Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

Capacity Development Shapes Tamil Nadu Towns for Urban Tomorrow

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Tamil Nadu is urbanising and based on recent trends, the state is expected to be the most urbanised by 2030. With 11 Tamil Nadu cities being part of the Smart City Mission, it reflects the aspiration and potential that smaller townships hold to become urban centres. This is where capacity building and development exercises help bridge their aspirations with realistic and sustainable solutions.

At this point, many municipalities are growing faster than their projected trajectory, which has begun disrupting the established planning layout. To counter this spurt of growth, municipal officials on most occasions resort to quick fixes or knee-jerk solutions which in the future can further accelerate their woes.  

Taking notice of this worrying development, the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA), in partnership with the Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies (TNIUS) and the ITDP India Programme, commissioned the capacity building programme on urban planning. The program was structured to help prepare town planners and panchayat officials to create streets and public spaces which meet the standards of upcoming smart cities.

Shifting from streets for vehicles, to streets for all

In the midst of modernisation, a key component of civic planning that is often overlooked is equitable street design. To help towns and municipalities reimagine and structure streets, beyond just accommodating the rampant vehicle population, the India Programme was brought on board to share its expertise in creating complete streets which adhere to every road users need.

As part of the course, the India Programme designed and conducted capacity development sessions for over 240 town planners from about 100 municipalities that was spread across three months.

 

In absence of such interventions, town planners tend to sway to the tune of vehicle-centric planning; this at the expense of safe footpaths and cycling facilities. While carriageways only get broader and footpaths narrower! Hence, such developmental workshops help officials realise the need for equality and accessibility while laying out streets. Emphasis was put on creating and improving infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists—who account as the primary occupants of Indian urban roads.

Making sense of Complete Streets

‘What are Complete Streets?’ When asked to express their understanding of the concept, the responses from officials varied from ‘streets that are planned for better vehicular passage’ to it being ‘foreign/alien’ to them.

So, what are Complete Streets?

Complete Streets are street layouts that cater to all user groups—regardless of their age, gender, ability, or mode of transportation. They are designed with wide and continuous footpaths, safe pedestrian crossings, separate cycle tracks (where applicable), bus stops designed to enhance convenience, designated on-street parking, organised street vending, and properly-scaled carriageways. These streets are designed to offer the best of convenience and comfort based on local needs and offer spaces for relaxation, play, and interaction.

Understanding the essence of Complete Streets

Since motor vehicles have been dominating every square inch of our urban infrastructure and design plans, the sessions began with a bit of a reality check. Participants, including town planning inspectors, executive officers, and town planning officers, were introduced to general facts such as modal share, infrastructure inadequacies, misconceptions regarding road infrastructure planning, etc.

This turned out to be an important step in the process, as it helped expose the misbelief that motor vehicles transport more people than any other transportation mode. Walking and cycling accounts for 40-50% of the total modal share, and just a quarter of urban trips are on personal motor vehicles.

 

To further quash the fallacy, officials were shown multiple images of vehicle-centric design plans which were riddled with flaws—unusable or absent footpaths, rampant on-street parking encroachments, haphazard pedestrian crossings, etc. On realising the potential threat such single-pronged plan would generate, more officials realised why streets need to designed for all users than just vehicles.

Providing the tools for change

Understanding the flaw is just one part of the solution, the next step required acceptance and gumption to resolve it. Hence, the following session looked to tackle the incessant argument claiming, ‘Our town streets aren’t like cities, they are too small to adopt such measures.’

By sensitising officials to multiple examples of Indian streets, each reclaimed and refurbished according to best practices, many of the skeptics were won over by the effectiveness of the Complete Street programme. For example, the redesign of JM Road and DP Road in Pune; which has been lauded across the country, even winning the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Award and the Volvo Mobility Award 2017.

Further on, the basic components of Complete Streets were broken down and each element was interactively explained to officials.

To further enable their understanding of the concept, ITDP’s resources—such as Footpath Fix and Footpath Design for designing and constructing standardised footpaths and Parking Basics and Park it Right for creating means for a parking management system—were discussed and later shared with the participants for further reference.  

At the pace towns are developing in Tamil Nadu, 2030 does not seem like a distant future. Therefore, such capacity development sessions go a long way to instil concepts of sustainable and equitable mobility culture right at the grassroot levels. In essence, preparing these townships to meet their aspirations and ensure it is done for the people and not vehicles.

Written by Rohit James

Edited by Kashmira Medhora Dubash

Free parking is not a right, but a blight!

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In the 1970s when Joni Mitchell crooned “Big Yellow Taxi”, not many realised the clairvoyance and the forewarning that the song’s lyrics expressed. Though every bit of the lyric has its own essence and social messaging, the starting couplet is resounding. The verse—“They paved paradise, And put up a parking lot”—held a mirror up to society, and here we are four decades later, perplexed and baffled as to how we got here.

Automobiles are the scourge that drive up emission levels and other environmental issues, yet their numbers continue to rise unabashed. As per a report by the Centre for Science and Environment (Delhi), it took India 60 years (1951-2008) to cross the mark of 105 million registered vehicles. The same number of vehicles were added in a mere six years (2009 – 2015) thereafter!

But when you throw ill-conceived parking systems into this mix, it is like taking gasoline to a firefight. The backlash of this self-inflicted problem is found in every nook and corner of our cities, in all sorts of positions (angular, parallel, perpendicular) and scales (on-street, multi-level, automated).

In India, the conversation surrounding parking management is kindled every now and then, only to be impounded with plans of creating more parking spaces. Or even worse, buried six-foot deep with a parking lot as a symbolical headstone. Irony at its best.

So, why is it that dialogues on parking and its management generate public ire, whereas implausible measures—such as unchecked on-street free parking and multi-level parking—venerated. The answer lies in the psyche of vehicle owners and commuters in general, who lay fodder to a whole bunch of myths regarding parking management.

Now, what are these myths and how do the arguments hold; well, not as solid as the ground their vehicles are parked on.  

Let’s deduce this argument with the adage, “Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins”. A citizen has the liberty to own a vehicle, but it doesn’t entitle them to occupy a public space of their fancy. Furthermore, no text, context, and subtext of a right allows for the infringement of someone else’s right. Whereas, parking poses as an obstruction for someone to use that common public space from walking or cycling.

Clearly, parking is not a right or an entitlement, but a privilege which needs to be charged and heavily at that.  A parking fee must be charged proportional to demand, factoring in criteria such as location, time of day, duration of parking, and category of vehicle (defined by size and type).

Take the case of Ranchi, where a pilot parking management project on the arterial MG Road stretch led to a 12-fold increase in parking revenue. Even the state of Jharkhand, spurred by the revenue spike at Ranchi’s pilot parking management project, invested efforts to regulate parking as a statewide policy. According to reports, Greater Chennai Corporation stands to gain Rs 55 crore per year in revenue from the pricing of about 12,000 ECS (equivalent car spaces) of parking in Chennai: a whopping 110 times increase in revenue from what it presently earns. 

Cities can innovatively use parking revenue to encourage sustainable modes of transport. For example, Bicing—the public cycle-sharing program in Barcelona—is financed by its parking revenue. London’s Freedom Pass, which allows elderly (60+) and disabled residents to use public transport for free, is funded by the parking fees collected in many boroughs. You can find more about these cases and other best practices in ITDP’s publication, Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation.

As per Dalia Research, the average global commute time per workday is 1 hour 9 minutes, India’s commute estimate hovers around 1 hour 31 minutes. That figure helps us to the third spot in the global list, behind only Israel and the UAE. So does the solution of offering more parking space offer a concession on congestion, the answer is and has always been in the negative.

An analogy often used while talking about urban commute is “Travel time was so much lesser when there were lesser vehicle!”. Hence, parking is to private vehicles, what flame is to moths. More parking only begets more private vehicles to hit the road.

An excessive supply of parking will only encourage people to use personal motor vehicles—even when good public transport is available. Cities, therefore, need to limit total parking supply, including off-street and on-street parking. Based on the capacity of the road network, cities must set caps on the total quantum of parking available in each zone.

Most cities invest in developing multi-level car parks to resolve parking woes. But examples, from across the world and India, clearly indicate that it is a myopic attempt. Over time such infrastructures only turn into ‘big white elephants’.

Take the example of Bengaluru’s 11 multi-storeyed parking complexes—Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Company (BMTC) owns nine and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) owns two. According to a Bangalore Mirror report, these “ghost storey” parking lots barely have 20-30% occupancy, reason being parking on roads or pavements is easier, since it is free and the safer.

“Multi-level car parking doesn’t solve parking woes, better on-street management does. Multi-level parking structures remain empty while people continue to park on the streets as long as it remains free and unenforced,” said Shreya Gadepalli, ITDP India Programme Lead. Thus, cities must manage and enforce on-street parking effectively before building any off-street parking facilities, public, or private.

In 2009, Janette Sadik-Khan, the then transportation commissioner of New York City, envisioned Times Square to be a car-free zone. That is, the hub would be less of a conduit for vehicles and an urban space where people could freely walk, sightsee, dine, and take in the magnanimity that is New York. Though there were initial reservations, the results were quite remarkable and by 2010 the changes were made permanent. Citylab reported that “business for merchants in the area was booming, and travel times for cars actually went down”.

There are plenty of such examples be it Hong Kong—where demand for commercial establishments rose post pedestrianisation, Copenhagen—a pilot pedestrian project from 1962 has since reclaimed 100,000 sq.m of motorised transit. Here in India, the Mall Road in Shimla, Temple Street in Madurai, and Heritage Street in Amritsar are examples of how reinventing urban design to focus on pedestrianisation does not affect commercial establishment as feared.

People over parking: regulations allows better streets, better cities, better lives

In conclusion, the need of the hour is to regulate parking, not to take it off the table. Policies which focus on parking management not only help in easing congestion, emissions, and travel time, but also are a feasible revenue generation model for a city. A robust management system clearly defines parking zones, pegs user fee to demand, and uses an IT-based mechanism for information, payment, and enforcement—discussed at length in ITDP’s Parking Basics.  

The conversation revolving around parking management has been catching up, with ITDP India Programme offering plausible solutions to cities. Leading the conversation is Pune, which is on the verge of implementing a parking management policy—a demand-based parking system that smoothens traffic movement.

Multiple studies allude that personal cars and two-wheelers occupy most of our street space, yet serve less than a fourth of all trips. They also sit idle for 95 per cent of the time—consuming over a third of street space that could be used more effectively as footpaths, cycle tracks, and bus rapid transit (BRT). The discourse over urban mobility shouldn’t revolve around parking, rather the onus must be on transit-oriented development. Wherein, last-mile connectivity and rapid system of transit ensure movement of people and not just vehicles. As cities evolve, there is an urgent need to step away from an oblivious “man proposes and parking disposes” mentality.

More resources from ITDP on parking management and reforms:

Parking Basics

Park it right

InFocus: Revolutionary Parking Reforms

Parking: Searching for the good life

Sizing Up Parking Space

U.S. Parking Policies: An Overview of Management Strategies

[Webinar] How can Indian cities construct a future for walking

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Join our webinar to hear how Indian cities can construct safe and attractive footpaths that are accessible by all.  The webinar will introduce our publication – Footpath Fix – that provides guidance on footpath construction details, especially that of different utilities.

Many Indian cities have begun to acknowledge the fundamental role of walking in everyday life but are stuck at getting the details right. This short guide is more of a cheat-sheet for urban designers, municipal engineers, and contractors on how to implement footpaths in complex urban environments. Everyone who has seen it is raving about it.

Download your own FREE copy!

Register to RSVP 

Date and time: Thursday 16 August, at 6pm IST
Speaker: Nashwa Naushad,  Research Associate – Urban Development, ITDP India
Pranjal Kulkarni, Research Associate – Urban Development, ITDP India

Maharashtra Urban Mobility Policy

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If life is a theatre, then commuting on Indian urban roads is a Greek tragedy that unfolds daily. Jostling for space, dashing to beat a signal or tip-toeing around oncoming traffic, all these are daily reminders of how desperately the Indian transport system needs an overhaul. According to a Boston Consulting Group survey, a commuter in Mumbai spends 135% more time in road travel than any other Asian city.

Yet, our current vehicle-centric transportation planning only adds more vehicles on roads. And beating congestion by adding more roads is a battle that no city has won. It isn’t just the rapid increase in congestion, traffic snarls or travel time, but also the subsequent rise of pollution and road accidents that hamper quality of life in our cities.

“Every rupee spent by a city on public transport boosts its economy by four rupees!” said Mr Khatua, Director of Mumbai Technical Support Unit, at a workshop on the Maharashtra State Urban Transport Policy. Succinctly put, the senior officer magnifies the need of the hour: sustainable public transport systems.

Closely looking at Maharashtra’s urban population, it is expected to increase by a whopping 30% in the next decade and by another 50% in the years to follow. Going by the present-day scenario of urban commute in the state, the future seems too hazy. To counter these issues, the Urban Development Department of the state has drafted and published the Maharashtra Urban Mobility Policy.

With sustainability at its core, the policy looks to develop transport systems in accordance. So efforts will be concentrated on urban transit systems which reduces burden on resources and most importantly, offers an equal space to every commuter. Hence, facilitating walking, cycling and usage of public transport.

How the policy came about

In 2006, the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) was laid out as a guidance for transportation planning in Indian cities. It prioritized the movement of people and not vehicles in cities, emphasizing on adequate road space for sustainable transport modes, such as walking, cycling and public transport. However, the NUTP mostly existed as a term of reference on papers.

You may ask, so why bring it up now? Well, Maharashtra is taking strides to plug this gap, making it the first state to define its own transportation policy. This further ensures that its urban transportation projects are consistent with NUTP. In June 2017, the Urban Development Department released a draft of the policy. To ensure transparency and insight on feasibility the process was participatory, taking into consideration comments and suggestions of citizens and officials from various cities.

Consultation with Pune Municipal Corporation

Consultation with Nashik Municipal Corporation

In all of this the ITDP India Programme provided technical guidance to the Urban Development Department, and the department is now in the last stages of finalizing the draft.

What it offers

Applicable to all urban areas of the state, the policy envisions transport modes which are safe, reliable, sustainable and accessible for citizen from all walks of life. Additionally, focusing on women’s safety.

The key objectives that the policy will enforce upon cities are:
· Safety and convenience offered to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users.
· Reducing usage of personal vehicles
· Our transportation infrastructure must be is universally accessible
· Road fatalities should be drastically reduced
· Ambient air quality should meet or exceed Central Pollution Control Board norms

All this is easier said than done, of course. Hence, the policy offers tangible metrics for infrastructure implementation, followed up with support and training provided by the state government.

The policy also helps to detangle the bureaucratic red-tape and ensures a coherent approach is in store. Cities with a population of 10 lakh or more are expected to establish a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority and an Urban Transport Fund to manage financial resources for all transportation projects. This will ensure that each agency works in coordination and follows an identical vision.

In conclusion, the policy offers a glimmer of hope; and we say glimmer because there are still many a miles to go and stretches to be reclaimed for equal distribution. But this clearly is a step in the right direction which will impact and influence other states to follow suit. In essence, Maharashtra has shown its wherewithal to get with the times and be the trailblazer that leads by example.

#PressforProgress: Cities must measure sexual harassment in streets and public transport

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Cover Image by Adam Cohn
Written by Sonal Shah

Over the last decade, there has been acknowledgement in mainstream media on the sexual harassment faced by women and girls in urban public transport and on streets around the globe. The fear of crime is widely recognised as a barrier to public transport use. Yet, our mobility plans continue to remain gender blind, as they do not measure the level and extent of harassment faced by women and girls. The normalization of harassment puts the onus of safety on women and girls, thereby restricting their behaviour and mobility. The role of transport planning in alleviating or exacerbating sexual harassment and violence has not yet percolated within mainstream discourse and in the minds of policy and decision makers. This is a lost opportunity as the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that US$28 trillion would be added to the global economy by 2025, if women were to play an identical role to men in markets.

While mainstream media has focused on gruesome incidents such as rape, violence against women and girls also includes groping, molestation, staring, stalking, stealing, cat calls and acid attacks. In Delhi, a 2010 study with over 5000 men and women showed that over 95% of the women had experienced harassment in the past year and public transport, buses and streets were identified as the most vulnerable spaces. While women of all ages faced some form of violence or sexual harassment, school and college girl students in the 15-19 age-group were the most vulnerable. In Mumbai too, 95% of the women respondents reported sexual harassment, 46% reported facing harassment inside buses and 23% while waiting at bus stops.

Sexual harassment is prevalent and underreported, both in developed and developing countries. In New York City, it is estimated that 96 percent of sexual harassment and 86 percent of sexual assaults in the subway system are unreported. Similarly, in Baku, Azerbaijan, while 80 per cent of 200 women surveyed had faced sexual harassment in the metro, none of them reported it to the appropriate authority. In Brazil, it is acknowledged that more than half a million women suffer some sort of sexual violence, every year.

The nature and form of harassment is context specific. According to a research by the Women Empowerment Link, the three most prevalent forms of violence against women and girls in Kenya who use public transport are: use of derogatory language by the matatus crews, coercion of passengers to board public service vehicles against their wish and unwelcome touching of female passengers. Other common forms include contemptuous treatment of women, stealing from and stripping of women passengers.

Creating safer streets and public transport systems will require coordinated actions in infrastructure, service improvements and behaviour change arising from progressive legislation, law enforcement and social norms. While the prevalence of sexual harassment in streets and public transport is known, this data has predominantly been collected by civil society organizations. Cities need to collect gender disaggregated data and measure sexual harassment on their streets and in four legs of the public transport journey (Figure 1) to develop clear actions. These can range from reserved seats, permitting women, girls and the elderly to board or alight from buses in between stops in the night, providing real time information on the arrival of public transport vehicles amongst others. The gender disaggregated quantitative data from travel surveys must be complemented with focus group discussions to understand men and women’s perception and experience of the public transport journey across socio-economic groups.

Figure 1: Four legs of a public transport journey

Gender safety audits must be mainstreamed in the assessment of transport infrastructure. Safety audits evaluate the physical and social aspects in creating safer streets. For example, Safetipin, a phone application scores streets and neighbourhoods on 8 parameters: lighting, openness, visibility, presence of people, security personnel, condition of walking paths, availability of public transport and gender diversity. The ninth parameter allows users to rate how they feel – from comfortable to being frightened. With women and girls who do not have access to smart phones, safety audits can be conducted with them by walking through their neighbourhoods to identify and evaluate spaces along the above parameters. The safety scores provide valuable information to improve the quality of walking infrastructure and crossings, continuous and consistent street lighting, access to facilities such as public toilets, increasing “eyes on the street” (through police personnel, patrolling vans, men or women street vendors) and designing streets that encourage use by diverse groups.

 

Image 1: Jungli Maharaj Road, Pune (India)

Transport service providers, bystanders and police personnel must be interviewed to understand their awareness of the frequency and causes for sexual harassment and their role in preventing or addressing it. Behaviour change is a long process involving progressive legislation, law enforcement and change in social norms. However, cities can create standard operating procedures along with gender sensitization workshops to train the police and transport workers / operators to prevent and address sexual harassment. Cities can create campaigns to communicate a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment, encourage women and girls to report incidents of sexual harassment and bystanders to intervene

Women need to be at the centre of the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of transport policies and projects as partners, professionals and as decision-makers.

Creating safer streets and public transport systems is not a one-time activity involving installation of CCTV cameras, panic buttons and GPS devices. It will require continuous and coordinated actions by multiple stakeholders – transport and urban development departments, police, commuters / bystanders and women’s groups. But cities must measure the contours of sexual harassment as part of their mobility plans, along with other dimensions of gendered travel – trip chaining, mobility of care, affordability, accessibility, comfort, convenience, forced mobility and immobility. #Pressingforprogress involves making women and girls visible as active users of streets and public transport.

A year of radical planning, 2017 passes by…

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“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!

Coimbatore Smart Streets Exhibition marks the beginning of the city’s street transformation

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“This is a well-conceived project. If you can translate this into reality, it will be heaven”. This is what Mr. P. Nagaraj, an 83-year old citizen of Coimbatore, had to say after viewing the life-sized visualisations of the Model Roads on display at the Coimbatore Smart Streets Exhibition. His words echoed the opinion of many who attended the exhibition, all of whom eagerly await Coimbatore’s street transformation.

The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation organised the exhibition to inform the public in detail about the designs of the 6 Model Roads. People voiced their thoughts about the designs and the feedback collected will help shape the final designs of Coimbatore’s Smart Streets. The Coimbatore Street Design and Management Policy was also launched during the exhibition, marking an important milestone for the city!

Coimbatore Smart Streets Exhibition 1

The policy that has been adopted by the city, provides guidelines for the transformation of Coimbatore’s streets. Ambitious goals have been set to promote safe and equitable access for all users. These include increasing mode share of walking and cycling to at least 50% of all trips and that of public transport to 50% of all motorised trips in 15 years. The policy also aims to stabilise the number of vehicle kilometres travelled by personal motor vehicles (PMVs) by 2031, ensuring it does not exceed beyond 20% of the current figure.

The Coimbatore Street Design & Management Policy was launched in the presence of the dignitaries of the day: Left to Right - Mr. Sandeep Nanduri IAS, Commissioner of Madurai City Municipal Corporation, Mr. T.K.Majumdar, Director, Internal Finance, Ministry of Urban Development, Mr. Prakash Govindasami IAS, Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Ms. Shreya Gadepalli, Director- South Asia, ITDP, Dr. K.VIjayakarthikeyan IAS, Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Ms. P.Gandhimathi, Deputy Commissioner, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation

The Coimbatore Street Design & Management Policy was launched in the presence of the dignitaries of the day: Left to Right – Mr. Sandeep Nanduri IAS, Commissioner of Madurai City Municipal Corporation, Mr. T.K.Majumdar, Director, Internal Finance, Ministry of Urban Development, Mr. Prakash Govindasami IAS, Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Ms. Shreya Gadepalli, Director- South Asia, ITDP, Dr. K.VIjayakarthikeyan IAS, Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Ms. P.Gandhimathi, Deputy Commissioner, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation

At the inaugural event, the Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Dr. K. Vijayakarthikeyan IAS, explained that Model roads, as the name suggests, are those streets that will be exemplary of the kind that Coimbatore will have in the future – a model to look up to. These streets will include high quality walking and cycling facilities, improved access to public transport, organised parking & vending zones and streamlined junctions.The Model Roads project is an initiative by the Corporation under the Smart Cities Mission, hence the coinage of the term ‘Smart Streets’.

The Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Mr. Prakash Govindasami IAS delivered the special address at the event. “Everybody might not have a car, but we all have legs. We need to have the freedom to walk safely on the streets. And your voice should help make that happen”, stressed Mr. Prakash, explaining how the government inviting public participation in their initiatives, is the approach of this day and age.

The public raised interesting opinions about the design of the streets, including requests to provide bus bays and entry/exit angles in parking bays. Advait Jani, Program Coordinator at the Institute for Transportation and Developmental Policy, replied, “Buses tend to move straight instead of making the turn into and out of a bus bay. Also, bus bays eat up much space – space that could otherwise be provided to pedestrians for walking. As to turning angles in parking bays, they benefit only the first and last slots in a bay. The splays work only in taxi bays as there is continuous movement and a queuing system is followed.”

 

Coimbatore-Smart-Streets-Exhibition-2

Another concern among the people was the absence of exit lanes at intersections, which might hinder with free flow of traffic. “Exit lanes are generally provided in highways where vehicles are expected to move fast and continuously, not at intersections on urban roads. Moreover, according to current traffic regulations, free lefts are forbidden. They are dangerous as well to the pedestrians crossing the road, and increase crossing distance”, said Advait Jani.

The intersection testing that was conducted along with the exhibition, helped the architects and transportation experts explain the concept better. The junction of TV Swamy and DB Roads is proposed to become an iconic intersection with increased safety for all users. The proposed design creates a tighter intersection and thus reduced vehicle turning speed. This was tested out on-site for a period of four days, with space at all 4 corners of the intersection reclaimed for the pedestrians with exciting artwork.

Coimbatore Intersection testing

Following the exhibition, excavation has started on DB Road to allow for construction to begin soon. The Corporation has set a deadline of 3 months for the completion of DB and TV Swamy roads in the first phase of the project. Once constructed, these streets will become the pedestrians’ haven!

 

 

Pune’s progressive parking policy shows the way forward for Indian cities

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Like many Indian cities, Pune is witnessing a spurt in urban growth that is also accompanied by growth in private vehicle ownership. The Regional Transport Office in Pune registers almost 500 new vehicles every day. With such explosive growth in the number of automobiles, the demand for parking escalates, resulting in footpaths and available open spaces being swallowed by formal or informal parking lots.

To address these concerns, Pune has proposed a parking policy that focuses on the need to shift people away from cars, towards public transport modes. It acknowledges that creating excessive, cheap parking to keep up rising demand doesn’t solve parking problems. Instead, the policy discourages free parking, and calls for differential parking rates pegged to demand. By stressing that users pay directly for parking, the policy discourages direct and indirect public subsidies for private vehicle use and ensures that personal motor vehicle users bear the full cost of driving.

A zone-based approach to parking management

Demand for parking spaces is affected by a host of factors such as location, surrounding land-use, economic activity and traffic volumes. City centres and business districts often see high demand for parking as compared to other areas. In the zone-based approach proposed in this policy, Pune will be divided into 4 parking zones, each with their own parking rules and rates.

Zone A includes the central areas of Pune. As intense development is expected around transit corridors in the future, transit influence zones are also demarcated for better parking management. Areas close to rapid transit, located within 100 metres around of mobility corridors are designated as Zone B while Zone C includes areas located from 100 to 500 metres of transit corridors. Others areas are designated as Zone D.

Proposed parking zones in Pune

Pricing parking to manage demand

To manage demand for parking, encourage efficient use of parking facilities, address specific parking problems and ensure that the parking is available for intended users, the policy proposes various pricing strategies. As cars occupy more road space compared to motorcycles, base parking rates for cars are proposed to be 4 times that of two-wheelers.

As parking demand varies by time of day as well as day of the week, the policy calls for rates to be determined considering these factors as well. By stating that parking must be charged proportional to the amount of time parked, the policy discourages discounts for longer-term parking.

Parking rates also vary based on the zones in which the vehicle is parked in. Zones with high parking demand are proposed to have higher parking rates. Lower parking rates are proposed in Zone D that includes residential and other areas not served by transit. For instance, parking a car on-street in Zone A would cost Rs 71 per hour whereas parking it in Zone D would cost Rs 30 per hour. To encourage people to use off-street parking facilities where available, off-street parking rates are proposed to be lower than on-street parking rates in the same zone.

Parking rates vary by vehicle type and location of parking spot. (Left) Areas of high parking demand have higher on-street parking rates. (Right) Off-street parking rates are lower than on-street parking rates in the corresponding zone.

The policy uses pricing strategies as a tool to encourage walking, cycling and public transport. Cycles are exempt from parking charges at all locations in the city. As auto rickshaws and taxis are important means of providing last mile connectivity to and from transit hubs, these vehicles too are exempt from parking charges, provided that they are parked in dedicated parking slots meant for them.

Framework to implement reforms

Successful implementation of customer-oriented, parking management systems require detailed planning and coordination between various agencies. In addition to day-to-day operations, communicating the benefits of parking management to the public is crucial. In this regard, the policy recommends creation of a Parking Management Cell, chaired by the Municipal Commissioner and supported by a team of competent professionals, who will be responsible for planning, implementation and overseeing parking operations in the city.

Many cities around the world have successfully used parking revenue to improve transit options. Barcelona used surplus revenue from on-street parking fees to fund its cycle sharing system. Several boroughs in London use revenue from parking to subsidize public transport passes for the disabled and the elderly. In keeping with these best practices, Pune’s draft parking policy also recommends channeling surplus revenue from parking to a dedicated public transport and non-motorised transport fund to create better facilities for walking, cycling and public transport.

With such provisions, Pune’s progressive policy not only addresses issues related to parking, but also strives to create a better urban environment centered around people, rather than vehicles.

Read the draft policy here: Suruvath: Public Parking Policy 2016.

Discover the basics of parking management and regulation in ITDP’s publication, Parking Basics.

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ITDP signs MoU with Thane to develop comprehensive transport solutions

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Thane is a fast growing city situated in the state of Maharashtra, adjacent to the city of Mumbai. As per the 2011 Census, the city had a population of about 1.8 million. Due to high cost of living in Mumbai, and presence of rail connectivity between the two cities, a large number of people reside in Thane and travel to Mumbai for work every day. As a result, Thane railway station is the focal point of most trips in the city, attracting a significant number of commuters who take buses, rickshaws or walk to access the station.

The city has grown rapidly over the last couple of decades. The west- and east-ward expansion of the city is constrained due to presence of natural features like hills and water bodies respectively, and the mega city of Mumbai itself lies on southwest of Thane.  This leaves mostly only the north and northwest areas available for further development. These areas are served by Ghodbunder Road, and the geographical constrains mean that most development is within 2 km from this arterial road. This road is therefore ideally suited to be a good model of transit-oriented development.

To address the transportation needs of these areas, ITDP was invited by the Thane Municipal Corporation to provide technical support to develop rapid transit in the region, along with better walking and cycling facilities. ITDP signed an MoU with the Thane Municipal Corporation on 2nd April 2016 to assist the city in these projects. In addition to improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the city, ITDP will also carry out comprehensive assessments to understand existing situation and propose a holistic transport solution for the city.

ITDP and TMC sign an MoU to work towards comprehensive transport solutions for the city.

Thane Municipal Corporation and ITDP sign an MoU to develop comprehensive transport solutions for the city.

These sustainable transport projects, together with residential and commercial development in the region, can help transform Thane into a model of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in the future.

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Pune, Coimbatore and Chennai Selected as India’s ‘Smart Cities’

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Pune, Coimbatore and Chennai have been making huge progress creating sustainable cities. Each has made great strides in recent years, laying the groundwork for even bigger changes to come. Thanks to their demonstrated commitment to act, in addition to well-developed plans for next steps, all three have been selected for the first round of India’s national Smart Cities Mission.

Right now, experts predict that about 25-30 people are migrating every minute to major Indian cities from rural areas in search of better livelihood and better lifestyles. It is estimated that by 2050, Indian cities will house nearly 843 million people. This massive increase in population will put incredible pressure on India’s cities, requiring new infrastructure for transportation, energy, and safety. To address these imminent issues, the Government of India has allocated Rs 48,000 crore to create the Smart Cities Mission, a programme dedicated to helping cities invest in sustainable infrastructure and growth.

As part of the Smart Cities Mission, these three selected cities (see the full list here) have each proposed to invest over 600 Crore rupees in sustainable transport projects. By pegging this money to tangible, area-based improvements, these cities have a clear plan to transform over the next 5 years, bringing widespread socio-economic benefits to a large section of society. ITDP is proud to have partnered with Pune, Coimbatore, and Chennai to chart out their sustainable paths for the future.

ITDP has been working with these cities in different roles, providing technical support to projects, capacity building for officials, and  creating community engagement at various levels. In the twin cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, ITDP helped implement the Rainbow BRT, incorporating best practices in BRT planning and design. ITDP has been instrumental in helping Chennai adopt a Non-Motorized Transport Policy and overseeing its implementation through street design and engaging with citizens through initiatives like car-free Sundays. In Coimbatore, the Namma Kovai Namakke (Our Coimbatore Ourselves) campaign, initiated by ITDP, sparked citizen demand for better pedestrian facilities, all of which formed the groundwork for the Smart City proposals developed by these cities.

In the next 5 years, Pune aims to increase the mode share of public transport from 18 percent to 50 percent by augmenting its bus fleet and improving bus services using Intelligent Traffic Management Systems (ITMS). The city also aims to expand its high quality BRT network by 30 km and improve access to transit by creating 75 km network of footpaths and cycle tracks.

To facilitate easy interchange between Rainbow BRT and other buses, a transit hub is proposed at Anudh Baner Balewadi, Pune, along the lines of the Kiwale terminal pictured above.

In keeping with its NMT policy, Chennai aims to develop ‘Complete Streets’ and build footpaths to cover 80% of its major roads. A city-wide cycle sharing system with 3000 cycles and an IT-based parking management system are also expected to give a major thrust to walking and cycling while restricting private vehicle use.

Better NMT facilities are proposed in T. Nagar, a commercial and retail hub of Chennai.

Non-motorised transport is a key focus for Coimbatore as well, where the city aims to create NMT infrastructure along 75 percent of its primary and secondary road networks before 2020. A 30 km network of greenways connecting major lakes in the city is expected to improve quality of open space for its residents. The city also aims to increase mode share of public transport from 42 percent to 60 percent by modernising and expanding public bus services.

Congratulations to these cities, and all the selected Smart Cities, for the exciting work preparing India’s cities for a more sustainable, brighter future.

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