Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

China’s Metro Boom Continues to Drive Rapid Transit Growth

Xiamen’s first metro line | Source: Xinhuanet.com

Transit growth in Asia, particularly in China, has continued, and even accelerated in the past few years. This growth is not new, of course, Chinese cities have been adding transit rapidly over the past several decades. As of 2017, this shows no signs of slowing.

ITDP looked at bus rapid transit (BRT), light rail transit (LRT), and Metro growth in 373 urban areas around the world, and found that metro growth in Chinese cities is the largest single contributor to new kilometers of transit in the world. However, LRT development was more robust in Asia than any other continent for the first time in 2017, and BRT is growing strongly in Argentina. The 2017, there was a total of 897 km of rapid transit infrastructure built, with Metro accounting for 707 km (79%). LRT followed with 135 km built in 2017, a 2.4% increase over 2016. BRT accounts for the remaining 55 km, with the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina accounting for 50% of global BRT construction in 2017.

Construction of rapid transit infrastructure has increased tremendously since the beginning of the new millennium. The opening of BRT and metro rail systems has been at a faster pace, thus contributing more to the rapid transit growth for the past two decades. The LRT concept gained a wider recognition in the 1980’s before declining in the 1990’s, and then slowly growing in the last 15 years.

Comparing the rapid transit growth on yearly basis, there was an overall 18% decrease in the kilometers of infrastructure added in 2017 compared to 2016. This, however, still represents the 5th highest year of growth on record in the 37 years included in the dataset.

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from this. One is that China, a country dealing with worsening air pollution and traffic congestion, as well as increasing wealth, has embraced rapid transit as an urban mobility solution, and continues to show that commitment in their infrastructure investments. The Chinese government is putting a major effort into promoting a sustainable transportation system, and attempting to address climate change. This data highlights that how China has transformed its public transportation sector dramatically over the last few decades and continues to be on the top in terms of contributing to the global rapid transit growth.

To understand if transit growth is keeping pace with urban population growth, the Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR) was used as a metric to compare the length of the rapid transit lines (including LRT, BRT and Metro) with the country’s urban population (cities with population over 500,000). China’s RTR has risen steeply over the last 20 years, mainly due to massive continual investment in metro infrastructure. In 2017, 422 km of metro is from newly built and extended metro lines in just 12 cities in mainland China. Guangzhou, a city in Southern China, had the greatest metro growth, with 84 km added in 2017.

The RTR numbers indicate a sharp increase after the millennium, which points out that urban population is proportionally increasing with  rapid transit investment. But it should be noted that China is the one that has heavily invested on rapid transit infrastructures and with their urban population growth decreasing significantly it appears that the global increase in RTR could be mostly attributed to China.

Although Taiwan has only three rapid transit systems operating in four cities, it saw the highest RTR growth in 2017, due to the opening of the 51 km Metro in the city of Taoyuan.

Kaohsiun Tram, Taiwan | Source: www. urbanrail.net

Since 2009, Asian countries have contributed the highest to the global rapid transit growth, mostly through robust metro development. Four cities in China: Xiamen, Guiyan, Shijiazhuang, Yinchuan, and three cities in India: Hyderabad, Kochi and Lucknow opened their 1st metro lines in 2017, bringing the total number of cities with metro to 178.

In 2017, Asia had more robust LRT development than on any other continent. Notably, LRT lines opened for the first time in Shenzhen, China; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and in Izmit and Izmir, Turkey. Outside of Asia, LRT lines opened in Granada, Spain; Luxembourg city, and Aarhus, Denmark, bringing the total to 397 cities with LRT.

We can expect this trend to continue. At the end of 2017, China’s central government announced a policy to relax the minimum population requirements for local governments to pursue metro projects from 3 million residents to 1.5 million. As a result, smaller cities can build metro systems, with China expected to have around 6400 km of rapid transit infrastructure by 2020.

In India, the City of Pune is Making Space for Transit and People

Pune is a flourishing green city of 6.5 million people in the western state of Maharashtra, a few hours from Mumbai. Since 2007, the city has set ambitious goals for a sustainable future, and 10 years out, there are big on-the-ground changes. In 2016, Pune was selected as one of 20 “Lighthouse Cities” under the nationwide urban renewal program, the Smart Cities Mission, setting an example for other Indian cities to follow.

In 2015, the city launched the Rainbow bus rapid transit (BRT) system promised in 2007. Today, the corridor runs 39 kilometers, serving 120,000 people per day. It has high-quality and best-practice design features, and has brought more than 12 percent of its ridership from other modes, primarily private cars. “Mass rapid transit is the most efficient way to transport large numbers of people around a city and is therefore essential for development,” says Commissioner Kunal Kumar of the Pune Municipal Corporation. “To improve accessibility and service, the city’s budget for 2016–17 and 2017–18 provides for extension by an additional 21km and retrofitting of existing BRT.” With massive investments proposed to expand the system through these city budgets, the Rainbow BRT network is expected to almost double in size and service an additional 48 kilometers by 2018.

Pune has also devoted significant resources to making its streets people-friendly. In 2009, under the JNNURM Mission city-modernization scheme, Pune began improving connectivity by creating a better network of roads equipped with infrastructure for non-motorized transport (NMT), such as footpaths and cycle tracks. The improved usage of these streets by pedestrians and cyclists sparked interest among decision-makers and officials to undertake similar street projects that would cater to the needs of all road users by developing a Complete Streets network.

“Streets are important public spaces that should be designed to respond to the various functions that they host, beyond being mere conduits for vehicles,” Kumar said. “The Pune Municipal Corporation is committed to an agenda of sustainable development of the city, and good street designs are of critical importance in this effort. We thus decided to embark on the Pune Streets program to make Pune a model city for complete streets and one of the pioneering few Indian cities in this field,” he explained.

Under this program, a street network of 100 kilometers has been identified for redesign. Thinking ahead to ensure integration and quality, the city, with ITDP India’s assistance, empaneled four nationally acclaimed design firms and allocated each 25 kilometers from the network. ITDP developed the scope of work for the designers and is part of the committee to periodically review the designs.

The first phase of construction has begun with Jangli Maharaj Road, a busy 1.5 km-long street being redesigned by Oasis Designs, Inc. A 300-meter stretch along this street now sports a cycle track and a much wider footpath, made possible by streamlining the old haphazard parking. Green spaces serve as buffers to segregate the two modes of walking and cycling. “The design now celebrates  the newly created public realm, giving people clear and buffered walking and cycling, and also incorporates outdoor seating areas for people to have a quick lunch, play areas for kids, and many seats for people to sit and enjoy the urban life of Pune,” explained Sujata Hingorani, principal landscape architect and partner, Oasis Designs, Inc. Better signage and street lighting are other features that collectively make JM Road a stellar example of street design in the country.

“I could have never imagined taking a walk on this road earlier,” said a local resident using the path. “Nowadays, I spend most of my evenings after work here, enjoying this active street. The chaos is no more; I can now walk and shop to my heart’s fill!”

These dedicated efforts toward improving the quality of urban life for its citizens resulted in several accolades for Pune, including its selection as a Smart City. Among other initiatives, 27 kilometers of streets have been identified for redesign as Complete Streets in the Area-Based Development (ABD) area as part of the Smart City proposal, along with 18 kilometers of street retrofitting. In keeping with the city’s model of high-quality design, the 27km network encompassing three neighborhoods has been allotted to the designers.

A wide and active footpath marks the edge of DP Road in Aundh, made possible by merging the frontage of the shops with the sidewalk.

One of the key objectives of the Smart Cities mission is to engage the community in the urban renewal process at all stages. One such important event in Pune was the seven-day trial run of the proposed pedestrian plaza in Aundh, a neighborhood bustling with activity and people reclaiming streets. Showing residents on the ground what their neighborhood could be helped convince the shopkeepers to agree to merge shop frontage with footpaths. The first segment of the bustling D.P. Road in Aundh has already been remodeled under this proposal. The footpath was widened by merging the with 7,900 stations and 7,000 cycles. Furthermore, the regional streets on the periphery of the city are being redesigned into cycle-safe streets with funds from the state government.

Backing these design changes in the city are institutional reforms that help enhance the capacity of the government. A dedicated Street Design team of urban designers and planners will oversee general maintenance and design of streets in addition to designing neighborhood streets. The pedestrian policy adopted by the city, which now guides the development of high quality pedestrian infrastructure, envisions Pune as a haven for those on foot. Most importantly, the Pune Municipal Corporation, with technical assistance from ITDP, has developed a unique set of Urban Street Design Guidelines that prioritize walking and cycling, leaving no doubt of Pune’s direction of development. While the city is rolling out these changes, the state of Maharashtra has encouraged all its cities to prioritize public transit and nonmotorized transit. According to this policy, walking, cycling, and public transport will account for at least 80 percent of all trips by 2027.

Pune is inspiring many cities in India to take measures for sustainability and equity. Nashik has hired urban design firms for its proposed Complete Streets network of 50 kilometers; Chennai is keen on expanding its complete streets into a network and setting up a BRT system, learning from Pune’s journey so far. The future of this journey looks bright and green for all of India, having already transformed people’s lives for the better in Pune, with a promise of more across the whole country.

This blog post is modified from an article in the 29th issue of the Sustainable Transport magazine.  You can find the article and others here.

Nominate Your City for the 2019 Sustainable Transport Award

ITDP, together with an international committee of development and transport experts, invites you to nominate your city for the Annual Sustainable Transport Award.  

Nominations are now open and will be accepted online at staward.org until April 13, 2018.

Since 2005, the Sustainable Transport Award has recognized profound leadership and vision in sustainable transportation and urban livability. These strategies should improve mobility for all residents, reduce transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions, and enhance safety and access for bicyclists and pedestrians. Nominations are accepted from any interested parties, including government, civil society organizations, and academic institutions. Nominations must include verifiable project data and contact information for the city.

Cities of all sizes from all over the world have been recognized by the committee for best practices in sustainable transport. Past winners include:

2017 STA winner, Santiago, Chile

  • Santiago, Chile
  • Yichang, China
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Mexico City, México
  • Medellín, Colombia
  • San Francisco, United States
  • Ahmedabad, India
  • Seoul, South Korea
  • Bogotá, Colombia

A complete list of winning cities with details on their win is available at staward.org.

The 2018 winner, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is the first African City to win the STA, for launching a series of transformative improvements that bring a high quality rapid transit system to its streets combined with walking and cycling infrastructure improvements. The changes are anchored around the Dar es Salaam Bus Rapid Transit system, or DART, a high quality-high capacity system incorporating best practice design and features, the first true BRT system in East Africa. DART has reduced commute times by more than half for residents, who previously faced upwards of four hours stuck in traffic every day. In addition, the city has built cycle lanes and improved intersections and sidewalks along the corridor.

Dar es Salaam BRT system

In June 2018, Dar es Salaam will host the MOBILIZE Summit, held each year in the winning city. MOBILIZE brings together 200 international urban transport and development planners, practitioners, and officials, world-class researchers, and NGO representatives to share strategies, challenges, research and study the example of Dar es Salaam as an international best practice in sustainable transport. The winner of the 2019 STA is where the summit goes next year.

“The Sustainable Transport Award is about celebrating bold vision and momentous changes that improve quality of life for people in cities. In the nearly 15 year history of the award, the nominees have often included cities doing great work under the radar,” says Michael Kodransky, chair of the STA Committee, “There are so many inspiring changes happening on the ground in cities that aren’t known as having the usual transport best practices. The STA and MOBILIZE are great vehicles for recognizing political courage and showcasing the latest achievements. It’s also a great opportunity for those of us working in sustainable transport to learn from innovative approaches, which are shared with a global cohort of the leading influencers at MOBILIZE”.

The 2019 winner will be announced at MOBILIZE Dar es Salaam on June 28, 2018. The winner and honorable mentions will be recognized at a ceremony and reception in Washington, DC during the Transport Research Board conference the following January.

[WEBINAR] Women on the Move: Women & Transport in Indian Cities

Tuesday, March 20, 2018
8:30-9:30am EST
6-7pm IST

 

Background
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, India Programme and Safetipin released a a first of its kind policy brief on Women and Transport in Indian Cities in 2017. The policy brief fills a key gap in urban transport literature in India by recommending gender responsive transport indicators, supported by benchmarks to set goals and monitor outcomes and outputs at the city level. Additionally, it provides case studies for implementation guidance. The brief will be relevant for policy and decision makers at the national, state and city levels, advocacy organizations and professionals.

About the Webinar
Women on the Move: Women and Transport in Indian Cities  will introduce the policy brief, discuss the gendered dimensions of urban transport and employment in the transport sector in Indian cities. Emphasis will be on proposed urban transport indicators and service level benchmarks (SLBs) for comprehensive mobility plans, recommendations to improve women’s modal shares and experiences of walking, cycling, public and intermediate public transport, and engendering public transport authorities. In addition to SLBs and recommendations, the role of ministries and departments in mainstreaming gender will be discussed. There will be a Q and A session at the end of the presentation.

 

RSVP for the webinar

 

About the Presenters

Sonal Shah | Senior Manager, ITDP India Program

Sonal leads urban planning strategy, research, projects and policy at ITDP India. She has 13+ years’ experience across multiple scales from city development to neighbourhood plans, transit oriented development and station accessibility planning to street design, historic precinct conservation, urban redevelopment, housing policy research, and gender.

 

Dr. Kalpana Viswanath | Co-Founder, SafetiPin

Kalpana is the co-founder and CEO of Safetipin, which is a social enterprise using data and technology to support cities in their endeavour to become safer, more inclusive and smarter. Since its inception in 2013, Safetipin has worked with more than 30 cities in India and other developing countries. Safetipin collects public space data through multiple sources including the MySafetipin app, and works with governments, to use this data for better planning and maintenance of cities.

TOD and Affordable Housing

 

A new revitalized TOD-area near the Cleveland BRT


by R. Balachandran, Alchemy Urban Systems

Click to enlarge

The cost of housing is well beyond the money paid for rent or mortgage.  There is also the cost of access. This refers to bundle of services including water supply, sanitation, health, education and most importantly, transportation. Therefore, housing can be made truly affordable only if the whole package (housing plus services) is made affordable. In large cities where walking and cycling are not sufficient to ensure access to needed opportunities and services, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) offers a great opportunity to do this.  In this blog, I attempt to outline the opportunity and the challenges to making it happen. I write specifically in the context of transit catchments in developing/ low-income countries where the urban poor end up living in substandard housing in risk-prone areas of the city. This discussion is relevant mainly to Metrics 5.B.1- Affordable Housing, and 5.B.2-Housing Preservation of the TOD Standards, but may also be connected to others, for example Metric 4.A.1-Walking Distance to Transit.

 

The Opportunity

An affordable transit system increases accessibility and mobility all along its route, providing substantial benefits to communities in its catchment.  When cities with substantial populations of urban poor take up station area planning, or TOD area planning, they should ensure easy access to transit for low income families.  

To begin with, when transit alignments are planned, stations could be located within walking distance to existing high density low-income settlements (with measures to ensure that redevelopment pressures don’t displace the residents). Secondly, connections could be made to settlements further away using feeder buses, para-transit and infrastructure for walking and cycling.  These two interventions however only provide access to existing settlements with/ without improving their housing conditions.

The most important and forward-looking intervention possible is to enable the development of new affordable housing of acceptable standards within the station areas for low-income families to move into. In cities that have public housing and public transit programs, affordable housing projects should be located in TOD/ station areas. One example, is the Sikandar Bakht Nagar Housing Project for Economically Weaker Sections at Behrampura, Ahmedabad, India (see images), built to rehouse informal dwellers from a flood-prone area on the banks of the Sabarmati River, within short walking distance from both the river and a Bus Rapid Transit station. And while Sikandar Bakht Nagar has been criticized for a number of design, construction and maintenance problems that should be addressed, its residents do benefit from rapid and convenient connections to countless opportunities and resources throughout the city.

Location of the Sikandar Bakht Nagar within a 350 meter walking distance to a BRT station
View inside the housing complex

 

Ensuring Access to Services

A significant element of subsidy is inevitable in the process of producing affordable housing and keeping them affordable.  Fortunately, in a TOD context, there is an opportunity to capture a portion of the unearned value gained by private properties in the catchment of transit (the concept is usually referred to as “value capture”) and use it to achieve comprehensive redevelopment including affordable housing and infrastructure upgrading.  The revenues from value capture should be escrowed towards affordable housing, infrastructure upgrading and other public investments within the TOD areas.

But, while the “value capture” opportunity is seductive, it is often exploited in a simplistic manner where additional development rights are offered at a price in the catchment areas of the transit system without any planning, ostensibly to densify the area according to the principles of TOD.  However, densification without carefully planning the provision of utilities and services can result in infrastructure inadequacies.  Already deprived low-income communities suffer exacerbated shortages for water and sanitation as well as access to health, education and other community services.  They end up paying more for these services, undermining the affordability of housing as a complete package.

Therefore, TOD policy should ensure that promotion of affordable housing in TOD areas happens through planned development or redevelopment with adequate infrastructure provision. Users of the TOD Standard are advised to use their discretion to only allocate density points where infrastructure is sufficient.

BRT in Medellin, Colombia transformed access in a low income neighborhood
Public plaza near a low-income housing development in Sao Paulo, Brazil

 

Maintaining Affordability

Access to transit is a powerful driver for real estate values and could cause gentrification of affordable housing in a TOD/ station area.  Therefore, it is important to take specific measures to keep the housing affordable to the target group over time.  How to do this requires context specific policies.

Many developing countries with poor data infrastructure and enforcement systems have tried in vain to use covenants restricting the resale/ renting of affordable housing units allocated to “beneficiaries” identified through a due process.  Market forces have historically found ways of subverting such restrictions.  Another method is to prevent amalgamation of more than one small house into a bigger one.  Regular checking of the units is required for this and is best achieved by involving the community members.  Creating a “Community Land Trust” (CLT) is yet another method that is gaining favor. The CLTs could regulate or manage all transactions on these houses including sale, rental, lease etc. to ensure that the house is always occupied by the targeted income-group at a price truly affordable to them. CLTs, or variations of this model, could potentially involve the community members in the active management of the affordable housing developments.

To conclude, TOD offers a great opportunity to promote a truly affordable housing and services package for the urban poor in the cities of developing countries. However, beyond the scope of TOD Standard indicators, achieving this in the long term involves addressing the challenges of ensuring adequate services and maintaining affordability of the housing developments.

Download The TOD Standard here and visit todstandard.org for more information.  You can also read more insights from other authors of The TOD Standard here and here.

Dar es Salaam Leads a Breakthrough for African Cities (Issue 29, 2018)

 

#WomenOnTheMove: Women and Transport in Indian Cities

Photo Credit: Santhosh Loganaathan, ITDP India

“Ultimately, transportation is the fulcrum that allows women to participate in the workforce; a societal shift to transform the entire world economy.”

– Sonal Shah, Senior Manager, ITDP India Programme 

Centred around this idea, ITDP and Safetipin have released a policy brief on Women and Transport in Indian Cities. The draft was released on 13 June 2017 at a roundtable discussion on Gender and Transit, organized by ITDP, Safetipin, and UN Women with participation from 30 women’s groups, international organizations, professionals and academic institutions.

A roundtable discussion on Gender and Transit was organized by ITDP, Safetipin and UN Women with participation from 30 women’s groups, international organizations, professionals and academic institutions.

The coming decade will be a defining moment for India as its urban areas are estimated to constitute around 40% or 600 million of its total population by 2030. According to the High Powered Executive Committee (HPEC), around INR 23 lakh crores is required over 2015–2030 for India’s urban transport infrastructure. The national government has initiated missions and schemes to invest in urban transport and infrastructure; and created indicators and service level benchmarks to establish a city’s baseline and goal for improvement. The recently announced Green Urban Mobility Scheme (GUMS) expects to invest around INR 70,000 crores over 2018–2023 on sustainable transport.

“The defining characteristic of violence against women is its normalization and ordinary and continuous nature.”

– Kalpana Viswanath, Co-founder & CEO, Safetipin

While there is momentum by different levels of government in addressing women’s safety in public transport, urban transport investments are largely gender blind with a limited understanding of the interrelationships between gender and transport. Sustainable urban development will remain elusive without integrating women and girls in urban transport.

Photo Credit: Steve Evans

Ultimately transportation will help women access economic and social opportunities. In the next few years, cities will need to make a concerted effort to improve women and girls’ experience of sustainable modes of transport to achieve a target of 40% of all trips. The policy brief fills this gap by providing a framework to integrate technical, social, quantitative, and qualitative approaches for enabling this transition.

The brief underscores the need for policy focusing on women and transport in Indian cities. It covers gendered dimensions of urban transport, with a focus on trip chaining and purpose, modal shares, trip distances, time poverty, sexual harassment, and employment in the transport sector.  The brief also proposes urban transport indicators and service level benchmarks for comprehensive mobility plans. Recommendations to improve women’s modal shares and experiences of walking, cycling, public and intermediate public transport, and engendering public transport authorities are included.  Since urban transport is not the responsibility of one ministry or department, gender inclusion will require interventions at multiple scales and coordination with a number of ministries and departments.

Women’s access and use of urban transportation will play a key role in achieving India’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and ensure women’s right to the city and its public spaces.

“When we create cities – their public spaces and transport systems – that are responsive to the needs of women, children, and the elderly, they become great cities for all!” 

  – Shreya Gadepalli, ITDP India Program Leader

Download the policy brief here.

This article was originally published by ITDP India.  View here.

The TOD Standard v. 3.0: Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities for Generations to Come

Recent pedestrian improvements in Chennai, India, enable accessibility to people of all ages and physical conditions.
Photo Credit: Santhosh Loganaathan

by Luc Nadal & Iwona Alfred

Population growth and urbanization worldwide is on course to bring two billion additional residents to cities within the next three decades.  Creating the buildings, neighborhoods and cities that will house them is a task of a magnitude unprecedented in human history.  However, these numbers, as daunting as they are, are only the beginning of the challenge.

The urban world of endless roads, and fragmented, car-dependent urban sprawl that has spread over the planet in the last century has already shown very clear limits to its sustainability: social segregation and isolation exacerbated by driveable distances, urban land severed and blighted by auto-oriented infrastructure, the health of many degraded by toxic air and sedentary lifestyles, injustice in the distribution of harmful externalities, not to mention its prominent role in the degradation of natural systems, the compromising of climates and the undermining of the safety and livelihoods of multitudes.   

Inclusive transit-oriented development (TOD) is a framework for urban development that is the foundation for a different future — one where people, activities, buildings, and public space are designed to work together; where neighborhoods, people, and opportunities are connected by walking, cycling, and efficient transit at no or low financial and environmental cost, and with the highest resilience possible to disruptive events. 

Community workshop in Pune, India for the in-situ slum rehabilitation effort under the Basic Services for Urban Poor project.
Photo Credit: Prasanna Desai Architects
Pedestrian realm must be accessible to “pedestrians” using all forms of walk aids like here in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Photo Credit: Héctor Ríos

Building TOD cities, around the world, and to scale, is an urgent matter.  It is not a simple proposition, however. It involves profound, complex shifts on the part of multiple, interdependent actors and elements that must be aligned and brought together. The way infrastructure, streets, and buildings are planned, coordinated and designed must change. Building and land use codes, regulations, and laws must be reformed. Financing channels and incentives must be rethought and regulated. Countless participants, with often diverging world views and interests, must cooperate. The shift to TOD must begin with the building of a common understanding of the essential characteristics that must be achieved for cities and neighborhoods to perform as desired.

Downtown Rio de Janeiro embodies all eight TOD principles.
Photo Credit: Gabriel Oliveira

The TOD Standard offers a simple framework of core principles, basic standards of performance, and concrete metrics for rapid assessment of projects, plans, statements of purpose, policies, and regulations. The Standard is performance-based and does not promote particular building types or designs except for features that have a direct link to facilitating inclusivity, walking, cycling, and transit access, such as active frontage designed to animate the public realm.  The Standard is freely available to all, and can be shared and used by all parties, from decision and policy makers, to technical staff and professionals, to private sector developers and investors, to civic and grassroots organizations, and to the diverse people that will be part of, or affected by, urban change. It can serve as a basis on which to discuss the details of effecting and shaping change.

Since its first launch in 2013, The TOD Standard has begun changing the world of cities in direct and noticeable ways. In India, for example, the State of Jharkhand embed the Standard’s framework in its new and far-reaching JTODP 2016-2026 urban policy that sets clear goals, roles and responsibilities for government institutions at all levels. This will ensure that Jharkhand’s cities use sustainable and equitable, walkable, cycle friendly and transit accessible development methods as they double their capacity in preparation for the influx of circa 35 million people projected within just 15 years.

In Mexico City, a campaign to promote TOD Standard’s principles and objectives has helped catalyze the will of local civil society, real estate business circles, and government to cooperate in shifting away from the old, failed vision of car-centric urban development. In a recent groundbreaking move, the City abolished the mandatory car parking that builders had to provide. Parking requirement effectively cross-subsidized driving at the expenses of the other activities and mobility modes that equal investment would make possible.  Mexico City is also busy redesigning its many streets and intersections, reclaiming road space from cars to provide safer and more inviting space for walking, cycling, and the running of efficient transit.

From India to Mexico, and through many others places, the TOD Standard is used as a guide and an instrument for action, for policy, and for measuring and monitoring development.  Most importantly, it often serves as a reference and a basis in the process of clarifying and prioritizing objectives, and of constructing a common vision for change amongst the participants.  It thus helps gather the resolve, the forces, and the unity of purpose needed to build the healthy, inclusive, people-centered, functional, and desirable living environments that their cities, and humanity at large, most urgently need.

 

Vibrant Pune: City’s Streets Transform into Vital Public Spaces


By Nashwa Naushad , Communications Program Associate, ITDP India

“On our firm course towards sustainable transportation, we are also transforming Pune into a great city for the people, with numerous initiatives to encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport”, said Mr. Kunal Kumar, IAS, the commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation. Indian cities are gradually taking greater efforts to improve the quality of life for its citizens, especially in terms of transportation. Pune has come to be a pioneer in this regard.

Among the host of people-oriented initiatives being undertaken by the city, Pune has been working to improve its pedestrian and cycling environment by redesigning its arterial roads as Complete Streets. 27km of streets have been identified for redesign, in the ABD (Area-Based Development) area as part of the Smart City proposal, and 100km under the city’s annual budget. The first phase of these street design projects has already transformed Aundh’s DP Road and JM Road into more vibrant public spaces.

The Jangli Maharaj or JM Road bustles with people and activity – a vibrant street indeed

Complete Streets are those that cater to all user groups – designed with wide and continuous footpaths, safe pedestrian crossings, separate cycle tracks where applicable, conveniently placed bus stops, clearly designated on-street parking, organised street vending and properly-scaled carriageways. With the Smart Cities Mission encouraging the improvement of non-motorised and public transport infrastructure, cities across India are now developing networks of complete streets. Pune has gone over and beyond the Smart City proposal, by setting over twice that target with the Corporation’s own budget.

As the first step towards redesigning the 100km network, Pune Municipal Corporation has empanelled 4 nationally acclaimed architecture and urban design firms – IBI Group Inc., HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd., Oasis Designs Inc. and Design & Planning Counsel. The network has been equally divided and allocated to the designers. Each firm thus gets a ‘package’ of streets, ensuring uniformity in design language and better integration on ground.

Following PMC’s footsteps, Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd. is also allotting the 27km network in the ABD Area as 3 neighbourhoods to the empanelled designers. 9km of streets in 1 neighbourhood, including DP Road in Aundh, has been contracted to the IBI Group in partnership with Prasanna Desai Architects.

DP Road in Aundh has been redesigned with dedicated spaces for different users

The first phase of reconstruction under the Smart City Mission has commenced on DP Road. The 1.5km stretch is being remodelled by the designers, kickstarting 520m on the ground. The 3.5m wide footpath on either side of the street has been streamlined to dedicate spaces for different users.

The numerous existing trees that line the stretch have been fundamentally incorporated in the design, with care taken to demarcate soft areas around them to allow for growth, and the perimeter forming seating. In addition, benches have also been provided along the footpath, complementing the shops and making the stretch more vibrant. Art installations, including the attractive casing that has been used to cover up the junction boxes, spruce up the space. Other features such as life-sized snake & ladder boards on the footpath further augment the character of DP Road.

Design features on DP Road: (clockwise from left) Art installations with recycled material; attractive casing covering up the junction boxes; play area for children

Similarly, JM Road, being revamped by Oasis Designs Inc., has also been kicked off on a 300m stretch as part of the first phase. Streamlining the haphazard parking has helped reclaim space for the people, enabling a wider footpath and cycle track. Green spaces serve as buffers to segregate the two speeds of walking and cycling. Bus stops have been located so as to allow for smooth flow of pedestrians and cyclists.

Vendors now have dedicated spaces, as do children – play areas with rubberised soft flooring have been designed at regular intervals between the green buffers. Frontage of the shops spillover to the wide footpath, adding life to the street. Better signage, street lighting and seating are other features that collectively make JM Road a stellar example of street design in the country.

Green spaces serve as buffers to segregate the two speeds of walking and cycling. Bus stops have been located so as to allow for smooth flow of pedestrians and cyclists.

Backing these design changes in the city, are institutional reforms that help enhance the capacity of the government. A dedicated Street Design Cell has been set up with professionals such as urban designers and urban planners to oversee general maintenance of streets and work done by design consultants & contractors, in addition to designing neighborhood streets. The Corporation has also developed a unique set of Urban Street Design Guidelines (USDG) which give clear priority to walking and cycling.

Streets are vital public spaces which go beyond serving as mere channels for the movement of vehicles, but are crucial to the very identity of a city. Acknowledging this fact, Pune is remodelling its streets to respond to the multitude of activities and functions they host. The city thus continues firmly on its course towards becoming more people-friendly by the day.