The Inner City Zone is surrounded by the residential suburbs. The Inner City Zone ends where the residential

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Data Interpretation

What are the Features of CBD?

The CBD is located in the centre of the town as shown in figures 11 and 23.  It has many features all contributing to the overall feature of the CBD.  The CBD is very different to the surrounding areas. The majority of CBDs have a pedestrian zone.  This is demonstrated by figures 16 and 17 which show that in the CBD there is a large amount of pedestrians and no cars. This is a feature of the CBD as it would be dangerous for cars to be in an area with such high numbers pedestrians.  The land use in the CBD is predominantly retail shops with some offices.  This is due to the CBD being a place where people come to shop.  Therefore the large retail chain companies all locate to this area so that they can capitalise on the high numbers of people who go there.  This is shown in figure 11, in the centre of town there is only shops.  The price of land in the CBD is extremely expensive due to its great demand to any business relying on passing trade, for example a clothes shop.  The height of buildings in the CBD is much higher than in the rest of the town. This is mainly due to the land costing so much more, therefore the shops and businesses counter this by creating tall buildings giving them more available area in their shop or homes at a more affordable price.   The buildings on average are 4 or 5 stories high where as the rest of the survey showed the average height of buildings not in the CBD is 2 or 3.  This is reflected in figures 18-21, where we see a dramatic increase in building height as the sites get closer to the CBD.

Photograph of High Street                     Photo: 2

In the CBD there tends to be high buildings, as shown by the picture above these buildings have four floors above the shop.  The environmental quality of the CBD is relatively high as in the CBD there is usually a new shopping mall which is exceptionally clean with very good facilities.  This is shown in the photograph below.  This is the outside area in the Oracle, Reading.  Here there is a large area with restaurants and shops which is a very pleasant area to eat and shop.  This is reflected in figures 12 to 15 where the environmental quality rises as it gets into the city centre of CBD.

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Riverside area at Oracle Reading                   Photo: 3

Where does the CBD end?

The CBD spreads for different distances in different directions.  The end in the CBD is determined by changes in environmental quality, building height, pedestrian and traffic counts.  As the CBD ends there are changes in the pedestrian and traffic counts.  The CBD predominantly a no traffic zone, and there are very high numbers of pedestrians.  As you leave the CBD you would be leaving the pedestrian zone.  Therefore you would expect the pedestrian numbers to decrease and the traffic numbers to increase. ...

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