Radlinskeho Ulica

Radlinského Ulica is one of the most important street of Bratislava. It starts from the north of the downtown, from Obchodná Ulica, the main traditional shopping street of Bratislava, to Račianské mýto. Radlinského ulica is quite important because of its location, its size is about 900 m, and it is an important connection line on one of main development axes in the downtown. Many people use it for going to the city centre. Furthermore, this way connects many important destinations like the main train station, Hlavna stanica, or the business centre (National Bank). It also leads to several universities and a huge dormitory for students. We can pretend that this street enjoys good localisation.

The identity of Radlinského ulica is rather split apart and fragmented. The street is serving as a connection (more for cars than for pedestrian/cyclists) from the Račianské meet and adjacent neighbourhoods and the broader city centre (Obchodná street). There is a lack of landmarks, stories, distinctive architectural shapes and symbols which could be attributed to this street. It makes this street rather unprofiled, without certain distinctive characteristics. Despite of the numerous presences of the University facilities in near vicinity or directly within the structures of this street, this street has never been perceived as an “academic” or “university” milieu.

In a first part, Radlinského ulica suffers of a lack of urban functions. A big part of the buildings is used by the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. So, there are many students, but there is only few shops and services. In this way, to create a new dynamic, it is really important to redeveloped the different brownfields of the street and add new functions, notably in new centres.

Few green areas and parks have been observed in Radlinského ulica; However, many of them are in bad condition. Grass areas are damaged, some trees need to be prune and there is no urban furniture. So people do not frequent these spaces or cross them and do not stop. Nevertheless, some parks have an important potential, due to their localization, notably in Kollarovo námestie, near Obchodná ulica, and near Račianské mýto, and also because of their surface, which are about 6 000 and 7 000 square metres. New green areas could reduce the lack of functions of the street, and also improve the image of the street, which is necessary to revitalize it.

Finally, some buildings are in bad conditions and need to be renovated. They also have a negative impact on the image of the street.

If the city centre of Bratislava presents a real architecture value, Radlinského Ulica does not. The buildings along the street do not present any architectural quality, except the Blumental church, the back of the hospital and some modern buildings like on Kollarovo námestie.

There are different functions in Radlinského Ulica but they are not diversified: a lot of buildings are occupied by the University of Bratislava. The hospital makes another important part of the functions in the street. Finally, a lot of housings occupy the levels above the commercial units.
Nevertheless, there is a lack of attractive functions for passers-by and also for inhabitants. Indeed, functions in the street are not able to attract public: universities and hospital attract only specialized public, while shops are just “corner shops” which attracts a few number of clients.
Finally, surrounding streets present many other functions (leisure, relaxation, cultural function...), but there is a lack of coherence to link them to Radlinského Ulica.

Few green areas have been observed in Radlinského Ulica. Two are at the both extremities of the street, and another one is in the middle. Furthermore, some trees have been planted all along the road, especially near the chemical faculty, the Civil Engineering University and near the faculty of Architecture.

Radlinského Ulica is well served by public transport. In fact, there are three tram stops in the street. However, accesses to tram stops are not optimal. It often lacks pedestrian crosswalks and it is frequently necessary to cross the road to access to the tram stop, despite of the vehicles driving. It should be noted that the tramway has not the priority on cars, which often forced him to stop, and slowed the overall traffic (tram and car).

Radlinského Ulica is frequently used by motorists. However it is often used as a transit point for travel elsewhere. It also should be noted that this street is accessible by car along its entire length, which gives it good car accessibility, but the car traffic is unbalanced along this street. However, as it has been reported previously, car ways intersect few times lines of tram. These crosses are sometimes poorly defined or poorly organized which complicate all the traffic.

The car parking is an important problem in this street. On the one hand, cars are frequently parked on the sidewalks, hampering the movement of pedestrians and generating a risk on them. On the other hand, motorists also used to be parked two abreast, and in turns, interfering with traffic, reducing visibility for drivers, and generating a risk of accidents. In addition, this unplanned parking has a bad effect on the image of the street. It creates an impression of disorder, and of lack of control. It does not make the street attractive or welcoming. Moreover, the uncontrolled parking obstructs the view on buildings with architectural quality, or impairs the qualitative effect that these buildings should provide to the street. These parking problems could have a deterrent effect on motorists who could stop to go in this street because of the lack of acceptable spaces to park their car.

The pedestrian movements are complicated in Radlinského Ulica. In fact, pedestrian pathways are of secondary importance, faces to the travel by public transport and by car. The traffic is important in some places of the street, so that it becomes difficult or dangerous for pedestrians to cross the road. Firstly, there is a significant lack of pedestrian crosswalks. In fact, as it is explained before, the tram stops are not always properly accessible by pedestrians’ crosswalks.
, pedestrians are forced to cross the road outside of pedestrians’ crossing in order to join the tram stop, so they have to cut the motor road. This represents a significant risk to pedestrians of this street. Some intersections are totally devoid of street crosswalks, and existing crosswalks are too far apart. There are too many big sections of the street separated pedestrians’ crosswalks requiring them to cross the road without protection. It should also be noted that sidewalks are not continuous throughout the street. Thus, the pedestrian sidewalks are sometimes interrupted, obliging pedestrians to walk on the road, sometimes in turn to join the pavement below. Some sidewalks lead to a stretch of road with no measure to guide pedestrians to the next section of sidewalk safely. Finally, it is important to note that sidewalks are in poor condition, with many holes ad dumps, in some places. It disturbs in an important way the pedestrian traffic, and can harm the health or safety.