Walkability demands flexibility : new approach to neighborhood planning

By - Anoop Jha

Number of available choices defines quality of urban environment and experience

Walking and jogging  trail

Image shows actual walking trail around a lagoon in some part of Santa Barbara, with different route options for people to choose from, one shorter complete loop around waterbody and other longer route which also includes dotted segment. Close view  of lagoon is an incentive to walk extra length of dotted route otherwise people can take shorter route if they are in hurry or tiered. There has be different available exit choices for people, to make any pedestrian or walkable plan successful whether its planning of park or commercial complex or mega exhibition pavilion.

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What is common between Ahmedabad and Paris?

By - Anoop Jha


Quite apparent similarity in transport network at places !!!  

Transport network of any city tells story of its evolution. 

Similar City Transit Fabric 

IMAGE DISCRIPTION:

First - Road junction near Saint Lazara Terminal, Paris, France

Second - Mithakhali 6 Rasta. Ahmedabad, India

City evolves in course of time; there are many factors which shape the form and fabric of city, it can be climate or natural physiological constraints, or economy of city or prevalent transit mode, or land constraint etc. though there are vast difference in the built form of city of Paris and Ahmadabad there great similarity in the city fabric in terms of transit network, which is more apparent in terms of “road junctions” where many road arteries are radiating from the junctions as high as 6 to 8 across the city, possibly it is due to common circular and radiating overall form of city with a river dissecting it from the middle in both the cases, which makes it difficult to plan city in grid iron pattern. 

Barrier-free Environment: A long way to go

By- Anoop Jha

Contemporary fragmented Barrier-free planning calls for integration

Accessible Urban Planning

In the developing countries like India very little attention has been given to the planning of barrier free environment for Differently abled and old age population of any existing city. Though many of new cities and township projects consider and incorporate the design elements of barrier-free environment in actual implementation of such principals following the prescribe guidelines are doubtful and need a comprehensive survey and documentation as part of post occupancy evaluation both at building level as well as master-plan level. In most parts of the existing cities there are not sufficient facilities even for normal pedestrians like, continuous footpaths, not to speak of facilities for differently-abled and old age people. Though there are “Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Disabled and Elderly Persons” but there are also loopholes in term of final outcome of implementation and functionality at building and city level for creating integrated barrier free environment. These guidelines need to be mandatorily integrated with the comprehensive Transport Masterplan, Zonal Plans, masterplans, local area plans, township and housing plans. Considering the importance and urgency of issue these guidelines and standards need to be implemented as widely and as strictly as possible for the well being of citizens.

Pedestrian Vehicular conflict : why can’t we seem to find a solution?

By - Anoop Kumar Jha

Missing Human Behavioral Analysis aspect in Transport Simulation Model

No matter how functional and mathematically sound a transportation plan and related infrastructure design for any city or stretch appear before implementation, there is always a conflict between vehicular and pedestrian circulation which appears only once the transport plan is in place and functional, it’s the story of every city and every stretch. Blogs and forums are filled with discussions and captured photographs of such pedestrian vehicular conflicts.

It’s a conflict between pedestrians desire to take easiest and shortest route and transport planners age old scientific approach planning with modern simulation tools. Its conflict between “human desire” and “scientific approach”.  

In a country like India, apart from education and enforcement there is one missing crucial aspect which leads to pedestrian vehicular conflict in urban setting, that is understanding of human behavior and learning from past and other projects mistakes. It appears that common man collectively always appear smarter than the panel of planners, designers and implementation and enforcement agencies, because no matter how sound they make any system or transport plan people always find out loopholes in it. People are willing to take the dangerous shortcuts, break the law and even risk their life to reach the destination quickly. There is almost similar pattern and language of such human behavior across the cities and towns of India when it comes to intra city travel, but transport planners do not seem to observe and learn from such cases. Its high time that they should observe, document and incorporate human behavioral analysis in the transport simulation model to arrive at a successful transport plan for a city. 

Transport plan, systems and tools also need to be regionalized or localized, because what works in Bogota  or America or Europe might not work in Delhi or Surat or Jaisalmer  if replicated in-toto. 

Daily space curve of a common Urban Man

post by : Anoop Jha

An average working person in a metropolitan city goes through a funnel of fluctuating space experience following a somewhat definite pattern on an average working day – from home to public transport to office to public transport again and back to home. Let’s call it “Daily Space Curve”. It’s a space footprint available to a person on an average working day, distributed across a day and across the standard route followed to complete the day activities.

Individual Space Curve

Daily Space Curve can prove to be one of the comparative scales while studying and comparing the standard of living or livability of different cities. Larger the space footprint available to a citizen more livable and desirable would be the city.

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