Far from global standards, here’s what went wrong with Delhi BRT

9th April 2019 By admin

Ferrying over 35 million passengers daily in cities across the world, the bus-rapid transit (BRT) system has proven to be the balm for urban commute woes. Yet, its mention in the Indian transport circles evokes a lingering hangover of the system’s massive failure in Delhi.

Why Delhi chose to go the BRT way

By 2004, the Delhi population was caught in the upswing of urban migration and public transport woes — with the “Killer Blueline” buses on a rampage. It was also when experts had assembled to conceive the Delhi BRT system. A high-quality bus-based transit system, it aimed to deliver fast, comfortable, and affordable services at metro-level capacities.

Worldover successful BRT systems were set up with segregated lanes, stations typically aligned to the center of the road, off-board fare collection, and fast and frequent operations. The Delhi BRT network, however, met some but overlooked most of these benchmarks. This disregard and ensuing public outcry led to its failure and demise.

Here’s a look at what went wrong and why the discourse surrounding the Delhi BRT needs a tone check.

Losing face: media and public outcry

One of the point of contention against the Delhi BRT, among Delhi commuters, was the soaring travel time. But it was found that commute hours for BRT users saw a significant drop of 40%. The project affected motorists and it is these voices that rang louder in echo chambers created by media outlets.

This was followed by court cases which sought entry of cars to the bus-only lanes, contesting the value of “wealth creators” with that of bus users. In 2012, the Delhi High Court quashed the plea, quoting Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, “A developed country is not one where the poor own cars. It is one where the rich use public transport.”

The verdict wasn’t enough to calm the clamour for scrapping the initiative. The case offered insight to how misinformed media reports were able to pushback on a “basic” BRT setup, while throttling bus transit.

From BRT bus-only lane to free-for-all lane

To begin with, there were never dedicated BRT buses for the BRT bus lanes. So low-floor buses were brought in haphazardly to fill in this void. After resolving the initial confusion regarding the operation of the lanes, they were thrown open to buses of all sizes, utility, and forms. This led to congestion and bus bunching, as many of these poorly maintained buses would either breakdown or stall the low-floor “BRT buses”.

Even so, the Delhi BRT managed to carry 12,000 passengers per hour per direction, albeit at a grinding speed of 13 km/hr. An indication that the transit system was doing its job but lane congestion was clearly hindering its performance.

Commuters struggled without level boarding

One of the key USP of BRT transit is accessibility to all commuters — especially children, caregivers, the elderly, and the disabled. And the Delhi BRT missed the mark as it overlooked level boarding. Therefore, the network witnessed commuters struggling to board or alight buses.

Simply put, level boarding requires the bus station platforms and the floors of the bus fleet designed to match their height. This allows seamless movement and accessibility to commuters. In Delhi’s case the lack of dedicated BRT buses exacerbated the problem.

Anything but free-flowing

What does a city get when it builds an entire transport network on the premise of free-flowing transit, but ignores the free-flowing bit. The Delhi BRT it is! The system which was dedicated to prioritise and facilitate bus movement did anything but that.

With six-phase intersections, traffic management along the 6 km stretch was never worked out to improve bus movement. And this failure was evident as junctions lay witnessed to buses piling up by the dozen and commuters caught in the chaos of boarding or deboarding on the carriageways itself.

Stepchild treatment: Delhi Metro over BRT

Among Delhi BRT critics an analysis would sound incomplete without drawing comparison with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). A world-renowned and efficient transit system, the Delhi Metro has been catering to the needs of many a daily passengers. How many you ask? Around 23 lakh in 2019. Now, compare that to Delhi’s 40 lakh bus ridership — which has been wavering off-late given its state of neglect — and investing in a bus-based transit system seems a plausible move.

The Delhi Metro is doing a good job because of the autonomy and funding it receives. Whereas in Delhi BRT’s case, there wasn’t even a unified body to overlook the gamut of functions. This led to various obstacles, the most evident being lane enforcement. The BRT lanes were pretty much a free-for-all, with private vehicles and buses of all kinds fighting out in the meleè.

Now, let’s look at the disparity in cost. The 6 km Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand (Delhi) BRT stretch, which included the BRT and walking and cycling infrastructure, cost about Rs 200 crore to build and a further Rs 150 crore to dismantle the bus lane. While the metro rail costs the exchequer Rs 550 crore per km for underground and Rs 250 crore per km for the elevated line.

Limited scope for a limited corridor

Planned as a four-corridor project, the Delhi BRT was caught in a limbo pretty early on. The initial 18 km stretch, from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate, was launched on a trial run of 5.8 km on April 2008. And that’s all that was left of it when the system was dismantled.

The limitation of the Delhi BRT’s potential can be directly attributed to the limitation in expanding the corridors and the network. Though bus speeds improved within the pilot stretch, they would sink as soon as buses would get out of the network into mixed traffic.

Lack of public acceptance due to lack of outreach

One of the key observations from the Delhi BRT debacle is that the public doesn’t take to rapid transit networks like ducks to water. The Delhi BRT severely lacked in public outreach and the system utilisation was affected due to this dearth.

The BRT in Delhi was introduced to challenge conventional bus commute, which barely offered comfort and convenience. Yet, little to no information about this transformation and usage of the system was disseminated among the general public, most importantly bus users. So naturally what ensued was chaos on the BRT stations and lanes.

With Delhi planning to revisit the BRT project, though elevated, these above points along with global benchmarks needs to be part of the conversation. The city has a chance to rewrite its transport history and revitalise a transit system which is time-tested and continues to serve a majority of its people.

In the second blog, of this three-part BRT series, we talk about the basics of getting BRT right and how Hubbali-Dharwad could be close to the gold standard.

Written by : Rohit James

Edited by : Kashmira Medhora Dubash

Banner Image source : DNA INDIA

ITDP India – Our Journey from a Dream to Reality

11th May 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

It was back in 1998 that ITDP began its engagements in India, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” What started as one woman’s journey to change the dystopian path our cities were drifting towards has transformed into a formidable force of young, passionate visionaries who strive to bring back life in a place we call home. Today, ITDP celebrates two decades of action on the ground, catalysing tangible transformation at scale in over a third of urban India.

Transportation is the focus of many pressing issues facing the world today—decisions about whether to build highways or bus corridors have a great impact on our health and our planet. For this reason, ITDP has worked with over 18 Indian cities to reduce the human impact of transport choices: ensuring cities put people before cars, all citizens can walk and cycle safety, and jobs and services are a bus ride away. Through the dedicated efforts of our team and a strategic approach towards sustainable transport, ITDP India programme has impacted the lives of millions for the past 20 years.

The journey in India began in Agra. The vision to develop a modern cycle rickshaw to counter the growing threats of motor vehicular pollution, gave way to the India Cycle Rickshaw Improvement Project. What started off as five prototypes has become sustainably embedded as the standard design in cities across North India. Today, around half a million of these modern cycle rickshaws serve 4-5 million zero-carbon trips daily and offer dignified livelihood to over a million people, transforming the lives of their families as well.

ITDP realised the need to transform the quality and availability of public transport in Indian cities. Since 2003, the India Programme evangelised the idea of the Bus Rapid Transit (popularly known as BRT) to transform mediocre bus services into high-quality mass transit.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, welcomed ITDP to reimagine bus transit in 2005. Our partnership with Environment Planning Collaborative, and thereafter with CEPT University and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation resulted in the launch of Janmarg (in 2009)—India’s first high quality BRT system that expands to a network of 87 km. Janmarg has inspired many cities in India, and with guidance from ITDP, five cities have created 200 km of high-quality BRT to date.

In 2009, the India Programme revolutionised the way people perceived streets in India. Safe, child-friendly streets are not just a mirage of the past, but can be a beautiful reality even today. Ahmedabad was the first city in India to host Car-Free Sundays in collaboration with ITDP, Riverside School and other partners. The initiative allowed citizens to experience the freedom of walking and cycling on safer car-free streets. The success enabled expansion to Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to raise awareness and transform their streets into places we all dream of everyday.

ITDP India Programme initiated collaboration with Chennai City Connect in 2009 to improve cycling and walking conditions across the city. Change isn’t easy in cities where the car is a symbol for status. But within five years of ITDP’s engagement with the city, Chennai took the bold move of adopting the Non Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy—first in India.

The policy mandates that a minimum of 60 percent of of transport funding to create and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure in the city. Having retrofitted over 50 km of walkable streets over the years, Chennai has initiated the next phase of redesigning an additional 50 km of street network. Chennai’s policy has inspired many national and international cities—from Chandigarh to Nairobi—to adopt similar policies. The comprehensive approach undertaken by Chennai, was awarded the Sustainia Award in 2015.

Since 2013, the India Programme has worked with the smaller cities of Tamil Nadu – Coimbatore, Trichy, Tirupur, Salem, and Madurai. In Coimbatore, the Namma Kovai Namakke (Our Coimbatore Ourselves) campaign, initiated by ITDP, sparked citizen demand for better pedestrian facilities. Coimbatore was the first city in Tamil Nadu to host Car-Free Sundays, that inspired Chennai and Madurai to do the same. The city also adopted The Coimbatore Street Design and Management Policy that aims to increase walking, cycling and public transport use. In light of Coimbatore’s vision to improve people-mobility, the city has planned a 30 km-network of walking and cycling paths to connect the city’s major lakes, in line with the guiding Policy.

The India programme began its engagements in Maharashtra in 2009, first with the Municipal Corporations of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, and thereafter in Nashik and Aurangabad. Today, Pune is the epitome of a smart Indian city. Pune launched 40 kms of the Rainbow BRT in 2015, with an additional 45 km in the pipeline. The city adopted the Urban Street Design Guidelines and plans to redesign 100 km of streets based on the world-class standards set by the transformation of JM Road and DP Road pilot project.

While Pune has taken the first steps towards developing a people-centric city, the next challenge is to address the encroachment onto footpaths by parked vehicles. As a result, Pune adopted the Public Parking Policy to regulate parking, in 2018. The Policy aims to manage on-street parking through an efficient paid parking system but exempts bicycle parking from any charges. Pune realises that encouraging cycling reduces CO2, improves commuters’ health and increases retail visibility. As a result, the city plans to implement a dockless Public Bicycle Sharing system of 13,100 cycle, under the city’s Bicycle Plan. Yes, the city has worked wonders. Pune, Chennai, and Coimbatore – all cities ITDP assisted, were selected in the first round of the national government’s Smart City Mission.

In 2013, the India programme also expanded to Ranchi, the capital of the state of Jharkhand. Local conditions were unfavourable to support sustainable transport; thus, ITDP initiated collaboration with local civil society groups, educational institutions and trade associations that formed the Ranchi Mobility Partnership. Ranchi’s Mobility for All action plan prepared by ITDP, with input from the partners, provided a detailed roadmap of transport solutions for local conditions.

The action plan inspired the city to take responsibility of overseeing operations of 100 new buses, and an additional 300 buses in the due course—an applaudable move for a city that had fewer than 30 buses. The plan also identified a cycle network to improve access to public transport; as a result, the city is in the midst of constructing the state’s first Bicycle Sharing system comprising of 1200 cycles.

Onward and upward, Ranchi’s Parking Policy has inspired other cities in the state, like Jamshedpur, to manage on-street parking. The State too realised the chaos caused by unregulated parking and thereafter adopted the Jharkhand Parking Regulations—first in India. Jharkhand is also the first state to endorse the Transit Oriented Development Policy that was prepared in consultation with ITDP India.

On account of leveraging the sustainable transport agenda at the national level, the India expanded to the country’s capital, Delhi, in 2016. This gave rise to the policy brief on Women and Transport in collaboration with Safetipin and UN Women. Women represent the largest share of public transport users, yet they face many barriers that limit their mobility such as safety, comfort, convenience and affordability. Empowering women in transport enables them to participate in workforce, thereby creating a societal shift to transform the entire world economy.

The India Programme’s capacity development work, through training workshops and study tours, has been imperative to the success of its projects and policy. The India Programme has trained over 1000 government officials and other stakeholders. Over the years, our knowledge products have not only been used for best practise references, but also endorsed by the government – for example, the National Guidelines for Public Bicycle-sharing for the Ministry of Urban Development, and Street Design and BRT Guidelines for the Indian Roads Congress (IRC).

Since 1998, ITDPs’ agenda of improving the quality of life of citizens through equitable and sustainable transport has only magnified in momentum over time. Times have evolved, but our dream remains the same. Take a moment and imagine a 2050: will we design a future where we continue to get trapped in endless traffic while pollution destroys the city, and infrastructure fails to deliver? Or, will we live in ‘smart cities’ where people can zip around town, connected with walking and cycling boulevards and world-class rapid transit. The choice is yours; we chose the latter.

P.S. Dear Mahatma Gandhiji, we are being the change we wish to see in the world today. And, we have been doing it successfully for the past 20 years in India!

Creating Safer Cities: ITDP’s partnership with Janki Devi Memorial College

22nd March 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Written by Sonal Shah

“ITDP-JDMC partnership has been extremely rewarding in fortifying the initiative towards making Delhi safe for women. The audits at the bus terminals conducted under the guidance of the former have contributed immensely to the understanding of safety issues at the grass root level in cities.”- Ruby Bhardwaj, a member of faculty at Janki Devi Memorial College (JDMC)

Transport – be it streets, buses, metro-rail, rickshaws – is not only infrastructure that we use for daily movement, but also constitutes our image of the city and how accessible or inaccessible it is – depending on our social identity.

To explore the intersections of Gender and Transport, in October 2017, ITDP co-taught a course on ‘Safe and Inclusive Cities’ at the Janki Devi Memorial College (or JDMC). Under the ‘Urban Planning and Infrastructure’ module, ITDP highlighted the dimensions of gendered travel such as trip chaining, forced mobility, forced immobility, and mobility of care. Trip-chaining and the mobility of care look at women’s travel patterns, as they make multiple stops on their way to a destination for caretaking trips (such as accompanying a dependant to school, clinics, shopping for the household etc). Forced immobility is a consequence of violence and insecurity in transport, which constrains their movement. Introducing these concepts to enabled the young women of JDMC college to evaluate their daily paths through the lens of walkability, safety and comfort.

As a part of the course, the students walked as a group and mapped the street from JDMC to Karolbagh Metro Station, the residential streets in the vicinity and Gangaram Hospital Road. They highlighted how encroached, discontinuous and inadequate footpaths forced them to walk on the carriageway, how high boundary walls along deserted stretches became places where men urinated, how ‘dark spots’ due to poor street lighting and inactive stretches increased unsafe walking conditions, how drinking tea at a vendor was uncomfortable because they were “looked” at by male bystanders or how they altered their walking path to take a longer route or avoid an unsafe stretch.

ITDP staff presenting the intersections of Gender and Transport

ITDP staff discussing the mapping exercise and proposals on how streets could be made safer with JDMC students

JDMC students mapping the streets around their college.

This short exercise has been followed by a second workshop in March 2018, where the same students are now conducting walkability assessments and safety audits using the Safetipin application within 500m around bus terminals in Delhi. This will culminate in a report rating the quality of walking infrastructure and the built environment and suggest concrete recommendations for creating gender responsive streets. Sonali Vyas from Safetipin conducted a training session on how to use the application, followed by pilot test audits.

Our preliminary findings reveal that road safety, quality of walking infrastructure, street lighting, gender diversity are consistently emerging as issues in accessing the bus terminals across Delhi. While the comprehensive findings will be shared in April, this exercise reflects ITDP’s endeavour to engage students (in this case, young sociology female students) in not only understanding gendered transport theoretically, but becoming aware of how accessibility can be enabled or hindered and the critical role that infrastructure plays in it.

Right: ITDP staff explaining how to conduct a safety audit on the field.

We would like to acknowledge the students and faculty of Janki Devi Memorial College and Safetipin in this joint initiative.

A year of radical planning, 2017 passes by…

30th December 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

“I used to take my two-wheeler to travel the 3 kilometers between my house and the railway station. I’m now able to walk the stretch, thanks to the continuous footpath. Best part – I’ve lost 5 kilos and my diabetes!” Mr. Manimaran, a resident of Egmore in Chennai, is thrilled at the tremendous change that a safer and better footpath has brought about in his life.

The year 2017 witnessed many such impactful changes in the field of sustainable transportation all around the country, including cities which ITDP India Programme has been closely working with. Thanking all our supporters, we take a look at the year that passed by.

Pune broke ground on its ambitious Complete Streets networks – a 100km-network with its own financial resources and 45km through support from the National Smart Cities Mission. The first phase of these street design projects on JM Road and DP Road has already been lauded by the country, owing to the vibrancy of these redesigned streets. Pune’s Bicycle Plan, recently approved by the General Body, paves way for the creation of a 300km bicycle-track network in the city.

Having accomplished over 40km of Complete Streets, Chennai initiated the next phase of street design by inviting tenders in late October to redesign 22km of streets. The city tested out the design of 5 key intersections through a tactical urbanism approach – quick, temporary, on-ground interventions. Chennai also conducted another trial run of the proposed pedestrian plaza in Pondy Bazaar, the success of which fetched the project a sanction of of Rs 55 crores (~US $9 million) under the Smart Cities Mission.

Smaller cities have also made remarkable progress this year in their Complete Streets programmes – Nashik appointed nationally-acclaimed urban designers to redesign its proposed street network of 50 kilometers, with 10 kilometers tendered out; and Coimbatore commenced construction of its Model Roads and hosted an interactive exhibition to inform the people of the design of the roads while collecting feedback. Coimbatore also started developing detailed implementation plans for its Greenways and Lake Restoration Project, which includes a 30km network of greenways (exclusive walking and cycling infrastructure) that crisscross the city and connect 8 water bodies.

Becoming one of the pioneering cities in parking management in the country, Ranchi implemented a progressive on-street parking management system on its busiest thoroughfare, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, with a twelve-fold increase in revenue. Inspired by the success of the pilot, the city has proposed to refine and expand the system to cover all key locations. The state of Jharkhand has also proposed to adopt a state-level parking policy.

Chennai recently invited tenders to select an operator for its proposed on-street parking management system covering 12000 equivalent car spaces on Bus Route Roads across the city. Since Pune is also working towards parking management, ITDP, in collaboration with GIZ-SUTP, facilitated and managed a two-day workshop on the topic, with international parking expert, Dr Paul Barter in the city. Participants included municipal officials, traffic police, public officials from other agencies as well as various local stakeholders.

An increase in demand for better public transport has provided the fillip to cities across the country to increase and improve their transit services. Chennai made considerable advancement in its BRT planning, with the interim report for Phase I approved by the state and a series of public consultation programmes organised to explain the significance of BRT to people and get their feedback on the various corridors.

In Pune, around 130 crore rupees was sanctioned to construct 13 new bus terminals to facilitate better integration of bus services with the proposed Metro Rail network. The city also commenced work on expanding the existing 38km Rainbow BRT by an additional 15km. Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) initiated the process of adding 200 feeder buses to its fleet, to improve connectivity between the city and the surrounding towns.

Public bicycle sharing (PBS) is emerging as a popular mode of public transit across the country. Pune piloted a dockless PBS system with 275 bicycles and signed an MoU with 4 vendors dealing with dockless systems. Two other cities are preparing for the installation of a PBS system – Ranchi and Chennai invited operators to submit proposals for setting up 1264 bicycles in 122 stations (Phase 1) and 5000 bicycles in 378 designated parking areas, respectively.

Successful and sustained on-ground changes invariably require the backing of well-framed guidelines, policies and financial plans – 2017 was marked by many of these. Two sets of guidelines – the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) planning and design guidelines, and the Guidelines on Control and Regulation of Mixed Traffic in Urban Areas – prepared by ITDP, were approved by the apex committee of the Indian Roads Congress. These guidelines will apply for all cities across India and guide them towards low-carbon mobility.

The Government of Jharkhand adopted an inclusive TOD policy that focuses on equitable development of cities in the state, so that a majority of the population lives and works in areas with safe and accessible walking and cycling facilities integrated with reliable and high-quality public transport.

The Government of Maharashtra published a draft of the State Urban Transport Policy, which promotes low-carbon & equitable mobility and urban development by prioritising public transport (PT) and non-motorised transport (NMT). Furthermore, over half of Pune’s total transportation budget of 1100 crore rupees was allocated towards sustainable transport development for the financial year 2017-18. In the South, Coimbatore adopted a Street Design and Management Policy that focuses on creating equitable and sustainable mobility options and expanding their use.

The realisation that sustainable urban development will remain elusive without integrating women’s safety and comfort in urban transport, has generated momentum to include gender as a key factor in transport planning. Bringing this subject to the fore and as a first of its kind, a paper on Women and Transport in Indian Cities was created by ITDP and Safetipin, and released at a national workshop on gender and transit conducted by the two organisations. This paper identifies indicators, service level benchmarks and processes for integrating a gender perspective in urban transport projects, policies and programs along with good practice case studies.

2017 was a year of radical planning indeed, with many grand plans conceived, developed and initiated for sustainable transportation. With all these plans set to materialize in the coming months, 2018 will be a year of implementation and tangible transformation. Looking forward to a great year ahead: Happy New Year!

PT InFocus: Increasing public transport usage

24th July 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

ITDP brings you news about public transport from around the world in this new series PT InFocus. From BEST’s new public transit route to London’s night buses, this fortnight’s InFocus looks at the different attempts by cities around the world to increase its public transport mode share.

“The idea is to change the mindset of commuters and encourage him or her to travel by public transport buses.”
– BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde

BEST’s South Bombay ring route a hit, eats into share taxi business

BEST’s recent experiment to run buses along the busy Crawford Market-CST- Churchgate route on which share kaali-peeli taxis ply seems to have come out with flying colours. Two weeks after BEST introduced ring route number 113, it has found more than 2,000 takers and this, in turn, has led to 500 less taxi trips on south Mumbai roads. Bagde further stated that the Crawford Market-Churchgate-CST ring route will be taken as an ‘ideal route’ and replicated elsewhere.
Published on July 07 in TOI

Coming soon to India: Electric buses that can swap batteries at petrol pump-like facilities

The primary roadblock was the high cost of batteries for EVs, which could not be offset without subsidies, he explained. But interacting with the automotive and EV industry, Jhunjhunwala realised that there was an opportunity to build volumes if EVs could be separated from the single most expensive component: batteries. “We said we’ll start buying vehicles without battery,” he said. “For example, if I want to buy a bus or a three-wheeler, I’ll buy it without (the) battery but with enhanced (vehicle) efficiency.”
Published on July 19 in Quartz

Citymapper announces first licensed bus service for London

Licensed by Transport for London (TfL), the ‘CM2 – Night Rider’ route will operate night buses between Aldgate East and Highbury and Islington, passing through the popular East London nightlife haunts of Shoreditch and Dalston. The service will launch in late August or early September, between 9pm and 5am on Fridays and Saturdays. Citymapper chose the route based on experiments using their “SimCity” simulation software, which models transport networks in cities and is informed by data collected by the Citymapper app.
Published on July 20 in Wired

*Cover image from Wikemedia Creative Commons

InFocus: Building climate resilience through transport

15th January 2016 By admin Leave a Comment

ITDP brings you news from around the world about sustainable transport and urban development. The past year was interesting, specially in India. Chennai’s NMT transformation, to Delhi’s odd-even car-restriction scheme, to Burdwan’s car-free days, change was in the air!

The Conference of Parties summit – popularly called COP21- held in Paris last December, saw the nations committing to maintain an increase in the world’s temperature at less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, ‘If we don’t hang together, assuredly, we shall hang separately”.

Transport accounts for a staggering 23 percent of energy-related CO2 emissions. There is NO WAY we can redress the situation without changing the way we travel. A large-scale, planned movement towards non-motorised, and public, transportation seems the only practicable way out. Let us see what Indian cities have been trying out, lately :

[Read more…]

Delhi plans for smart growth around transit

18th August 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

Between 1991 and 2011, the population of Delhi and its adjoining suburbs more than doubled, from approximately 10 million to 22 million. Despite the presence of mass rapid transport networks in the city, the number of private motor vehicle trips nearly doubled between 2001 and 2008, not only increasing congestion, but also earning it the dubious distinction of being the “world’s most polluted city.”

Recognising the need for a major transformation in the way the city manages urban growth, planners embarked on an overhaul of the city’s planning regulations. City officials now recognise that the city needs to begin integrating land use and transport planning, and discouraging the use of private vehicles. Toward this end, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) approved a new transit-oriented development policy in early 2015.

Promoting intense development around transit stations

At the core of the policy is a provision to encourage higher densities within 500 m, or a 10 minute walk, of rapid transit stations. These areas are called ‘‘Influence Zones” in the Delhi Master Plan, 2021.The policy aims to reduce trip lengths by enabling a greater portion of the population to live in these influence zones. Higher floor-area ratios (FAR)—up to 400 per cent of the plot area—are now allowed for redevelopment projects larger than 1 ha. The policy also mandates mixed use in developments in Influence Zones, with a minimum of 30 per cent of floor space reserved for residential uses, 10 per cent for commercial uses and 10 per cent for community purposes. This mixed-use approach is expected to eliminate private vehicle use for daily errands, while creating a higher concentration of jobs and residences within easy reach of rapid transit.

Creating safer public spaces through urban design

TOD is not just about higher density. Good urban design can help Delhi transition from being a “rape-city” to a “safe-city” by creating a better public-private interface that makes for more eyes on the street. By eliminating setbacks along main building facades and mandating transparent fences where setbacks are allowed, the policy ensures that there is an active interface between activities inside the buildings and on the street.

Building inclusive streets for transit access

Besides addressing the design of the private realm, the policy also aims to improve the public realm through people-centric street design guidelines. Pedestrians would have wide footpaths and at least 5 crossing opportunities for each kilometre of street length. Twenty-one per cent of Delhi’s land area is already used for roads. With these street design guidelines, Delhi’s TOD policy looks at ways to better manage existing road network to balance the needs of all users.

Microsoft PowerPoint - Vision of TOD_22-03-12

(Left) View of an existing street in Delhi; (Right) Proposed street design improvements include better walking and cycling facilities and the creation of paid parking areas.

Restricting parking

While incentivising development around transit, the policy also establishes disincentives for the use of private motor vehicles. Due to the presence of unrestricted, cheap on- and off-street parking in Delhi has meant that car users have remained reluctant to switch to public transport. To address this, the policy restricts parking supply by allowing a maximum of 1.33 equivalent car spaces (ECS) for every 100 sq m of built space in TOD areas—far lower than parking permitted in other areas poorly served by public transport. Only a fraction of this parking is to be used for cars. Provision of cycle parking is mandatory in all developments. Additional parking can be built only in the form of paid, publicly accessible, shared parking.

Using pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed reforms

Many city planners were initially sceptical of a TOD approach in Delhi’s context. They raised questions on the availability of physical infrastructure—including water, electricity, sewage, and solid waste management—to support higher densities. To address these concerns, DDA worked with planners, urban designers, and infrastructure experts to test TOD concepts in a pilot project at Kadkadooma. Their analysis proved that high population density can be achieved along with ecological, social, and economic viability. It showed that developments can easily be designed for mixed income groups, with various compatible uses and with decentralised infrastructure for water, solid waste, and electricity. DDA has adopted a public-private participation (PPP) approach to speed up project implementation and support needed infrastructure investments.

Finer street grid proposed (right) in the pilot project at Kadkadooma helps improve connectivity to the station from surrounding neighbourhoods as compared to the earlier configuration (left).

By adopting a new planning approach to meet the demands of the nation’s capital, Delhi’s transit-oriented development policy can go a long way in furthering sustainable development in the country.

Social Innovations for the Future: Transport in Smart Cities

30th November 2014 By admin Leave a Comment

India is urbanising at an unprecedented rate. A third of the country’s population—an estimated 380 million people—now lives in its cities. As they cope with this growth, cities are realising that traditional solutions like wider roads and flyovers will not provide a lasting solution to their transport problems. Instead, smart cities the world over are turning toward mass rapid transit systems to provide high quality, efficient mobility. These efforts are the focus of the latest episode of NDTV’s special feature, “Social Innovations for the Future.” The programme explores ways that India’s best practice mass rapid transit solutions—Ahmedabad’s Janmarg BRT system and the Delhi metro—are helping to tackle congestion, reduce pollution, and improve safety.

“The best cities of the world typically have over 40 per cent of all trips by public transport” observes Shreya Gadepalli, Regional Director with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in the interview, calling for greater investment in public transport to ensure efficient, dependable, and accessible-to-all service. ITDP estimates that a smart city needs 30-35 km of rapid transit, 200-500 city buses and 80 km of walking and cycling infrastructure for every million urban residents. These infrastructure improvements should be paired with demand management practices, especially parking management, to control the use of personal motor vehicles. As India strives to create smart cities, budget allocations must give priority to walking, cycling, and public transport over personal motor vehicles.

This special feature also includes thoughts of Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister of Urban Development, Government of India; Mr. Jagan Shah, Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs; and Mr. O. P. Agarwal, Director General of the Institute of Urban Transport (India).

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