Tma01

How some benefit and others lose on a street you know.

One way to see how some benefit and others lose is with the infrastructure of the road itself, in particular with the road layout. It’s been designed with safety in mind, for both pedestrians and traffic. As Rodney Berman describes, things such as bollards, crossings and road markings are all there to keep everyone safe (Material Lives, Scene 1) Even though these are good for pedestrians when navigating down the road it can cause problems for drivers and slow traffic down. The council came up with the idea of a new bus lane to alleviate the heavy traffic, however local cafe owner Mr Suarez fears this may lead him to losing customers (Scene 5, Making Social Lives on City Road). So even though it would benefit the traffic it could lead to local businesses losing customers as it would be harder for them to park.

The street is used differently between day and night, in the day there is the school run, people out shopping and eating in cafés, whereas at night there’s people visiting pubs, clubs and restaurants. In the day people visit The Macintosh Sports club, which is open to everyone, yet some view it as not accessible to them, the head coach describes it as a daunting place, where it’s all gated off, leading people to think it’s an expensive private club (Making Social Lives on City Road, Scene 7). He also acknowledges that these barriers need to be broken down, even though they only exist in people’s minds, they may be caused by the differences between classes and how it affects economic resources. It could also stem from the days when the building and land where owned by the Mackintosh family, this historical connection may stick in residents minds, and the feelings they have over class, maybe if they are of a lower class, they may not have the same economic resources as others and are left feeling excluded.

Of a night however residents don’t like using the road, such as the gentlemen in the...