ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

OCO Chennai Builds Support for Non-Motorized Transport

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In the City of Chennai, the welfare of pedestrians and cyclists is often overlooked as crowded roads teeming with cars and rickshaws become even more congested and demand more space. Sidewalks are rare, quality sidewalks even rarer, and crosswalks, when they exist, are often ignored. Promoting non-motorized transport is a priority at ITDP, and requires a radical rethinking of the street space. By calling attention to the problems, crafting creative solutions, and building support, ITDP is helping Chennai and many other cities reshape their urban environments.

The Our Cities Ourselves Chennai workshop brought together many prominent voices in shaping Chennai’s future, including the Commissioner of the Chennai Corporation, Vikram Kapur (center, blue shirt) and Chennai Mayor Saidai Samiyappan Duraisamy.

Over the weekend, ITDP India organized a day-long workshop around non-motorized infrastructure issues in the city of Chennai as part of the Our Cities Ourselves workshop series, supported by Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF) and ClimateWorks Foundation. The Chennai City Commissioner and Mayor were in attendance, supporting new footpaths across the city and greater street safety. Caroline Samponaro, Senior Director of Campaigns and Organizing at Transportation Alternatives in the US, shared her experience of working with the government in New York in bringing change to the city’s streets. “Building dedicated bus lanes, cycle tracks and footpaths is the greatest thing any Corporation can do. And if you build it, people will use it,” she said.

Attendees of the workshop included engineers from various city departments and local neighborhood districts, members of the disability alliance, local bicycle advocates, traffic police, and members of good governance groups. Workshop participants developed ideas for street improvements in smaller groups, and presented their recommendations to the Commissioner of the Corporation of Chennai for consideration.

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Our Cities Ourselves (OCO) 2013 in Chennai, India, with support from the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), Corporation of Chennai (COC), Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), Tamil Nadu Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (TNCMA) and other partner organizations, is an exhibition and events program that offers solutions to support walking, cycling and mass transportation options for a more sustainable future. Highlighting international best practices, the program will foster an exchange of ideas on present urban conditions, key challenges, and solutions to realize our vision for better streets and better cities in Chennai.

New Video: Janmarg BRT Changing Transit in Ahmedabad, India

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Touting the Janmarg BRT systems success, ITDP India released a video promoting the many benefits of sustainable transportation in Ahmedabad, India. Janmarg, which opened in 2009, paved the way for further sustainable transportation projects in India, and has become a model for BRT in the region. Projects such as the Indore BRT and the Rajkot BRTS, which recently reached 14,000 riders a day, were based on the Janmarg BRT. Ahmedabad was the 2010 winner of the Sustainable Transport Award, in large part due to Janmarg’s success in transforming the city’s transit landscape. The video explains how BRT cuts through the traditional problems of transportation with its accessible, efficient, and environmentally-friendly design.

Gauging Transportation Needs in Nashik, India

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Conducting a household survey in a low-income area in Nashik

In early March, ITDP joined Clean Air Initiative-Asia to implement a rapid mobility assessment tool in Nashik, a city in western India about 150km northeast of Mumbai. The project, funded by UN-Habitat, seeks to create a quick and inexpensive way to gauge transportation needs in cities with little existing data. After reviewing existing data collection methods a new rapid assessment tool was developed, which consists of two parts: a household survey and a focus group discussion. The household survey aims to collect information about many different parts of the city while the focus group discussion aims to gather data from underrepresented groups whose important input might not be covered in the household survey. The city of Nashik was selected for the first test of the new tool.

In Nashik, the focus group discussion was held on Sunday, March 3, and included representatives of the blind, the disabled, women, the medical community, and the traffic police. The discussion brought forth a variety of perspectives on transportation, with particularly informative input from women and the disabled who discussed the daily challenges of safety and access that they faced when traveling around the city.

The household survey was conducted with help from the NDMVP’s Nashik College of Architecture-Nashik, National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Nashik, and the Institute for Design Environment and Architecture (IDEA) College. These student spent four hours on a Sunday learning the survey form and practicing techniques. The actual survey was conducted on three weekdays in over 12 neighborhoods, which were scouted ahead of time by the survey team. Students visited every part of Nashik, from informal settlements in the heart of the city to new, high-income areas in the outskirts.

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Focus group discussion in Nashik

With oversight from university professors and the survey team, students went to a variety of households in each neighborhood. Over the course of three days, over 1,000 surveys were conducted. Each survey, conducted by a team of two students, took approximately one hour, and most households were happy to provide information in order to improve transportation in Nashik. From the survey, ITDP and Clean Air Asia learned a great deal about the City of Nashik and about conducting surveys in the Indian context. ITDP will further refine this tool for use in other cities that lack transportation data.

Everything is Everywhere: Land Use in India

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Indian streets are a messy mix of people, cyclists, rickshaws, taxis, cars, buses, even the occasional cow. But within this mess is the vibrancy and fluidity of street life, like a tasty street soup where seemingly unlikely things come together and strange things might be bobbing around. Land use is India is similarly messy and mixed, and also creates a vibrant street life where activities are located close to one another and it is easy for someone to find what they need within walking distance. Everything is everywhere, it seems.

Land use zoning in India is Euclidean based, meaning it creates land use classifications (i.e. residential, multi-family, commercial) by geographic area, but instead of keeping those uses separate, land use in Indian cities typically builds off of the uses in one zone to create a more integrated approach. For example, in Chennai, the first land use category, primary residential, allows residential, as well as cottage industries, petty shops, small farms, and schools of commerce. The mixed residential zone allows everything that was allowed in primary residential, as well as banks, restaurants, shops, bakeries, etc.  The commercial land use zone allows everything in primary residential and mixed residential, and then some.  And so it builds.

According to ITDP’s Eight Principles for Transport in Urban Life mixed uses is one component of good urban development.  If India has mixed use down, what, then, is the main issue for zoning in India? For Indian cities, the two biggest issues as represented by the Eight Principles are density and connectivity.

How should we define density in dense environments like Indian cities? The floor area ratio (known as floor space index in India) is usually set at a uniform and low rate across the city.  Indian cities are using transfer of development rights (TDR) to encourage densification in certain areas, but those areas are often at the outskirts of the city center.  Essentially, TDR is being used to not really densify new areas, but to de-densify the crowded centers.  This may be resulting in sprawl and not in focusing growth in strategic ways, like around transit.

Planning typically is done by the state, not the city, and only looks at main arterials.  The smaller streets and the connections within an area are often missing.  So while land use zoning fosters everything everywhere within walking distance, the connections to make that happen – the micro street grid – may be missing, especially in new areas. And given the growth of Indian cities, we want to make sure that the new areas have the vibrancy of the older areas – where the streets are vibrant places in their own right and help us go everywhere – where mixed uses, density, and connectivity create good places where we want to be.

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Transit-Oriented Development in Pimpri Chinchwad

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by C. Ranga Rohini, ITDP India

With an urbanization rate of over 40 percent in the Indian state of Maharashtra, planning authorities and public transport operators face the increased responsibility of providing efficient transport systems while improving the quality of urban life. Pimpri Chinchwad, one of the state’s fastest growing cities, is set to open the first two corridors of a planned 40 km bus rapid transit (BRT) network in early 2014. To ensure that as many residents as possible can benefit from the BRT, the city has begun exploring mechanisms to achieve greater harmony between land use regulations and the emerging mass rapid transit system.

Officials of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) recognize that there is an urgent need to transform existing urban landscapes from a collection of free-standing structures into a cohesive urban environment centered around high quality public transport. Developing a strong framework to guide future growth is essential to achieving this vision. For this purpose, ITDP partnered with PCMC to orgnaize a one-day workshop on transit-oriented development (TOD). The workshop brought together planners, engineers, and other senior officials with experts from ITDP.

Luc Nadal, ITDP’s Technical Director for Urban Development, presented on the link between urban form and transport mode choices. He emphasized the need to create compact, permeable neighborhoods, citing international examples such as Central Saint Giles Court in London, IJburg in Amsterdam, and Quartier Messana in Paris. Luc also introduced ITDP’s TOD Standard as a tool to assess urban developments located near public transport nodes. For the purpose of the workshop, the ITDP team analysed a 1.2 square kilometre study area centered around three BRT stations in Pimpale Saudagar to identify existing issues and to assess the changes required in the urban fabric to facilitate transit-oriented development.

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Pratibha Bhadane, Senior Town Planner, PCMC, presents a proposal to use parking restrictions within 400 m of BRT stations to spur private “parking markets” outside the BRT influence area.

Participants addressed the following topics in three groups:

– Transit-oriented land use planning at the city level. The group explored mechanisms for aligning job density and infrastructure growth along BRT corridors with projected residential growth. The group also discussed the role of off-street parking reforms and affordable housing as means of promoting the use of public transport.

– The street network and the public realm. Group members identified opportunities to prioritize non-motorized and public transport modes, create an interlinked network of public spaces, and finance these projects through street management mechanisms.

– Built form in the private domain and its interface with the public realm. This involved the identification of preferred building typologies and forms that contribute to the public domain as well as institutional mechanisms to enforce these proposals. Viable financial mechanisms were also developed to route revenue from TOD areas to fund infrastructure improvements in the region.
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Assessing walkability in Pimple Saudagar: poor street connectivity limits the catchment area of the BRT system. The green area represents the actual 5 minute pedestrian catchment area within the ideal 400 m buffer around three stations.

Participants agreed that denser development should be planned in the 400 m catchment areas along BRT and metro corridors in order to ensure that the majority of the 740,000 new residents expected to move to Pimpri Chinchwad over the next decade can find accommodation within walking distance of a mass rapid transit station. Participants also developed strong proposals for parking policies to reduce use of private motorized vehicles and incentives for inclusive development through the provision of smaller, affordable units on the BRT corridors.

In terms of better connectivity to station areas, they agreed on the need to restrict block sizes and create a dense network of high quality, safe walking and cycling streets lined by vibrant commercial and residential edges. Implications of increased density on physical and social infrastructure need to be assessed. In addition, participants identified a need for better financial analysis of development rights systems. There was also consensus among the participants on the need to consolidate existing rules and validate existing assumptions through a pilot project in the region. The workshop marks a milestone in the land use and transport planning for Pimpri Chinchwad and has paved the way for second round of discussions among private developers, resident welfare associations, and other stakeholders in the region.

ITDP India Workshops in Pune and Chennai Focus on Transport Planning through Capacity Building

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by C. Ranga Rohini, ITDP

Indian cities have traditionally been centered around walking and cycling as the primary means of transport. For example, Chennai’s Comprehensive Transportation Study reports that walking and cycling account for almost 34 percent of all trips made in the city. With an increasing number of private vehicles on the road, the demand on road space growing by the day. Although there is an inherent recognition of the need to improve walking and cycling facilities in general, there is little understanding of design measures that could help make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

To address all these issues, ITDP held a series of capacity building workshops in Pune and Chennai from 4 to 8 February. The workshops brought together municipal engineers and officials working in the field together with street design expert Michael King from Nelson Nygaard. The workshops sought to bridge the gap between theory, reaality, and practice.

Mr. King specialises in multimodal transportation for livable communities. By working at the intersection of transportation and urban design, with a particular emphasis on pedestrian safety, bicycle facilities, traffic calming, and street architecture, he endeavours to ensure that streets serve the diverse needs of urban residents—beyond their role as a conduit for motor vehicle traffic.

In each workshop, participants formed groups and went out to visit a given site. The site audits gave participants a chance to examine the grim conditions faced by pedestrians every day. These issues were then addressed through a collaborative design exercise among the members of the group, the key aspects of which were then presented to the other groups to enable cross-learning and debate.

Considering that the city of Chennai has initiated a project to improve footpaths on 71 “bus route roads” in the city, the exercise comes at a crucial time to enable the decision makers and engineers to interact with experts and chart out a way forward. In Chennai, eager participation from local bureaucrats gave an impetus to implement some of the proposals as pilot projects, with Mayor Saidai Duraisamy indicating that all 400-odd main streets within the Corporation limits will be taken up for pedestrian improvements over the next 4 years.

ITDP is in the process of compiling the results of the workshop and preparing implementation plans based on participant drawings. Earlier workshops are beginning to yield results: in the city of Pimpri Chinchwad, officials have initiated the redesign of an intersection that was the subject of a workshop in September 2012. To conclude, in the words of Mr. Vikram Kapur, Commissioner, Corporation of Chennai, “All that is required is a change in mindset and a will to do it.”

Envisioning a Comprehensive Transport Plan for Chennai

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by C. Ranga Rohini, ITDP

With a population of over 4.7 million and with a rapidly growing economy, the city of Chennai faces the challenge of providing efficient, safe, and reliable transport solutions to its citizens without compromising on quality of life. The onus of this responsibility currently falls on a number of agencies in the city and brings with it a slew of issues in planning, coordination, and accountability. The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) was formed in November 2010 with the aim to address these issues—to serve as a single nodal agency that directs planning, operations, and monitoring of various transport modes in the metropolitan area of Chennai. One of CUMTA’s key responsibilities is the preparation of a Comprehensive Transport Plan that looks at the planning and development of public transport options and their implementation through various agencies.

To facilitate this process, CMDA, in collaboration with the Institute of Transport and Development Policy, organized a workshop from 22 to 24 January 2013 that brought together various government stakeholders along with experts and academicians to discuss the CUMTA’s vision and to develop viable strategies and actions to carry the vision forward.

Participants formed groups to deliberate on four primary topic areas: 1) CUMTA as an agent of change for the Chennai Metropolitan Area: defining CUMTA’s role as a planning, monitoring, and coordinating body to facilitate interagency coordination. 2) Developing an integrated, high quality bus and BRT network for the entire city: expanding the bus fleet, implementing BRT, introducing an integrated fare collection systems across modes, and providing customer information. 3) Improving streets and the public realm: developing pedestrian friendly street design standards and planning guidelines, identifying greenway networks, and improving intermodal links. 4) Management of road space and travel demand: implementing a robust on-street parking management system, facilitating compact development around public transport stations, and implementing dynamic road pricing solutions.

At the workshop, Mr. Ben Plowden, Director of Surface Transport at Transport for London, described the city of London’s experience in bringing multiple public transport providers under a single umbrella, starting in 2000. He showed how London has been able to achieve a reduction in the use of private cars over the past decade through the steady expansion of sustainable transport options, including expanded bus service and a network of high quality cycle tracks. “You need a transport system that is adequate to meet the demands that the city will put on it,” pointed out Mr. Plowden. “That means focusing on mass transit.”

Workshop attendees included representatives from CMDA, the Corporation of Chennai, Chennai Metro Rail Limited, Highways Department, Transport Department, TNRDC, Metropolitan Transport Corporation, consultants, NGO Chennai City Connect, faculty from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, and representatives from unified metropolitan transport authorities in Bangalore and Delhi, among others.

To achieve the vision of transforming Chennai into a world-class city, a general consensus was reached on the need to assess existing resources, identify short-term goals, and focus on early wins to build CUMTA’s reputation. Participants stressed the role of data collection in enabling evidence-based planning and identified a need for a financial audit of existing spending patterns. “Data collection is critical,” explained Mr. K. Phanindra Reddy, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government of Tamil Nadu. “Unless we know the scenario we are starting with, and the lacunae that we need to address, we will be groping in the dark.”

A key initiative to emerge in the workshop’s action plan is the creation of a common information portal for all public transport modes in Chennai. Geographically focused, time-bound pilot projects on pedestrianization, parking, street design, and multi-modal integration were also identified. ITDP has begun compiling the outcomes of the workshop into a strategic plan to be adopted by CUMTA. “The stakeholders have come out with each and every suggestion,” said Mr. Reddy. “That is a critical element for success of CUMTA. It’s time that we turn our plans into assets on the street.”

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Ensuring that all Chennai residents have access to high quality public transport was a key theme during the workshop. Shown above are the areas within a 5 minute walk of public transport.

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Charrette participants debated on the potential role of CUMTA in ensuring coordination among Chennai’s transport system operators.

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Participants discussed the importance of balancing the “link” and “place” functions of streets, using Chennai’s Saidapet area as a case study.

New High Quality BRT Corridors Planned for Pimpri Chinchwad, India

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by Sam Mohamad-Khany

Pimpri Chinchwad is a city of 1.7 million in the state of Maharashtra, India. On January 5, ITDP conducted a full-day workshop on the BRT Standard, which was attended by over 25 officials from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), public transport operator Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML), and consultants Creations Pvt Ltd, S. N. Bhobe, and C. V. Kand, who are preparing detailed designs for new bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors.

Pimpri Chinchwad’s BRT network includes four corridors and spans a total length of 40 km. The goal of the workshop was to inform the BRT planning process by identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement in the current plans for new corridors. Commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi of PCMC opened the session, followed by presentations by ITDP staff on the BRT Standard and salient system features of the Janmarg BRT system in Ahmedabad. Mr Ramkrishna from UMTC, who has been appointed as a project management consultant for the region’s BRT, presented the details of the plan and design.  As a warm-up, attendees formed groups and rated the Ahmedabad system using the BRT Standard. In the afternoon, the groups rated the planned BRT lines in their own region. Groups then presented their scores to each other and engaged in lively debate about various opportunities and possible pitfalls of BRT planning and implementation. “We are now aware that what major steps to be taken to upgrade and enhance BRT service in this region,” said Rajan Patil, Joint City Engineer for PCMC.

Workshop participants identified several areas of improvement for the Pimpri Chinchwad BRT corridors, including intersection design, branding and communications, and the provision of adequate pedestrian facilities to enable passengers to reach the future BRT stations. “The workshop conducted by ITDP gave us insight about BRTS element to be incorporated in the design and planning of BRTS for PCMC,” said B. K. Gaikwad, Traffic Engineer, PCMC. “It provided ideas to our engineers, consultants, planners, and operators through discussions in interactive sessions on each of the aspects of the BRTS. Also the importance of pedestrian safety while accessing BRTS has been deliberated during this workshop. Overall, it was very helpful to PCMC.” ITDP will compile recommendations from the groups and follow up with PCMC to facilitate implementation.

The BRT Standard is available for download at www.brtstandard.org.

UN Climate Conference in Doha to Feature Two ITDP Projects

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Guangzhou, China, and Ahmedabad, India’s, bus rapid transit systems, both designed by ITDP and partners, were recognized as leaders in the fight against climate change at the 18th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha. These two systems were selected as part of the UN’s Momentum for Change Initiative, and are among nine featured “lighthouse activities” which help to curb greenhouse gas emissions, help people adapt to climate change, and benefit the urban poor.

The Guangzhou BRT was selected for excellence in mitigation and adaption, siting improvements in air pollution and passenger time savings of a combined 32 million hours per year. The quality of life improvements, specifically around Guangzhou’s “urban villages” located near the BRT corridor, and the resulting improved economic outcomes. Ahmedabad’s Janmarg BRT was selected for its mitigation impacts and reduction of overall vehicle travel, as 22 percent of commuters have switched from motorbikes to the bus since its implementation. It was also cited as a catalyst in the rejuvenation of Ahmedabad, serving to better connect the city. Both projects were selected as best practice models with high potential for scaling up and replication.

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“We are very excited to showcase this year’s lighthouse activities as they demonstrate the commitment by communities, civil society organizations, local governments and private businesses to take concrete action to address climate change. The examples are inspiring and encouraging, not least for governments who have already set the course towards greater climate resilience, but who need to take the next essential steps to galvanize the speed and scope of climate action,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres.

Projects were selected by an international advisory panel as part of the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change Initiative, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The other activities include the promotion of electric buses and rickshaws in Sri Lanka, energy efficient brick kilns in Peru and a project to support to the work of clean energy entrepreneurs in Uganda. More information on the activities, along with a description of the advisory panel and selection criteria.

ITDP India Finds Improved Mobility on Pune Bus Day

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by Kumar Manish

On a typical day, old Mumbai Pune Highway connects the Indian cities of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad with long snarls of traffic jams. For one day, however, the road was free from traffic chaos and had a steady flow during morning peak hour on Pune Bus Day, an initiative to promote and popularize public transport in the city. Various government offices and NGOs worked together to encourage commuters to leave cars at home and try the bus for a day, with the intention of demonstrating how easy it can be to take the bus. There was a 21 percent drop in the number of passengers travelling daily by private vehicles, with a massive jump of 116 per cent in number of people travelling by bus. For the event, the city added many more buses, increasing frequency from 60 buses per hour to 90 per hour, and as there were fewer cars on the road, the buses were able to move even more quickly.

Before and during Pune Bus Day, ITDP surveyed the existing traffic condition on major roads at peak traffic hours at ten different locations to compare the effects of increased bus use and decreased car use. The surveys captured the use of private vehicles (two wheelers and cars), auto rickshaws, and both official and informal buses, which include private buses and cycles. The operations for Bus Day were designed to accommodate twice the total daily trips by public transport, which, according to the surveys, decreased traffic and increased bus speeds.

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The success of Pune Bus Day suggests that the most economical and effective traffic congestion solutions involves better public transport facilities, especially express bus services like BRT, supported with traffic management and re-branding of public transport system. The initial findings from Pune Bus Day indicate that private vehicle use came down drastically on city roads improving mobility for all modes of transport. It was hassle-free movement for most of the daily commuters.The results are encouraging do show people faith in a public transport system, if adequate and prioritized facilities are provided to public transport users.

ITDP India team of Pranjali Deshpande Agashe & Pratik Dave supervised and analysed the surveys. The team got support from first year students of Padmabhushan Dr. Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, studio team of Prasanna Desai Architects and PMPML and volunteers from Art of Living foundation conducted the survey.