Car dependency which corresponds to excessive and inappropriate usage of the car itself is becoming a major problem all around the world. It shapes urban areas in such a way that the overall urban form as well as individual activities all develop to accommodate cars. However, introducing nonmotorized modes is seen as a remedy to overcome the car dependency. It offers a chance for retrieving healthy urban environments and healthy social lives and also for revitalizing/enhancing public spaces in cities. This means increasing the quality and quantity of pedestrian areas which have been receiving increasing emphasis all around the world. In this thesis, it is intended to show that pedestrianization can be, and should be, a valid transport policy in growing metropolitan areas that are becoming more and more car-oriented, such as Ankara. As a case study, this study assesses potentials and possibilities for creating a pedestrian environment in Ankara, Tunali Hilmi Street. To do so, detailed pedestrian surveys/analyses including v pedestrian counts, pedestrian movement analysis, pedestrian static analysis and pedestrian space analysis throughout the street and questionnaires with potential stakeholders including pedestrians, shop-owners and taxi-drivers are carried out. Through these analyses, it is assessed whether Tunali Hilmi Street is suitable for such an arrangement in terms of pedestrianization or not. As a result, this thesis makes an emphasis on non-motorization and pedestrianization as a method of preventing increasing car-oriented arrangements and revitalizing city centre for the case of Tunali Hilmi Street.

This thesis aims to set out an urban design framework, based on pedestrian experiences and pedestrian spaces, in order to take up streets to design or enhance them as pedestrian friendly urban public places. This could also be considered as a model of approach, which assumes a normative manner. Pedestrian urban places are surveyed, then analyses are drawn that will lead to design. In that framework, the study first summarizes theoretical concepts of urbanity, urban quality and pedestrian experiences, which are necessary for examining these places. Then, it puts out how an urban place is examined with respect to the three main headings, which constitute the components of urban places: urban form, urban image and urban activity. The study area, 7th Street in Bah&ccedil / elievler, has become a secondary centre with its vitality and the diversity of activities attracting many people from other districts besides local residents. However, initially planned within a housing cooperative, the neighbourhood has lost much from its cultural and urban accumulation due to global dynamics based on consumption. What is more, 7th Street is quite inadequate in providing an easy circulation both for pedestrians and vehicles as well as providing a quality urban place with its every element. Hence, the street has been examined with the above framework. This is done first with respect to the above mentioned components, and then with the information based on maps, photographs, personal observations and questionnaires which are done in order to find out the problems and characteristics of the users as well as their perceptive qualities. The conclusions together with strengths and weaknesses, which are derived from these surveys, have been used to set specific design guidelines for the area.