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InFocus: Building ‘smart,’ customer-oriented transit

25th August 2015 by admin

ITDP brings you a monthly digest of sustainable transport and urban development news from around the world. From Indian Railway’s new paperless ticketing system to Sydney’s electronic signs to improve parking management, this month’s InFocus looks at how technology has helped create customer-oriented transit systems.

Cities stagnate when their residents and visitors are stuck in traffic. To provide seamless connectivity and reduce traffic delays, cities need to focus on moving people, not vehicles. This calls for the creation of high-quality rapid transit along with effective parking management systems. The integration of modern payment and ticketing technologies can go a long way toward making urban transport systems more convenient—both for first-time users and regular commuters.  Here is a look at how technology can hasten the shift to sustainable transport.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: news Tagged With: In Focus, Parking, Public Transport, Traffic reduction

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Indian smart cities need a tenfold increase of mass rapid transit

10th June 2015 by admin

India is urbanising at an unprecedented rate. A third of the country’s population—an estimated 400 million people—now lives in cities. As they cope with this growth, cities are realising that traditional transport solutions like wider roads and flyovers will not provide a lasting solution to their transport problems.

As the national capital has shown, these solutions are only causing high levels of air pollution and unsafe roads while mobility remains poor for the vast majority, including car users. Smart cities need to embrace a radically different approach to urban mobility: one that focuses on more efficient, sustainable forms of mobility like public transport, walking, and cycling.

At roughly 400 km, India has 1 km of high quality rapid transit per million urban residents—a thirtieth of France, the present world leader. To keep pace with its urban growth, India needs a ten-fold increase of its mass rapid transit supply. At the present rates of building mass transit in India, it would take two generations to build enough rapid transit!

Interestingly, developing countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico have 4-5 times more rapid transit than India. These countries are also expanding their systems at significantly higher rates because they are creating surface systems like bus rapid transit (BRT) that are cheaper and quicker to implement. BRT systems feature dedicated median lanes for buses, allowing commuters to bypass congestion. They also provide features such as stepless boarding, off-board fare collection, and real-time passenger information to reduce delays and improve customer service.

Quick evolution of the Janmarg network

The Ahmedabad BRT system—known as Janmarg or “the People’s Way”—has revolutionised expectations about bus-based mass rapid transport in India. In a quick span of five years, Janmarg has expanded from a 12.5 km corridor to a network of 88 km of dedicated BRT corridors with 120 stations, providing connectivity across the entire city. Janmarg demonstrates that BRT can provide metro-quality service at a fraction of the cost.

Rapid transit, while important, is not enough. Many Indian cities have skeletal bus services or none at all. In their absence, people depend on intermediate public transport modes that are uncomfortable, unsafe, and highly polluting. The lack of reliable public transport is causing a shift to private two wheelers and cars. Hence, a formal bus-based public transport service is a necessity in all urban areas with a population of over two lakhs. In all, Indian cities will need over 4 lakh new city buses and minibuses by 2030.

In addition, streets must be redesigned to support walking and cycling—clean modes of transport that still play an important role in Indian cities. While more than a third of all the trips in most of our cities are made by foot or cycle, public transport trips too start and end on foot (or cycle)—making walking and cycling integral to India’s transport systems. Indian cities need to build 30,000 km of wide and accessible footpaths and 20,000 km of cycle tracks over the next decade.

Complete streets with wide footpaths, Chennai

In Chennai, the Corporation has proposed to create a safe and pleasant network of footpaths, cycle tracks and greenways through the entire city to arrest the current decline in walking and cycling. The first phase of the project has been implemented. Streets with wide carriageways and narrow footpaths have been replaced by wide, continuous and unhindered walking spaces, safe pedestrian crossings, protected cycle tracks, properly scaled carriageways, conveniently placed bus stops, and clearly designated on-street parking.

Investments promoting walking, cycling and public transport will not bear fruit unless Indian cities stop counterproductive car-centric investments like flyovers and elevated roads. No city in the world has solved its congestion problem by building more roads. Yet Indian cities are repeating the mistakes of developed countries. Rather, cities must control personal motor vehicle use through parking restrictions and market-based pricing.

Tackle congestion by limiting parking

Our cities should follow a simple mantra: build transit, add density, control parking. That is, cities should allow higher densities in areas where there is good connectivity to mass rapid transit while simultaneously limiting parking supply. Parking fees should be pegged to parking demand.

Ahmedabad’s Development Plan 2021 embraces this mantra. It encourages the use of public transport and promotes a compact city by allowing higher density commercial and residential activities along BRT corridors while removing minimum requirements for off-street parking in new buildings. All developments are allowed only two basements of free parking.

While these walking, cycling and public transport initiatives will require substantial funds, they will cost only a fifth as much as a car oriented future, with significantly better results for all. Sustainable transport will cut the outflow of foreign exchange for fossil fuel imports by 40 per cent, reduce air pollution by a third, and save tens of thousands of lives on our roads. Let’s invest in sustainable solutions that secure an equitable, liveable future for our cities.

This article was first published in BW Smart Cities.

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Ahmedabad, Bus Rapid Transit, Chennai, National, Parking, Walking and Cycling

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Demystifying parking: Smart solutions to cities’ parking woes

10th March 2015 by admin

Cities across the world are embracing progressive and bold solutions to tackle traffic congestion and parking challenges. They follow a simple mantra—build transit, add density, control parking. Recognising that cheap and excessive parking—not density—creates traffic congestion, they have started to limit parking supply, charge demand pegged user fee, and use the revenue to strengthen walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure.

Ahmedabad recently overhauled its Development Plan with inputs from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and other experts. The new plan encourages high density development—ranging from 4.0 to 5.4 FSI—along its extensive bus rapid transit network and proposed metro rail lines. More significantly, in its local area plan for the central business district, the development authority has proposed to not only remove parking requirements altogether, but also cap parking supply in buildings to a maximum of two levels below ground. Any additional supply is deducted from the allowed FSI.

Parking regulation remains ineffective unless backed by a robust management system that clearly define parking zones, peg user fee to demand, and use an IT based mechanism for information, payment and enforcement. Parking fees goes up or down based on demand data. According to Donald Shoup, world’s foremost parking expert, the user fee should be high enough to keep at least 15% of the parking supply in each block vacant during peak demand periods. The availability of a few empty spots at each location drastically reduces the time people spend looking for a parking space, thereby reducing localised congestion.

Amsterdam has 8 parking zones with fees varying from €0.90 per hour in the low demand areas to €5.00 per hour in the historical city centre.

Mumbai recently categorized different parts of the city into three groups—low, medium and high demand—with parking fees ranging from 20 to 60 rupees per hour. A similar parking regime in Amsterdam helped decrease car traffic in inner city by 20%. It also led to a 20% decline in people searching for a space to park. A simple electronic payment system allows users to make payment easily, while eliminating parking revenue leakage. Scan cars with automatic license plate number recognition technology and parking wardens with IT enabled devices enforce the system.

Cities are also innovatively using parking revenue to encourage sustainable modes of transport. 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.

Parking reforms not only reduce congestion and pollution, but also provide resources to improve walking, cycling, and public transport infrastructure. Moreover, demand-based pricing ensures that vacant spaces are available in high-demand parking zones for short-term high-value car users while preventing overuse by all-day, low-value users. Removing minimum parking requirements for zones with good transit access help slash development costs, creating an opportunity for cities to develop affordable housing and other uses with its urban cores.

More resources from ITDP on parking reform:

InFocus: Revolutionary Parking Reforms

Park it right

Parking: Searching for the good life

Sizing Up Parking Space

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

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Ahmedabad, Parking, Sustainable Transport Policy

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InFocus: Revolutionary Parking Reforms

23rd February 2015 by admin

ITDP brings you a monthly digest of sustainable transport and urban development news from around the world. From Chicago’s parking-lite apartments to Mumbai’s new parking policy, this month’s InFocus is all about revolutionary parking reforms introduced by cities across the globe.

Parking is a mystery. Many governments push for more parking in buildings, but rather than alleviating the parking problem, it leads to massive traffic jams, severe air pollution, and more road deaths. Under the illusion that density creates congestion, governments also control building density. What they miss is that parking, not density, creates traffic congestion. An excessive supply of cheap parking induces people to use personal motor vehicles—even when good public transport is provided.

Many cities across the world are now realising their past mistakes. They now follow a simple mantra: build transit, add density, cut parking. Put another way, where there is good connectivity to mass rapid transit, building density is welcome but parking is not. Parking fees are pegged to parking demand. When demand increases, the fee also increases. Parking revenue is used to build better walking and cycling infrastructure and to expand public transport.

“Chicago’s new law requires only half as many parking spaces for housing and no parking spaces for shops or offices in buildings within walking distance of a rapid transit station.”

Chicago:New zoning ordinance cuts parking minimums in half

Many new parking-lite apartments are rising along the Chicago Transit Authority’s rail lines, thanks to a recent change to the city’s zoning ordinance that has made it easier to build buildings with significantly lower parking requirements near rapid transit. Streetsblog reports.

Mumbai introduces progressive parking policy

From demand-based charging of on-street parking to new regulations on off-street parking, Mumbai takes a bold move to manage parking in the city. Though the implementation of the new on-street parking system—which sought to encourage the use of public transport—set off a fierce debate , the details of the policy, as reported by Times of India, are definitely noteworthy. The city is also tackling off-street parking head-on by slashing parking minimums near rapid transit stations. Midday reports.

Parking spots to Parklets: SF’s secret to increasing foot-traffic

The phenomenon turning parking spaces into “parklets” in San Francisco has led to greater foot traffic and higher sales for the units establishing and running such parklets. The New York Times captures the details.

Filed Under: news Tagged With: In Focus, Parking

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Paving the Way for Smart Cities in India

19th August 2014 by admin

Adapted from an article by Christopher Kost and Jaya Bharathi Bathmaraj in Times of India

The growing traffic problems in Indian cities call for urgent and effective remedies. Yet old-school “solutions” such as flyovers, wider roads, and elevated expressways actually make matters worse. Such infrastructure may provide a short-term illusion of relief from traffic woes, but by making it easier for people to use their own vehicles, new roads attract even more traffic and repeat the vicious cycle of congestion all over again.

Smart cities realize that the key to urban mobility is moving people, not vehicles. This means giving priority to the cleanest, most efficient modes: walking, cycling, and public transport.

To build the popular Cheonggyecheon Greenway in Seoul, the city torn down an elevated highway, replacing it with a vibrant public space.

Around the world, cities from Seoul to San Francisco are tearing down flyovers and replacing them with human scaled spaces that promote green modes of transport. In doing so, these cities have been able to reduce pollution, improve safety, and ensure that high quality public transport offers a meaningful alternative to sitting in traffic.

It’s time for Indian cities to do the same, and those in the State of Tamil Nadu should take the lead.

One of the fundamental requirements of a smart transport system is footpaths. In India, the Corporation of Chennai’s groundbreaking initiative to create high quality footpaths on the city’s major roads has shown that better designs can carve out space for broad, continuous walkways while streamlining the flow of traffic. In addition, Indian cities should invest in more dedicated walking spaces. Successful examples, such as the well-used pedestrian zone around the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai (photo above), should be replicated and expanded throughout the state and country.

The next key piece of redesigning India’s streets must be the rapid expansion of cycle tracks. Local bodies, the Highways Department, and other agencies that oversee the design of major streets all have a role to play in ensuring that every cycle journey is a safe one. Though the State of Tamil Nadu is a pioneer in the mass distribution of bicycles to schoolchildren, students often abandon their bikes for motorized scooters as they get older. India must build streets with dignified cycling facilities, allowing cycling to become a lifelong habit.

Rapid transit requirements in six major cities in the state of Tamil Nadu.

For longer-distance trips, Indian cities need fast, reliable mass transit to meet the growing demand for mobility. By international standards, our cities need 40 km of mass transit for every 10 lakh (one million) residents.

This means that the six largest cities in the State of Tamil Nadu require over 630 km of rapid transit. Currently there are only around 100 km—all of it in Chennai. At present rates, it would take two generations to build enough rapid transit!

We need to quickly scale up our ability to provide high capacity public transport corridors in all of the major urban centres in the state. One of the most cost effective options is bus rapid transit (BRT). BRT systems feature dedicated median lanes for buses, allowing commuters to bypass the congestion in mixed traffic lanes. BRT can be deployed quickly and at a fraction of the cost of rail-based systems.

Finally, as cities expand sustainable transport options, they need to do a better job of managing streets by ending free and subsidized parking. The cost of on-street parking should reflect the value of the public land that it occupies. The cities of Chennai and Coimbatore are showing the way through their initiatives to implement modern, IT-based parking management and enforcement systems. The revenue from parking fees can be plowed back into alternative transport initiatives, such as better streets and improved public transport.

To read the article click here.

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Bus Rapid Transit, Footpath, Parking, Public Transport, Walking and Cycling

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    June 10, 2015

  • InFocus: Building ‘smart,’ customer-oriented transit

    August 25, 2015

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    February 16, 2016

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