According to the dictionaries, a sidewalk can be defined as, “walk which consists of a paved area for pedestrians and it is usually beside the street or roadway” (dictionary.com). The definition of sidewalk refers to its basic feature—people could walk on the sidewalk. When people have no car or go for a walk, the sidewalk plays an important role for them. Wherever people are staying, they always do some sport and leisure activities on the sidewalk. Hence, in order to deeply understand the sidewalk, the content could take Northbridge as an instance to discuss detailed. Northbridge, in fact, is an entertainment precinct in Perth where the government has built sidewalks outside restaurants; bars, nightclubs and shops and other attraction entertainments. Nowadays, under the condition of the developed urban city and citizens' life styles, Northbridge has gradually becoming a bridge between people and safety, and communication, and convenience, which significantly enhance the development of the local economy. This essay will also focus on the different functions of the Northbridge in Australian neighborhood.

Generally speaking, one of the most primary function of common sidewalk is to offer pedestrians a pretty safe area where could prevent them from the danger of being hit by a moving vehicle on the street (Lee, Jang, Wang and Namgung, 2009).

However, with the development of the Australian economy, most people really keen on the sidewalk with the comfortable and leisure style. In fact, those sidewalks are usually some walkable streets and better measured by how pedestrians act and feel when walking along them. When walking along healthy streets, people could certainly gain the relaxed and comfortable feeling. In the meanwhile, those pedestrians who are in the relaxed sidewalk also could enjoy such walking experience in this environment and feel connected to their surroundings. Furthermore, it is interestingly found by Ehrenfeucht (2009) that as long as the sidewalk cannot meet people’s satisfaction, those people who live in this neighborhood prefer to treat it to health rather than moving away.

The Northbridge is relatively typical comfortable sidewalk in Australian neighborhood. In detail, Northbridge is well known for its informal name called "north of line" (Carlsen, 2004). It is a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, located in the northern area of the Perth Central Business District (CBD). Such location has decided its position and image in the mind of people in Australian neighborhood. Beside the safe function of comfortable sidewalk, the Northbridge also take another some functions to fulfill the needs of people in Australian neighborhood. According to the research of Giles-Corti and Donovan (2003), these functions include convenience, association, diversity and relaxation. Each function takes its effects on measuring the overall perspective of Northbridge.

Firstly, convenience is always relative to movement choices of traffic. On account of especially positive location, Northbridge is capable of providing people with various and co-existence of movements which involve in walk, bicycle, subways, or drive to destinations. For instance, the Northbridge can be accessible by foot from Perth Train Station and Wellington Street Bus Station (Alexander and Mcmanus, 1992). It is also served by a free CAT bus as well. Meanwhile, Northbridge also offer those people who have a night life a larger number of public car parks opened for 24 hours. Of importance, similar with other some sidewalks, such one owns some routes that are merely allowed those bicyclists and wheelchair to use (Kockelman, Heard, Kweon and Rioux, 2002). In fact, this kind of convenient function would bring a good reputation for the Northbridge among some disabilities.
On the hand, it is obviously that Northbridge connects the places where people live, work, eat, shop, entertainment, even the history. A wide variety of cuisine, including many Chinese restaurants can be available in the Northbridge. Furthermore, people could enjoy a variety of dishes that are come from a lot of countries, such as Thailand, Japan, South Korea, etc. In the Northbridge, these still exists a specialized seafood outlet where people could purchase various fresh goods. On the basis of history, a hub for Greek and Italian communities before the 1970s can be found in this sidewalk (Northbridge History Project, 2010). Moreover, the first Orthodox Church of Perth also located on Northbridge. These historic scenes really own capabilities to attract a part of foreign visitors (Northbridge History Project, 2010).

After discussing the convenience of Northbridge, the third function of this sidewalk is association. There are a lot of different night clubs and lunge bars in the Northbridge. One of the most popular and biggest nightclubs is the Metro City Concert Club in the whole area of southern hemisphere. Moreover, there are about fifty clubs and bars in the Northbridge including the popular Library Nightclub, Rise Nightclub, Mint Nightclub, Paramount Nightclub, The Deen and Euro bar (wikipedia.com).These places really attract a lot of young people at night, especially the university student at the age of 20-14. And those visitors who come from all corners of the world would enjoy their night leisure time as well. Through the language or the body language, they could communicate and make friends with each others.

Following the third function of Northbridge, the fourth one is in relation to the diversity of people and activities. Generally, most popular and successful sidewalk all have the greatest diversity of people, ranging from Australian to Chinese, from adult to young children (Lau, 2007). So it is with the Northbridge. This sidewalk contains the Perth's official China Town that is full of people that owns different nationalities. Moreover, thank to its connectivity, people engaged in different activities, including café dining, shopping, sitting on benches, talking with friends, reading newspapers or magazines, strolling, jogging, meeting people, walking dogs, as many activities as can be imagined (Muggleton, 2000)

Last but least, Northbridge could host those people who go there to see and be seen here, to meet others and watch the daily “parade” of cars and people. Meanwhile, the interesting “drama” occurs in the Northbridge. Virtually, it can be looked upon as the free theater for many people. Most people in the environment of Northbridge feel confident and in control, and would not feel threatened when encountering strangers closely. In brief, people could get rid of the pressures came from the jobs, families and other related factors. This well-designed Northbridge is able to generate a sense of ownership by everyone who uses them. And people who feel relaxed on the sidewalk have the desire to protect and look after them.

In brief, the Perth's Northbridge can looked upon as the representative example of comfortable sidewalk in the Australian neighborhood in term of its positive function of convenience, connectivity, association, diversity and relaxation. Each function would reflect the attribute and benefits of Northbridge in the Australian neighborhood. In fact, such kind of comfortable sidewalk always plays an essential role in people's daily life.

References

Renia Ehrenfeucht (2009), Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space (Urban and Industrial Environments), The MIT Press.

Kara Kockelman, Lydia Heard, Young-Jun Kweon and Thomas W. Rioux (2002), Sidewalk Cross-Slope Design: Analysis of Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 1818, pp. 108-118.

Byung Joo Lee, Tae Youn Jang, Weijie Wang and Moon Namgung (2009), “Design Criteria for an Urban Sidewalk Landscape Considering Emotional Perception,” Journal of Urban Planning and Development. Vol.135, No.4, pp. 133-140

Jack Carlsen (2004), “Issues in Dedicated Convention Center Development with a Case Study of the Perth Convention and Exhibition Center, Western Australia, ” Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, Vol. 6, No 1 & 2, pp. 45 – 61.

Giles-Corti B, Donovan RJ (2003), “Relative influence of individual, social environmental, and physical environmental correlates of walking,” Journal of Public Health, Vol. 93, pp. 1583–1589.

Ian Alexander and Phil Mcmanus (1992), “A New Direction for Perth Transport?” Urban Policy and Research, Vol. 10, No.4, pp 6 – 13.

Muggleton, D. (2000). Inside Subcultures: The postmodern meaning of style. Chichester: University Collage Chichester

Sin Wen Lau (2007), Bodily Offerings of Belonging: Chinese-Australians in Perth, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Vol.8, No. 2, pp. 137 – 149.
Northbridge History Project (2010), http://www.northbridgehistory.wa.gov.au/ retrieved on 24,Aug,2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge,_Western_Australia retrieved on 25,Aug,2010