Central streets of Almaty will turn into pedestrian zones in 2016, Tengrinews reports citing Almaty TV Channel.
Central streets of Almaty will turn into pedestrian zones in 2016, Tengrinews reports citing Almaty TV Channel.
The Municipal authorities of the apple city began detailed planning of the modernization project in cooperation with the Danish urban designer Jan Gehl.
“We invited Jan Gehl, the Dutch architect, to participate in the project. He suggests organizing pedestrian zone for relaxation and trade on some of the streets. These zones will remove some of the traffic flow partially cleaning the city center from dirt and harmful emissions,” Zhanat Aitleu of the Almaty’s Architecture and City Planning Department said.
Gehl worked on improvement of urban life and re-orientation of city design to suit the needs of pedestrians and cyclists in cities of United States, Australia, the UK, New Zeland and Denmark.
Almaty’s Zhibek Zholy street will turn into a pedestrian zone with trading venues and relaxation areas. Abylay Khan avenue will become partially pedestrian on weekends.
The idea of re-organization of the central streets addresses the city’s environmental problems.
Earlier, President Nursultan Nazarbayev supported eco-friendly Almaty and reduction of harmful emissions. “To improve the ecological situation in the city, the municipal transport will be transferred to pollution-free natural gas,” Nazarbayev said after opening two new subway stations in the city earlier this month.
Writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina