewalk-segments, the large number of the sidewalk width is from 1.5-3 meter, accounting for 50 percent, and also attracts the most of number people with 45 percent.
3.4.1.2 Sidewalk surface quality (SW_surface)
SW_surface % sidewalk-segment % of people
The sidewalk-segments have paved surface accounting for 78 percent, and the trend of residential people prefer to these places with 81 percent more than the sidewalks are not invested paved or serious damage.
The table 3.5 and 3.6 shows that the each sidewalk-segment has a width ranging from 1.5 - 3 meters or over, and a paved sidewalk could attract commercial and social activities on the sidewalk, and thus increase the presence of people on the sidewalk. Examples of activities observed for sidewalk encroachment include the creation of seating on the sidewalks of shophouse, buying and selling activities Commercial seating involves arranging external seats and tables by food stores and cafes, this is one of the most popular on the sidewalk In addition, sidewalks are also places to display products of stores that occupy sidewalks for trading, business activities, and through the presence of sidewalk vendors.
Material % sidewalk-segment % of people
According to the collected data, the common material paved on the on sidewalk surface is brick, and also attracting people come on Brick material is commonly used for sidewalks in HCMC and create a coherent expression in space.
SW_furniture % sidewalk-segment % of people
Lighting street, recycle-bin, road signs, public seats, trees 48% 49%
Sidewalk furniture is a critical charateristic to increase safety and security, especially lighting street during night-time againts crime (UN-Habitat, 2013).
In addition, people opt for interacting in a clean environment, and public seats also consider valuable to facilitate social interaction (Gehl, 2008; Mehta, 2013; Whyte, 1980).
3.4.2 Behavioral mapping of people and activities
3.4.2.1Category of activities on the sidewalk-segment
The common activities considered during the observation process are commercial and social activities taking place on the sidewalk and based on environment settings that can become public spaces The observed behavioral activities reflect on the quality and physical characteristics of sidewalks.
Data sample consists of 1484 photos and 548 videos of 270 sidewalk-segments. Corresponding to each photo, the author performs text codes of all kinds of activities Then, the author performs categories by process at Figures 3.2 (Creswell,
2002) Finally, the authors grouped the common activities taking place on the sidewalk HCMC with 5 different categories.
Based on data collected on different sidewalk-segments, the author categorized activities into five analytical categories including sidewalk vending, domestic use, communal use, store spillover, and sidewalk occupancy of pedestrians and transportation means activities, based on the commercial and social activities There are five activities occuring along the 50 meters on the sidewalk front of house in day- time (6AM-before 6PM) and night-time (after 6PM-midnight) including: (1) Sidewalk vending: vendor on the sidewalk in front of the house (not the homeowners); (2) Domestic use: activities of homeowners or households on the sidewalk in front of the house such as eating, drinking, bathing, sleeping; (3) Communal: community activities or mixing-social activities on the sidewalk in front of the house such as exercise, conversation, meeting, event organization; (4) Store- spillover: business activities of homeowners or rentors on sidewalks in front of the house such as seating for customers, setting board-signs; display of goods and services; parking for customers; (5) Sidewalk occupancy of pedestrians and transportation means: pedestrian for walking, driving on sidewalks, stopping or parking (not homeowners).
Figure 3.3 Categories of activities on sidewalk in HCMC.
Figure 3.3 indicates observed activities, which were regrouped into analytical category The figure shows that 51 percent of observed activities were store spillover use, such activities will occur regardless of the sidewalk quality This is an important activity for the ground-floor of single-family house that directly adjacent to the sidewalk located in mixed-use neighborhood The next is sidewalk vending activities account for 21 percent of the observed actitivities, this is also a common activity on sidewalks in HCMC Following the majority of people who use personal motorbikes to travel and to meet the convenience of the people, most sidewalk vendors are still their choice such as selling breakfast food, beverage shop The following activities respective are sidewalk occupancy of pedestrians and transportation means, domestic