MOBILIZE Santiago Speaker Series: Paula Bisiau, Department of Transport- Buenos Aires

27th June 2017 by admin

With the recent election of former mayor Mauricio Macrí as president, the city of Buenos Aires should now have greater support from the Argentine government. Down at the local level, meanwhile, the city of 3 million continues to push for innovations that will bring Argentina’s capital and largest city into the 21st century. On the transport front, a young, dynamic official is leading the way. Paula Bisiau, Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Mobility, has a handle on everything that porteños (the city’s inhabitants) can count on to help them get around this charming South American city. Visitors may be captivated by tango and parrilla, but they should also pay attention to bike share, BRT, and pedestrianization.

Paula spoke to us about MOBILIZE Santiago‘s theme, “Just and Inclusive Cities Become the New Normal” and the future of BRT & cycling in Buenos Aires.

ITDP: The theme of MOBILIZE Santiago is “just and inclusive cities become the new normal”. How does Buenos Aires’ transport system live up to this ideal?

Paula Bisiau: Having a good network of diverse and well-connected transport is part of having an inclusive and fair city. So, in that sense, Buenos Aires has worked hard for at least 8 to 9 years to improve its public transport network. The reality is that in Buenos Aires, the use of public transport is very high. Almost 80% of trips are completed using public transport, on foot, or by bicycle. This means that in Buenos Aires we can talk about a city, in that sense, as fair and equitable because there is public transport throughout the city and the cost is relatively low.

Then, there is the whole accessibility point of view, the inclusion of all people with different abilities. In that sense, we still need more work. However, we have begun to design the streets and sidewalks so that they can be crossed by children, the elderly, and people in wheelchairs.

What other cities around the world are the most interesting to you in the area of mobility?
Recently I was in two cities that were very interesting: Copenhagen, obviously, on the one hand, and Tokyo on the other. Tokyo is very different, but with a spectacular subway network, and especially with lots of information facilitated by technology. I was astonished by how I was able to get around so easily and plan my trip within a city I didn’t know, in a country where obviously I didn’t speak the language.

I also find Paris interesting and innovative. And what I find interesting about a city like Paris is that it’s a city that preserves all its heritage and history, but constantly renews itself. This power of renewal is very interesting. They started with Paris Plages, then what they did with Les Berges de la Seine was also very innovative. Other cities had already done what they did with bike share. But what they did was fill the city with public bicycles everywhere. And they encouraged all that in a city that was already fully built, which already had many residents and businesses everywhere.

To name a Latin American city, I would say São Paulo also has many innovations for being a megalopolis. I was there maybe two years ago for the first time, and the truth is that I was amazed. Their transportation is also spectacular. But still, they still have things that are not as good as they could be, like urban highways. Not that everything is fine, but as big as the city is, they are still doing a good job. For example, on road safety, they took certain actions that are not easy to take politically, like reducing the maximum speed. And those are difficult political measures to take. But they did so, and thanks to that, they managed to reduce the number of road casualties. Cities have to take risks on new measures in order to improve.

In 2014, Buenos Aires won the Sustainable Transport Award for giving Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world, a transport and pedestrian makeover. Three years later, how are these interventions improving the quality of life in Buenos Aires?
The implementation of transit on Avenida 9 de Julio translated into shorter trips for those who used public transport, because all the buses that passed through downtown are now funneled onto the 9 de Julio Metrobus [BRT]. There was a reduction of almost 50% in travel times.

Road accidents were reduced because the average speed of cars was reduced. Within what is called the pedestrian zone, the maximum speed is now 10 km per hour. The entire downtown area was once very noisy and heavily polluted. The air and noise pollution levels dropped a lot. Before it was impossible to even have a conversation there. Now there is economic development, adding life beyond the offices and banks. Nightlife is beginning to come up in that neighborhood and we hope soon enough that will create the possibility of people moving downtown.

Buenos Aires continues to roll out new BRT stations in its Metrobus system (Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Wikimedia Commons)

What is the next big mobility project around the city?
We’re continuing to develop the Metrobus network. Along 9 de Julio you have the Bajo [Lower] area, near the port. We are adding Metrobus to Bajo and that is also going to be an important change. We are also pedestrianizing part of the area on the other side of 9 de Julio, where the Palace of Justice is; another area where there are also many pedestrians.

There are also two new projects: One that is called Paseo del Bajo, in order to get the trucks out. Buenos Aires is a port city and we have many trucks coming from the port. For that, we found a solution to stop them from going through the city. This project broke ground in May and will be finished in two years. The other is a new regional rail that will connect the Constitución area with the Retiro area.

A cyclist takes advantage of new protected bike infrastructure (Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Wikimedia Commons)

Has the number of people that use bicycles in Buenos Aires grown in the last few years and if so, why?
Yes, mainly because we started building cycle tracks in the most populated areas of the city, places where people go to work and where people live. We started in downtown and continued to the periphery of different neighborhoods. Today we have 180 km of bike lanes and cycle tracks in almost every area of the city.

The number also increased thanks to the public bikeshare system, Ecobici. A lot of work went into education and promotion. We convinced the city of the idea of cycling by talking about cycling in every sector. However, if I were to give you one main reason, people did not ride a bicycle in Buenos Aires because of road safety issues. In fact, we conducted surveys, and people already owned bikes. Buenos Aires is flat and has a relatively pleasant climate. The main reason they weren’t using it was because of road safety.

Ecobici used to operate on a valet system, now it has docking stations. What was the impact of this shift?
Regardless of how it works, the system itself is very popular because it is free. Today, we have more than 200,000 users who have taken more than 5 million trips. We are working to build out the system with 200 stations and 2,500 bicycles. We currently have 1,900 bikes.

Last year was a difficult time for us because of vandalism and theft. That was something we had not planned for and that had not happened in other cities. This, for example, made us stagnate on the number of bike trips in the year 2016. Now in 2017, we are growing again.

Taking out a bike from Ecobici’s new docked system (Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Wikimedia Commons)

Do you think that Ecobici will ever go dockless?

We’re studying that. First we want to finish installing these 200 stations that we have planned. Then we want to understand what new technologies are being implemented in other cities around the world. When we think about the growth of this system, we want to move toward what is more innovative and what is working best. Because of our vandalism experience, I have to see to what extent it can work in Buenos Aires, but it seems fantastic to me- much more flexible as a system. All of us who think about transport think this way: having innovation that is flexible because cities are dynamic, technologies change, and we have to be open to adapting.

[one_fourth][/one_fourth] This interview is a part of the MOBILIZE Santiago Speaker Series. In this series, we will feature interviews with researchers from VREF’s Future Urban Transport where we will discuss their work in sustainable transport and reflecting on MOBILIZE Santiago’s theme: Just and Inclusive Cities Become the New Normal. To learn more about MOBILIZE Santiago and how you can register to attend the summit in Chile, visit mobilizesummit.org.

Park It Right – Parking Management workshop in Pune with Dr. Paul Barter

27th June 2017 by admin

“Let us seize the chance for parking success without excess!”, world-renowned parking management expert Dr.Paul Barter concluded. The occasion was Park It Right – a 2-day parking management workshop conducted by the Pune Municipal Corporation, with ITDP as knowledge partner; in association with GIZ, SUTP and TUMI*. The event was a part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI), supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building & Nuclear Safety (BMUB). Participants included PMC engineers, officials from RTO & Traffic Police and representatives from various NGOs.

With the adoption of Pune’s parking policy in the offing and the city’s plans to implement better parking management, the workshop aimed at drawing lessons and inspiration from global best practices. Local government’s responsibilities regarding on-street parking management, regulation of parking supply under real-estate/urban planning powers, choices over city-owned off-street parking, and the relationship between the city government and private sector parking businesses were also discussed.

The workshop kicked off with Mr. Kunal Kumar, the Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation, speaking of the city’s firm course towards sustainable transportation, with great joy and pride. Various initiatives to encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport has ensured that Pune has stayed on track. Speaking of dissuading the use of personal motor vehicles, the Commissioner said, “managing parking is an integral and essential part of our sustainable transport planning.”

The tone of the discussion thus set, Dr. Paul Barter took over to explain the basics of parking management. While most cities perceive a supposed lack of parking availability on the streets, there is generally excess supply off-street. The solution is thus not supplying more parking; it is, rather, better parking management.

To understand this concept better, the audience was asked to participate in a hands-on exercise to simulate parking in a commercial area between 8 am to 12.30 pm. Two scenarios were considered: one with minimal parking fee and management, and another with higher parking charges determined by supply and demand.

At the end of Scenario 1, the participants observed that with poor parking management, high-demand spots in the commercial area were occupied by shopkeepers and office-goers for better proximity, leaving the shoppers and other customers without a convenient spot. With an appropriate increase in parking fee as per demand, long-duration parking moved to the outer fringes where the fee was lower. This freed up many easily accessible parking slots within the commercial area for shoppers and restaurant-goers.

Another key takeaway was that the city does not have to wait for visible improvements in walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure changes to implement parking management. Basic parking reforms can help significantly reduce the parking chaos on the street. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, where on-street parking pricing was introduced not as a means towards sustainability but to tackle congestion in many stretches, the parking situation has improved considerably.

The simulation exercise thus helped the participants understand that parking management starting with simple steps should be the approach to the “parking crisis”, instead of increasing supply. Presenting examples from Taipei in Taiwan and Seoul in South Korea, Dr. Barter reinforced this fact and helped the audience decide good parking management goals.

Results of hands-on exercise to simulate parking in a commercial area

Best global practices highlight that the location and quantity of parking supply play a crucial role in the success of parking management. Dr. Barter stressed that parking, both on-street and off-street, must always be provided in tightly controlled amounts, and charged based on demand.

Applying these lessons to well-known localities in Pune, it came to light that the existing parking spaces could be managed easily without increasing the capacity. “Our cities should aim to eventually shift towards sustainable transport solutions. But even for a car-centric city, parking management is an essential step in solving congestion on the street and for better use of road space. Let us start now Pune!”, said Shreya Gadepalli, Director – South Asia, ITDP.

With the parking policy expected to come into effect soon, and the city taking measures to start on-street parking management, along with various NMT-PT friendly initiatives, Pune is indeed firm on its sustrans course!

*GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (English: German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH); SUTP – Sustainable Urban Transport Project; TUMI – Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative

MOBILIZE Santiago Speaker Series: Simon Lusby, Transport for London

20th June 2017 by admin

Founded in 1863, the world-famous London Underground, also known as the Tube, may just be the planet’s most iconic subway system, from its “mind the gap” warning to its circular red logo to its storied history as a bomb shelter during World War II. While it transports a hefty 1.37 billion passengers annually, up on street level, the city’s equally iconic red buses – many of them the ever-popular double deckers – host more than 2 billion passenger trips per year.

Enter Simon Lusby, a senior strategist at Transport for London, the British capital’s transit agency. He’s part of the surface transport team, which means even if the Tube is the symbol of London mobility, he is working daily to make sure the bus system is just as much up to snuff.

Lusby spoke to us about how London’s bus system fits with MOBILIZE Santiago‘s theme Just and Inclusive Cities Become the New Normal,what he hopes to learn from the annual MOBILIZE summit in June, and the future for buses in London.

Simon Lusby, senior strategist at Transport for London, the British capital’s transit agency

ITDP: The theme of MOBILIZE Santiago is “just and inclusive cities become the new normal”. How does London’s transport system live up to this ideal?

Simon Lusby: How we’re planning transport needs to be as inclusive as possible. The new approach to street design (the “Healthy Streets Approach”), for example, is all about inclusion of everyone on the street. Not just one mode, not just healthy people, but actually getting more people out there and making spaces available for everyone.

I think London fits within that quite nicely, with that not only becoming the norm but also being the expectation here. Our bus network is very much at that level. For example, it’s already wheelchair accessible and our passengers are representative of Londoners. So from that point of view, I’d say London could be one of the flagship places where “just and inclusive cities” becomes the norm.

What are you hoping to learn from the city of Santiago’s transportation experience at MOBILIZE?

Listening to Santiago, I’m interested in buses. London has a very developed bus network but we need to look to other cities where they’ve had to address many of the challenges we currently face. London is still improving our approach to multi-modal development and that’s what we need to be learning from other cities. That’s what I hope to take away from MOBILIZE – like integration of public transport, particularly with cycling.

What cities around the world are you most interested in today, as in who’s doing the most innovative work in your field?

In terms of bus rapid transit, there is actually a lot of it here in the UK, like in Cambridge and Manchester. I’m more interested in a few key things. One, is integrating buses with cycling. Seattle has done that quite well. Another is thinking about how do you stretch corridors together. How do you get bus transit through a really, really dense metropolitan environment? I’m quite keen to gain some more experience from New York on this. I also want our London Underground users to feel like they are still part of the same public transport network and have options on how they can travel when they transfer to a bus.

New bus revenue generation project livery trial on the 150 bus, Barkingside, London. ©Transport for London

You’ve mentioned buses a number of times. How has Transport for London been so successful increasing public transit mode share, especially on buses?

Without buses, there are areas where one has very little public transport. But now there are bus routes everywhere. 95% of households live within 4oo meters of a bus service. So that goes to show that this network we’re covering is more abundant than people had ever thought.

We’ve got control of the bus network and some of the road space, which has been central. Starting in about 2000, Transport for London put in a lot of buses and that made the services far more reliable. Then in 2003 came the congestion charge. People have to pay to enter the center city, which means that there are very few private cars in the city and that helped the bus network again hugely. Simple things like contactless payment – the Oyster card – made it far more seamless between using the Tube and using the bus.

You know the bus is coming during the day. You don’t have to mess around with schedules or anything like that. There’s probably going to be a bus arriving in a few minutes. Unfortunately though, that high frequency costs money and we still have to continue to adapt our network to support the Tube and the new Elizabeth Line. It’s an underground train line between Heathrow east London via Canary Wharf that will absorb the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington Station. It will become the city’s main line, carrying twice the capacity of the other lines. But you can’t build one of these every year. It takes a lot of time and money.

With flashy new infrastructure like the Elizabeth Line coming in, what is the importance of a bus-based transport for a city that has such an extensive subway system?

That goes back to the original question of inclusiveness. If you pulled out the buses, which are completely wheelchair accessible, you’re no longer inclusive. So we tend to maintain bus lines even directly above Tube lines because you need that accessibility and people rely on it. When you think about how many different layers there are in the Tube, going deep down into the stations, for some people you don’t want to be going up and down all that.

New Northern Ticket Hall opened at Victoria Station ©Transport for London

How does Transport for London collect data on bus ridership?

We have our Oyster Card, which is a tap-on, tap-off system that tracks journeys. That means we don’t know the Tube route you took, we just know what station you went in and what station you come out of. From that Oyster data we can then understand connections like bus to Tube to bus. We’ve also got iBus which allows us to check the speed of the bus. We can then look at the speed of that service for any delays, as well as gaps between service that are impacting on ridership. If something goes wrong on the Tube, like delays, we can calculate fairly accurately how many people will be affected. So we try to take the knowledge we’ve learned on the Tube and apply it to bus.

MOBILIZE Santiago Speaker Series: Daniel Chatman

8th June 2017 by admin

Transportation scholar Daniel Chatman’s latest research builds on two decades of experience looking largely at the U.S. context. Chatman has studied how people get to their jobs and what that means for metropolitan economies. He has investigated traffic patterns, job sprawl, and mortgage subsidies for homes in high-density neighborhoods with good transit access. In 2013, he and a co-author argued that transit could be producing as much as $1.8 billion annually in economic benefits for cities.

Daniel Chatman will be speaking at MOBILIZE Santiago on urban development and dynamic cities, including national social housing policies and the integration (or lack thereof) of transit and access.

ITDP spoke to Chatman from office at the University of California-Berkeley, where he teaches in the Department of City and Regional Planning, to discuss his work and reflect on this year’s MOBILIZE theme, “just and inclusive cities become the new normal”.

Daniel Chatman, Professor at the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California-Berkeley

ITDP: Your research has shown that transportation can allow for higher densification of cities and therefore higher productivity due to agglomeration economies. Are U.S. cities finally waking up to those benefits?

Planners throughout the United States are all being trained to believe things like smart growth and public transportation is a good idea however, cities don’t necessarily believe this is true. And the reason cities don’t is because people don’t, and the reason that people don’t is because people have their own concerns. They’re focused on their immediate impact of various kinds of funding and investment decisions, and those are neighborhood-level impacts in many cases. In some cases, people do believe and are willing to support massive sales tax increases, for example, in places like Los Angeles and Seattle.

And yet, as to whether that support ends up translating into actual major changes in densification of cities and in ridership at all, that’s a separate question. We have a lot of regulations that get in the way of those benefits being realized.

The fact is that, yes, in the United States, we have higher productivity in denser cities that have better transit systems. But if you look at those cities, you also have increasing income polarization. We have both of those things partly because housing is really expensive in those same places.

Planners tend to be on board because they believe in the power of cities. But sometimes our vision of beautiful cities with great amenities is a vision that’s more geared towards higher-income people, so you want to be careful about it.

How can we convince cities that parking reform is one of the best ways to improve equity in cities?

Off-street parking requirements increase the cost of housing, especially in dense environments. It’s not uncommon to see construction cost requirements for structured parking of $60,000 per space. That’s a lot of money.

Those requirements are an equity issue because of the housing cost, but they’re actually more pernicious than that, because they change the sort of housing that’s developed in the first place. Developers are more likely to build luxury housing in response to having to provide two parking spaces per unit.

There is some evidence that parking requirements in some places are a bigger constraint upon densification than anything else. That is to say, it isn’t the height requirement, existing zoning allocation, or the by-right density, it’s the parking that stops people from developing as densely as they would.

What sort of impact do you think that federal funding, or lack thereof in the current political climate, will have on transport planning in U.S. cities, and can they move forward anyway?

There are lots cities that were already moving ahead without federal funding, which is now a smaller fraction of all new transit starts anyway. Even though I’m critical of how transit projects have been funded by the federal government, it’s not as though putting all the money into roads is a good solution either.

The current political climate is going to have a negative impact on city sustainability. For example, the Trump administration was considering this trillion-dollar infrastructure plan the Department of Transportation put out a 50-slide list of potential projects. Most of it was maintenance and construction of roadway facilities. I don’t think that’s a positive thing, but I do think that it’s not going to have as big of an impact as it might have 20 years ago, because of the fact that cities have been looking for, at the state and at the local level, alternative funding sources and are increasingly relying on them.

Ultimately, the smaller cities will be the ones who feel the pain more, because it’s the bigger cities and the more affluent states that are going to get away with these sorts of tax increases that fund transportation. The outlying areas will suffer more.

On-Street Parking Management: Pune and Chennai to join the bandwagon

3rd June 2017 by admin

“I bought an AC, now the government has to give me a free house to install it in!” If this is an absurd demand, so is free parking – “I bought a car, now the government has to give me a free place to park it!” Cities across the world including India, are gradually beginning to realise that parking is not a right; it is a commodity and should come at a price. In keeping with this revelation, Indian cities such as Ranchi have started implementing on-street parking management, with a parking fee.

Pune and Chennai are the latest cities striving to join the bandwagon. Pune will soon adopt a parking policy to guide parking management in the city. Pune and Chennai both aim to put a smart parking management system in place. There is now an urgent need to learn more about global best practices, especially challenges faced during implementation and solutions. In order to initiate this learning process, Pune and Chennai will host discussions and workshops internally and for the public in the following weeks, led by internationally acclaimed parking expert Dr.Paul Barter.

Today, unorganised on-street parking and invasion of pedestrian footpaths by parked cars is common of most Indian cities. On-street parking is mostly free, and even when charged, the rates are too low and fee collection is carried out by private operators with little monitoring or oversight by the government.

In Pune, open spaces have been converted into parking lots – including a mechanised structure – to meet the ‘demand’. However, prior to providing off-street solutions, on-street parking has to be addressed as it comes free of cost and is more easily accessible, hence is more sought after.

Realising this, Pune has tried to employ certain strategies to ensure that rampant parking doesn’t hinder movement of vehicles as well as people. The age-old “P1/P2” scheme has been incorporated in several streets where parking is allowed only on one side of the road depending on odd/even dates. Traffic cops have tried to ban parking on mobility corridors during peak hours.

A manually-operated “Pay and Park” system in Pune charges 4-wheelers Rs.5-10 for 2-4 hours

Pune has also implemented a manually-operated “Pay and Park” system on some streets with parking charges of the order Rs 5-10 for four-wheelers for 2-4 hours. While this is the on-street scenario, many private establishments like hospitals and cinema halls charge upto Rs 50 for 4 hours of car-parking. All these measures have had mixed successes.

In Chennai on the other hand, parking rules and fees are administered on an ad-hoc basis, leading to a lack of clarity for users, inconsistent enforcement, and significant revenue leakage. The city experiences localised shortages despite overall availability of parking space.

The two cities are thus trying to solve the parking problem by better on-street parking management. The Pune Municipal Corporation has proposed a policy to manage parking in the city. The policy suggests slabs of parking charges, using the fundamental economic principle of supply and demand to determine the cost. It prioritises road space for other users – especially pedestrians, by dissuading the usage of any available public space (both off- and on-street) for parking.

The revenue from parking management only on bus-route roads in Chennai could itself be over half a crore rupees per year.

Chennai has initiated the process of implementing a smart parking management system. Key features of the proposed system are parking guidance for users and real-time information of parking slot availability on mobile platform, an online digital payment portal to improve revenue collection and enhance transparency and an electronic enforcement system, among other things.

For parking charges, a zone-based system will be followed wherein streets are categorised into paid parking (medium to high demand), free parking (low demand) and no parking (since parking restricts movement) zones. Parking fee and fine will be determined by the Greater Chennai Corporation and Chennai Smart City Ltd. It is estimated that the revenue from the system only from bus-route roads could itself be well over half a crore rupees per year.*

Dr. Paul Barter at a parking management workshop in Kathmandu. Image Courtesy: Clean Energy Nepal

In order to assist the two cities’ commendable efforts to deal with parking, Dr.Paul Barter will be visiting and leading discussions in both Pune and Chennai. Dr. Barter has offered his expertise along with necessary training in several parking-management projects across the world including Beijing, Kathmandu, Jakarta, Singapore, Mumbai, etc. He has published an on-street parking management toolkit as a guide for government staff in low-income and middle-income countries. His expert opinion and knowledge will add greatly to the parking management plan of the two cities.

Through their actions to tackle parking, Pune and Chennai are surely setting a great example for other cities that intend to create an urban environment focused on people rather than vehicles!

*This estimate is based on a parking fee rate of Rs. 40 per ECS per hour for bus-route roads.

Read the draft of Pune’s parking policy here: Suruvath: Public Parking Policy 2016.

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

Santiago: Winner of STA, Host of MOBILIZE 2017

3rd June 2017 by admin

Santiago, the Chilean capital with an urban population of five million, and a metro area population of over seven million, is a beautiful old-world city enjoying a modern day renaissance. Despite the city’s attempt to improve transport for its people through its BRT Transantiago in 2006, it had been lagging behind other cities in the region on cycling and walking.

However, between 2015-16, non-motorised (walking and cycling) and public transportation in Santiago underwent significant development, transforming the city into a haven for its citizens. Santiago was thus announced as the winner of the 2017 Sustainable Transport Award (STA). The city will be hosting ITDP’s annual sustrans summit MOBILIZE between June 28 – 30, 2017.

Our Indian government also aims to implement such people-friendly mobility initiatives through the Smart City Mission, and can draw on the lessons of Santiago at MOBILIZE. Amongst other attendees from India, Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary & Smart City Mission Director, MoUD will also be at the summit. As a speaker, he will be sharing his thoughts on how a city can be made inclusive through principles of mobility and access.

Car ownership has soared in Chile over the past decade along with the economy, with the number of cars bough increasing each year from 2003 to 2014. Greater Santiago is now home to seven million people, and four million cars. However, the last few years have seen considerable changes. Owing to the significant improvements in transit, cycling & walking, and the overall public realm, as a result of the city’s Integrated Mobility Plan, more Santiaguinos have shifted to these modes to get around their city.

Santiago’s Calle Aillavilú, in the central market of the city, has been transformed from a derelict, car-congested and unregulated parking lot to a pedestrian-friendly oasis. The street was repaved, lighting improved, new trees were planted, and most importantly, cars were removed. Except for the scheduled delivery of goods, no motorized traffic is allowed. Calle Placer, one of the busiest pedestrian streets during a popular weekend market, is now completely closed to cars on the weekends, with a 2.2 million USD investment by the city for improved sidewalks, lighting, and sanitation.

On Sunday mornings, cars are banned from 40 kilometers of Santiago’s roads. Around 30,000 people take to those vehicle-free streets on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, or simply on foot. The Car-Free days in many Indian cities have also been highly successful and can be scaled up, learning from Santiago.

The redesigned Plaza de Armas in the city centre, to prioritise pedestrians

Other public space improvements include an investment in 100 sqm. of new green spaces in historic residential neighborhoods, revitalizing a previously abandoned area, and the re-design of the Historical Center’s main streets, featuring more sidewalk space, improved lighting, beautification, and a “complete streets” redesign for public transport exclusive corridors in the most active pedestrian zone in the country.

Cycling mode share has doubled since 2006, with the number of cyclists on major routes growing by 25 percent a year for the past two years. The City has backed up this achievement with new sustainable transport policy changes and education programs. In April 2015, the National Ministry of Housing and Urbanism created a detailed standard of design for high quality cycle lanes, even piloting it in a major street near the presidential palace. The policy redistributes road spaces to create more space for cyclist. This standard was quickly adopted by Santiago, and the city has managed to increase cycling trips from a negligible 150 per day to over 5000 per day.

Cycle Lanes in Santiago

This number is expected to further rise with the growing popularity of BikeSantiago, the city’s bike share program, which accounts for 50 percent of the increase. Santiago also gave support to BMov Trici, a free bicycle taxi in the historic city center operated by a private company, supported by advertising, that encourages cycle use and provides a non-motorized alternative to taxis.

The city has also adopted a pilot program of cycling games in kindergarten to help introduce cycling early in life and a traffic education program at primary schools to create better cyclist behavior.

The cycling games program intends to familiarize children with cycling culture and safety

With all these efforts to improve the quality of life for the people, Santiago won STA 2017 and will be the site of Mobilize 2017, ITDP’s annual Sustainable Transport Summit, supported by the Volvo Research and Education Foundations. This event will give international transportation researchers and professionals an opportunity to experience this emerging city as a learning lab for best practices in sustainable transport. For more information, visit mobilizesummit.org

ITDP’s annual sustrans summit MOBILIZE in Santiago this year

30th May 2017 by admin

For three days next month, 200 urban transport and development planners, practitioners, and officials, world-class researchers, and NGO representatives will convene in Santiago to share opportunities, challenges, and study the example of Santiago as an international best practice in pedestrian, cycling, public transit, and policy. Organizers expect representatives from around 20 nations to attend the MOBILIZE Summit, June 28-30, to be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Speakers will include Dr. Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities at The London School of Economics, Laura Ballesteros, Undersecretary of Planning for the Secretariat of Mobility of Mexico City, Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director of the Gehl Institute, and Dr. Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary & Smart City Mission Director, Ministry of Urban Development, India.

(Left to Right) Philipp Rhode, Laura Ballesteros, Shin-pei Tsay and Sameer Sharma

MOBILIZE is an annual summit organized by ITDP. The summit aims to elevate the winner of the annual Sustainable Transport Award. MOBILIZE spotlights the achievements of the winning city and gives transport professionals and researchers from around the world an opportunity to experience the city as a learning lab with lessons on how to get world class projects implemented.

Last June, Santiago was announced as the winner of the Sustainable Transport Award, selected for major improvements in pedestrian space, cycling, and public transit, by a committee of international transport experts. Together, the STA and MOBILIZE highlight an elite group of international cities that inspire and catalyze more cities around the world to implement transport solutions of their own.

Director of Mobility Miguel Olivares accepting the award award from STA Committee Chair, Michael Kodransky, at the ceremony in Washington, DC

“MOBILIZE will bring together leading thinkers and city shapers for a capacity building opportunity using Santiago as a learning laboratory. Santiago was chosen this year for implementing strategic projects that focus on improving walking conditions as a top priority,” said Michael Kodransky, Chair of the STA Committee and Head of MOBILIZE, “Walking infrastructure and access to transit stations are a big concern for cities all over the world. Santiago has made walking, cycling, and public transit in the city center a key component of improving quality of life and easing congestion. The lessons and challenges from Santiago will surely resonate with other municipalities.”

Participants, including representatives from the Municipality of Santiago, Santiago Metro region, and the Chilean Ministries of Transport and Housing, will spend half the day in workshops sharing ideas and best practices in sustainable transport, development, and urban planning, and half the day on site visits in and around the city, including visits to Transantiago, the public bicycle and cycle network, and a walking tour of the newly-redesigned streets in the city center.

“We are very pleased to participate in MOBILIZE, and welcome participants to this key global summit on sustainable transport. This June, the eyes of the sustainable transport community will be on Santiago, and those who visit us will find a very interesting opportunity to learn from these new changes and advances that our municipality, and the city region, have made,” said the Mayor of the Municipality of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri.

ITDP is organizing the summit in partnership with the Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF), and additional sponsors, and is consulting with a local host committee as planning moves forward.

Mayor Felipe Alessandri, Host
Juan Carlos Muñoz, Chair, Director of the Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence
Claudio Orrego, Intendant of the Metropolitan Region
Paulina Saball, Minister of Housing and Urbanism
Claudio Olivares Medina, Bicivilizate

2017 will be the second annual MOBILIZE Summit. The first was held in 2016 in Yichang, China by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in co-operation with VREF and the City of Yichang. More information on MOBILIZE Yichang is available.

Sustainable transport and development professionals interested in attending should contact Nora.Pena@itdp.org to request an invitation. Members of the press interested in attending should contact Jemilah.Magnusson@itdp.org . For more information, visit mobilizesummit.org.

Coimbatore’s sustrans initiatives lauded by international experts

28th March 2017 by admin

“Sustainable change through transport is something that needs to be discussed at length. However, what is missing from these conversations is the participation of actual commuters. Those who use public transport, those who walk, those who cycle. Here in Coimbatore, though, actual users of public spaces and public transport are very involved in these discussions,” says Mr. Clayton Lane, CEO of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, sharing how thoroughly impressed he was at the level of community involvement in Coimbatore.

Inspired by livable cities across the world, Coimbatore has kicked off various sustainable transport (sustrans) initiatives, and these changes in the cityscape are being brought about with incredible public support. The city’s sustrans initiatives include — the Model Roads project to design safe streets for all, encouraging more walking and cycling, and the Lake Eco-restoration project to rejuvenate eight lakes in the city and create a 30km eco-mobility corridor around them.

To discuss Coimbatore’s transformation through sustrans initiatives, experts from the field were at Coimbatore on March 18, 2017, to add their inputs as well as learn about the process that has been initiated.

Picture showing a 10m pilot stretch on DB Road that is being constructed as part of the “Model Roads” initiative

Picture showing a cross-section through the underground ducts of a 10m pilot stretch on DB Road that is being constructed as part of the “Model Roads” initiative

“It all started with the Car-free Sundays initiative”, said Dr. K. Vijayakarthikeyan IAS, Commissioner of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, during the round-table discussion. He explained how the car-free Sundays event helped create awareness about the need for walking and cycling infrastructure, becoming a milestone in Coimbatore’s journey towards sustainable mobility. “If we could make streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists for 3-4 hours every weekend, why not at all times? This was how the idea of the Model Roads project was conceived!”

Coimbatore’s commitment to launch car-free Sundays and follow through with their plans on Model Roads led to its selection as a Smart City. The proposals for the Smart City Mission were created with inputs from the people. “We Coimbatoreans have big dreams as to how our city should be. And our dynamic Commissioner and Corporation support our dreams. They encourage all of us including NGOs to take part in the action towards sustainability”, said Mr. C.R.Swaminathan, President of the Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC).

Under the Smart City mission, the primary demand from the people including organisations such as Siruthuli and RAAC, was the rejuvenation of the 8 lakes in the heart of Coimbatore. The city is blessed with a series of lakes, that have been neglected and polluted. The citizens wanted the lakes restored and a 30km eco-mobility corridor linking them . The Lake Eco-restoration project has been tendered out and the consultant for the same will be selected by the end of March, 2017.

A visit to the sites of the Model Roads initiative, as well as the Lake Restoration initiative proved fruitful as experts feel that Coimbatore is on the right track in its sustrans journey.

A visit to the sites of the Model Roads project, as well as the Lake Restoration initiative proved fruitful as experts feel that Coimbatore is on the right track in its sustrans journey.

In a city that is so willing to reduce its carbon footprint, there is much potential for a transition away from fossil fuel-driven personal motor vehicles, especially to low-emission electric vehicles. Mr.Leonardo Lacerda, the Environmental Programme Director of the Oak Foundation advocated this shift during the meeting, given that Coimbatore is home to the popular e-vehicle production company, Ampere.

While discussing other ways and means to reduce the city’s carbon footprint, members of Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore put forth the following points with the aim of shifting people away from private vehicles to public transport:

Implementing a modern IT based parking management system
Strengthening and improving the existing public transport services
Integration of public transport with with a well-connected rapid transit system

The discussion was peppered with many feasible suggestions and one of the bigger ideas that captured everyone’s attention was the need for a Transit-Oriented Master Plan for the city. Representing the urban planning community of Coimbatore, Ar. Arun from Arun & Associates stressed the need for planning to focus on creating more transit near people, and bringing people near transit.

“There are many mid-sized cities in Tamil Nadu”, said Ms. Shreya Gadepalli, Director – South Asia, ITDP. “Chennai, being a large metropolitan area, is generally seen as a higher standard for them to reach. On the other hand, Coimbatore owing to its similar size is inspiring these cities to work for SusTrans changes. ‘Coimbatore is doing it, we would also like to try’, is the mantra that is driving sustainable transformation in cities like Madurai. Kudos Coimbatore, for showing the right way forward!”

Click here for the exclusive with Mr. Clayton Lane, published in the Times of India on 20th March, 2017.

People’s day out: Shoppers welcome T. Nagar Pedestrian Plaza

3rd March 2017 by admin

“He doesn’t want to leave yet! He hasn’t even had his breakfast, but in his enjoyment, he’s forgotten his hunger!” Mrs. Lalitha, a resident of T.Nagar, thus ended up spending the entire morning at Pondy Bazaar with her 7 year-old son Pranav. Pranav, who has nobody at home to play with, found not just games, but also company and a lot of space in T.Nagar to keep him entertained. His mother, who also participated in the games, reliving her childhood days, enjoyed a fun-filled, nostalgic shopping trip.

This alternate shopping experience was on the occasion of the second trial run of the proposed Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Plaza. Owing to the success of the first trial run of the plaza, a second trial was organised by the Greater Corporation of Chennai on the 25th February, 2017 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm along Sir Thyagaraya Road. Though a hit amongst the people who visited, the shopkeepers remained concerned that the plaza would affect their sales.

Pondy Bazaar, located in the heart of the city, is known for being a famous shopping destination, with both small stores and big brands lining the stretch. This shopping promenade is best experienced on foot, giving one the opportunity to stop-and-shop to one’s content. In order to transform this hub into a haven, a pedestrian plaza has been proposed along Sir Thyagaraya Road as a Smart City initiative.

As a first step towards creating this plaza — for collecting citizen feedback and building support for the project — a part of the road was converted into a pedestrian zone for the first trial run on November 20th, 2016, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Visitors witnessed a new Pondy Bazaar, bustling with activity and games throughout the morning. The lack of congestion despite diverted traffic further added to the success of the experiment.

The first trial run went on smoothly, with no traffic congestion

Similar to the first trial run, the 700m stretch between Thanikachalam Road junction and Panagal Park was closed off to cars, autos, shared autos and vans, during the second trial run. Two wheelers and buses were allowed along the stretch both ways, although on a shorter width of four meters on either side of the median. The traffic rerouting was quite successful, with incredible support from the Chennai Traffic Police.

Due to the longer duration of this trial, the activities were split into various slots across the morning and afternoon sessions. The morning was dedicated to kids, with games such as carrom, chess & life-sized snake & ladder, and activities like yoga, craft with newspaper & a drawing competition on Smart City. Young drummers and dancers dazzled the crowd in the afternoon while the elders learned more about first aid at the training camp organised by the NGO Alert. The health camps organised by the Corporation were also a hit among the older people. Restaurants set up tables & chairs outside, to serve those who wanted to snack while enjoying the outdoor activities.

In terms of facilities, parking was provided at the site of the proposed multi-storey car park at the Thanikachalam Road junction. On-street parking was also arranged for on Bashyam Road in front of Panagal park and Thyagaraya Road between Anna Salai and Nair road. Water and seating were provided all along the street at regular intervals for people’s convenience. Shuttle service in the form of battery-operated cars was made available for the elders.

Pedestrian counts and pedestrian user surveys were conducted to study the quantum of pedestrian traffic in this section of the street as well as collect public feedback. Vehicle-volume video surveys were also conducted at the intersections to study the flow of traffic and pile-up, if any. The results of these surveys, along with those from the first trial run, will be used to decide upon the final design of the proposed plaza.

Visualising the proposed T. Nagar pedestrian plaza

The shopkeepers were concerned about the loss of parking that will result from the pedestrian plaza, which they believe might affect their profits. The appointed consultants for the project, Darashaw, along with members of ITDP, explained to them that the idea of mandatory parking for shopping is a myth. Cases from the world over were presented to them.

Pedestrianisation across the globe

Cities across the world are celebrating the pedestrian and the cyclist. Many have created completely pedestrianised areas to provide better mobility for pedestrians, enhance the shopping experience & volume, and reduce pollution level and the number of accidents. Despite initial resistances, most of these projects have proven to be great successes.

Copenhagen, for instance, set out to pedestrianise its main shopping street, Stroget, in 1962. In the 1960s, the increasing number of vehicles led to growing pressure on Stroget for both moving traffic and parking. As a result, shoppers became confined to a narrow, almost non-existent footpath, with no room to stop-and-shop.

In 1962, 15,800 sq.m of pedestrian area was created. Today, a total of 100,000 sq.m once dedicated to motorised transit has been converted to traffic-free space for pedestrians in Copenhagen. Stroget now has 6 times more area for pedestrians than in 1962 with a 10-12m width carrying 145 people/min. More importantly, the shops have seen an increase in sales by 30%.

Similarly in New York, to ease traffic congestion throughout the midtown grid and improve pedestrian safety, mayor Bloomberg decided to pedestrianise Broadway around Times Square for a trial on May 24, 2009. Initially, the plaza had a few tables, 376 rubber folding chairs, potted plants and orange barrier cones.The plaza is now being redesigned permanently at $55 million.

After pedestrianisation, Times Square has seen a 33% reduction in traffic related injuries. Sales have risen by 71% – the biggest growth in history – and the number of shops has doubled. The testing of the Time’s Square pedestrianisation over the years has taught the world a valuable lesson – trials over a long period help understand the needs of the stakeholders better.

Snøhetta’s proposed design for Times Square

Pondy Bazaar pedestrian plaza to be rolled out soon

The Greater Corporation of Chennai aims to see the pedestrian plaza take shape on the ground by the end of the year. If all goes according to plan, Chennai will have a brand new, revamped public space in its centre, right on the street!

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

1st March 2017 by admin

“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!

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

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.”

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.

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!