We need more places to sit
A city that cannot offer a tired person a bench is quietly telling some of its residents to stay at home.
By Lena FischerCulture Critic and Columnist
2 min read
Walk through almost any city centre and try a simple experiment: count the places where you could sit down without buying something. In many streets you will not need many fingers.
Public seating has a way of disappearing. Benches are removed because of complaints about loitering, replaced with leaning rails or sculptures that are deliberately uncomfortable, or simply never installed because nobody thought to budget for them.
Who pays the price
The people who notice first are the ones who need a rest most often: older residents, parents with small children, people with disabilities or chronic pain, and anyone carrying heavy shopping. For them, a missing bench is not a small inconvenience. It is the difference between walking to the shops and staying at home.
A missing bench is the difference between walking to the shops and staying at home.
A cheap fix with big returns
Benches are among the cheapest pieces of public infrastructure a city can buy. They make streets feel safer by keeping people around, they help local shops by encouraging people to linger, and they give neighbours a place to bump into one another.
A good bench network does not need to be complicated. Seats every few hundred metres on main walking routes, a mix of backs and armrests for people who need help getting up, and some shade for the summer would transform many high streets.
We spend a great deal of energy debating how to bring life back to our town centres. Part of the answer might be as simple as giving people somewhere to sit down.
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