Mobility Experience of Urban People: An Interpretative Study on Street Hawking Activities in the Urban Spaces of Dhaka City

This paper highlights the issues and problems associated with mobility and accessibility relating to informal street hawking in the urban spaces of Dhaka city. Mobility and accessibility is the foremost concern of a place that acts as a direction for the passer by. This is one of features that have a significant impact on users’ perception. The urban informal sector is a vibrant section of the urban economy worldwide. An organized street hawking in the urban spaces could be part of city precedence for the benefit of the city community. To evaluate the influence of mobility and accessibility in using the urban public spaces a multiple sources of evidence, which included the questionnaire survey and physical observation, were carried out in two study areas in Dhaka city. This study used a case study approach to make a comprehensive understanding of the current condition of street hawking in the city. Good accessibility is directly related to the uses’ thoughts and experiences; however, these elements could not cast a positive light on the walking or selling experience for this study. This study revealed that poor accessibility is a major hindrance affecting the use of the pedestrian environment of Dhaka city. The findings reveled across the case studies confirmed by the condition where poor facilities are seen. This study shown 50.8% of the respondents felt there are several problems with the walk ability, street view, traffic congestion and parking space and so on. Data synthesis indicates that, there is no noteworthy difference between questionnaire and observation survey to perceive accessibility issues. The findings discovered that the studied areas are in a vulnerable condition according to the identified issues. As vehicular space increases, pedestrian allocated space decreases resulting in pedestrian marginalization from city spaces and increased traffic congestion, accident and other fatalities.