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The ease with which people can move around their local central business district (CBD), even just to meet for coffee, will play an important role in the future success of business in Australia, a leading cities expert says.
Associate Professor Matthew Burke from Griffith University is examining why cities need to be walkable and how that influences the way business is conducted.
He said as more people chose hubs and shared workplaces, local economies were relying on the knowledge economy — when growth is dependent on sharing of ideas and information.
"Walking is good for you and there are economic benefits that come from that better health aspect," he told ABC Radio Brisbane's Katherine Feeney.
"As well as this, in the past 30 years there's more and more evidence that in city areas the knowledge economies rely on people maximising idea exchanges.
"More and more business and the transferring of ideas and business transactions need to be face-to-face.
"If we have cities that are able to have more of that exchange happening, we will be more productive."
Meeting in cafes the done thing
According to Professor Burke, by getting people moving around cities more, business activity would be boosted especially outside of the traditional office space.
"Cafes are now even more important in the knowledge economy as business is not done in the skyscraper, but it's now done by people in a third space.
"Business meetings up and down the east coast of Australia are now being done in cafes and smaller restaurants in the CBD.
"There are more and more exchanges between firms and government employees happening in these locations."
In Brisbane, Professor Burke said locations such as New Farm, Bowen Hills and West End were areas where more co-working hubs were appearing.
"A co-working hub is a firm that has microbusinesses inside it and it's not a building that houses a firm on each floor — each desk is a firm with one-person entrepreneurs or start-up businesses of two or three people," he said.
"These types of business within cities are going to become more and more common."
We can have better CBDs
Professor Burke said unlike countries such as the United States, Australia could easily move forward in planning for walkable cities.
"Here we're so lucky that the landscapes we created in the 1800s weren't destroyed with the car too much in the era of the great freeway insertions," he said.
"In America freeways went through the heart of cities, but we didn't butcher the cities as much as our US counterparts.
"China will also struggle with the knowledge economy moving forward because they built CBDs that don't work and there are streets where you can't walk to anything."
He said councils should look to places in Europe that have long focused on how people get around their cities.
"A great transition is happening when you look at the cities that were the most walkable or with good public transport like Copenhagen and Vienna.
"These places have risen in the past 10 years in the economist rankings for the most liveable cities and really emerging as knowledge economy generators.
"More walkable and cyclable cities reduce people's travel time and maximises their potential to get to places and to conduct business."
He added that tourists, including in regional centres, also needed to be considered when it came to town planning.
"Tourists tend to arrive in cities like Cairns and Townsville, and if they fly in they arrive without a car in their luggage so getting around those spaces is critical.
"People's impression of a city isn't always the picture postcard of the esplanade but of how they get around.
"Great accessibility and unlocking economic development potential and unlocking more of the city creates a better city for everyone."
Topics: urban-development-and-planning, community-and-society, small-business, brisbane-4000
First posted