A REFLECTION UPON THE ROLE OF THE PEDESTRIAN AND THE SIDEWALKS ON THE CONTEMPORARY CITIES – THE CASE OF MARINGÁ-PR-BRAZIL

Abstract

We experience nowadays, an urban world more and more fragmented, within a production and reproduction process of social relations, products and services. The cities are a consequence of this process, and they are completely drenched by the automobile ideology. In this study, the intention is to reflect on the relations between the space of the sidewalks with the use of said sidewalks by pedestrians, as a modal base of mobility. The sidewalks, that occur alongside the cities, primarily did so in order to protect the houses from the filth of the streets, have become the means of transport common to almost every kind of urbanites. However, it is believed that they surpass this role as a pathway to become a space fo interaction, commerce of goods and services, many times in the form of conflict by the use of this space. On the whole, it is common to see the mistreatments of the sidewalks, either by lack of care and maintenance or by omission of the Public Power. Well tended sidewalks, in accordance with construction norms, invite more pedestrians, including those who posses a disability, to utilize the city, experiencing and wielding the right to it.