Pedestrian Studies

Attracting the Pedestrian into the French Quarter,
A Review of Mobile Workshop Conducted by Peter Bruce
at American Planning Association Conference
New Orleans, April 2010

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By Peter Bruce

You can find the excitement and romance of the French Quarter only if you turn a corner and walk 300 feet away from a busy, wide arterial street of large stores and commercial buildings. Even then it is not apparent you have arrived in the famous place known for historic architecture and rowdy nightlife such as Bourbon Street. The streets are narrower and the shops are smaller after a short block of walking, but the mystique is still missing.

As part of the American Planning Association Conference in New Orleans, I was given the opportunity to conduct a mobile workshop on Retail foot Traffic in the French Quarter. The workshop was all about understanding what shapes a visitor’s perception of the Quarter as they walk into it from the busy, traditional commercial corridor of Canal Street that divides downtown from the Quarter.

Through first-hand experience we found that looking down narrow, slow paced Royal Street into the Quarter, the pedestrian’s eye is caught by the visual noise of little souvenir shops and other small, tourist-oriented services . The shops are little because their spaces are expensive. They can be exposed to a lot of traffic in this transitional walking zone between the large generators of foot traffic on Canal Street and the attraction of the French Quarter.

Our group walked along the quaint, pedestrian-friendly street not knowing at the time we were one block over from the infamous Bourbon Street. Our walking experience was enhanced by the intimate visual canyon effect of the overhanging, graceful residential balconies original to the 1800’s buildings along the street. Cars moved slowly on this narrow street. This is a visitor walking experience that would be the envy of most downtowns in America.

About 5 minutes (or 600 feet of leisurely walking) down Royal Street where it meets Bienville St. we began to notice business signs and window displays were higher quality and more attractive. Antique and gift shops (see map coded for businesses by type), which depend on leisurely shoppers, were numerous and well-merchandised. They signified that someone cared for our presence there. We were not being swept along in the sea of car-oriented, fast-flowing signs, pictures and buildings of the arterial street where we started. Sidewalk traffic was slow on this Tuesday mid-afternoon. However, there was enough pedestrian traffic to make us feel energized and safe. The street performers who flourished among the crowds here on the weekend nights were not there now. The performers had made their living then, adding to the fun, exotic and unpredictable experience of walking in this entertainment district.

As we paused for a break, we discussed how street performers or costumed merchants at key corners could entice us to make an exploratory walk to Bourbon Street – which was only one block away. Without that visual reinforcement the short walk to Bourbon Street appeared uninteresting. It is surprising how lazy pedestrians can be even when they are just a 2-minute walk from one of America’s most popular entertainment districts.

We arrived on Bourbon Street, we knew, when we observed the larger bars and their polished commercial signs. The suspense of discovering new tiny window displays was almost lost. This was a place for large groups, short wandering distances and indoor experiences, it seemed.

What did we learn from our tour of the French Quarter? Urban entertainment districts can offer a variety of pedestrian experiences within a short distance. Architecture, store size and type, street and sidewalk widths, sign type/quality content, and business names and logos all contribute to our walking experience. We cannot quite describe this experience until we isolate the images and think about their effect on our minds. For most of the public that is too much work and takes away from the newness of the experiences. Let’s just say planners are a strange lot – that fit right into the wide array of people enjoying the French Quarter.

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