Hanoi seeks ways to improve and extend pedestrian street experiment  The pedestrian street around Hoan Kiem Lake The pedestrian street experiment around Hoan Kiem Lake was started in September and is scheduled to run until the Lunar New Year in January. During the international conference about smart solutions to improve the pedestrianised area on December 16, Duong Duc Tuan, chairman of Hoan Kiem District, said they wanted to extend the experiment to June next year. Nguyen Quang, director of United Nations Human Settlements Programme said in many countries, pedestrian spaces positively affected and boosted cultural, social, economic and environmental values for the community. For example, from a small, shabby town, Hoi An has become a national heritage site and is aiming to become an eco-city thanks to a commitment of the city's authorities with the people and good solutions. He went on to say Colombia successfully turned a slum in Medellin City into a tourist area and Bogota City is a great destination for pedestrians and cyclists. Smart infrastructures can also be found in Seoul, South Korea or old stations remodelled into cultural centres in Jerusalem, Israel. South Korean Professor Kim Donyun from Sungkyun Kwan University, Commissioner of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth said a city's competitiveness would improve if it took into account pedestrians. Projects to increase services for pedestrians and emphasise the historical and cultural values of Seoul have led to a five-fold increase in the number of annual visitors, he said. However, he also said the air pollution in Hanoi was too severe and it would be difficult to limit the number of private vehicles and clear the pavements. But if everything is done right, Hanoi could have extraordinary growth like Singapore, he said. Representatives of Israel Ambassador in Vietnam said Jerusalem also had small alleyways and streets like Hanoi and it took them 15 years to turn the centre into a pedestrian area. Buildings were upgraded and people were encouraged to participate in street events. The number of visitors doubled in three years. According to attendees at the conference, one of the most important factors is beautiful scenery and Hanoi's pedestrian street doesn't meet the requirement. Architect Doan Ky Thanh said the old Zone 9 or current Hanoi Creative City were great playgrounds for young people created by artists. He suggested replacing regular pavement stones with luminescence slabs, spelling out the word Hello, or putting up eye-catching figurines to make the streets look more lively. Japanese architect Shinichi Mochizuki proposed a campaign to turn Hoan Kiem into a car-free district. Living standards and local traditional crafts should be priorities. Mochizuki said overdependence on tourism was one of the causes for Japan's economic downturn in the 80s. He advised local authorities to learn traffic planning from European Mobility Week and car-free day in many Asian countries. According to Hanoi authorities, the number of visitors to the city increased by 40% since the pedestrian street was opened. This shows huge potential of pedestrian areas to the tourism sector.  Tienphong