Village Green as Public Space versus Transportation
Abstract: The territory of Bohemia and Moravia has dense settlement structure which was founded in the Middle Ages, but the roots of some settlements go deeper into history. The total number of settlements in the Czech Republic is around 6 250. Less than five thousand of them stay behind one thousand inhabitants. Although these small settlements form the most of the whole, their development lags behind in many ways. There is a lack of basic amenities and basic settlement infrastructure, where an important issue is a communication network including squares or village greens i.e. a system of public spaces which are crucial for smaller settlements in terms of living life and mutual interaction of inhabitants. The work deals with transportation within smaller settlements, with the road network in relation to public spaces. In villages the public space means roads and a village square. In smaller structures, the driving profile of the road is often not clearly defined. Similarly, there is no designated space for individual users (motor transport, pedestrians and cyclists) in larger public areas. Even parking is not solved in any way. Due to this fact there is a crossing and intertwining of space users routes, which can be very dangerous in many cases. An analysis of a wide range of smaller settlements, especially villages, with a different ground plan typology should show the current concept of traffic on the village green. Particular cases show frequent problems or collisions or on the other hand solutions which complete the public space and bring further possibilities of use. For the purposes of this analysis, a special division of typology of villages has been created that is able to cover the relationship between transport and the spatial structure of the settlement.
