Walking and urban planning. Maurizio TIRA Environmental Engineer, Full Professor of Town and regional planning Università degli Studi di Brescia

Transcription

1 Walking and urban planning Environmental Engineer, Full Professor of Town and regional planning Università degli Studi di Brescia

2 The presentation analyses the main obstacles to walking and shows how planning can influence pedestrian movement The main features of the crucial integration between mobility and urban planning are also discussed and illustrated through some examples.

3 Lessons from history show how different cultures have tried to make urban space an asset by shaping it to the needs of the population one aspect of cities through history has been the problem of facilitating the movement of people going about their daily life.

4 The lesson form history already gives two main hints to the actual planning issues: proximity as a pre-condition and a planning criteria, energy saving as a criteria to choose the means of transport, safety as a quality feature to walking.

5 PROXIMITY When living under the constraints of the sole pedestrian and animal power means of transport, urban settlements had such a size to be accessible by foot. Proximity was a must and life was held in a relatively narrow space.

6 European medieval towns of similar size in the XIV century (Benevolo, 1997)

7 ENERGY SAVING Proximity was not just a matter of rationality, but also affected by energy saving needs. Even at the origin of several urban design in the central European hills we may find the morphological features: the fascinating slow curved medieval streets of Siena follow the contour lines in a space difficult to plan, and the secondary links have been realised with stairs.

8 Street layout following contour lines in Siena (Italy) (Google maps )

9 SAFETY The space for mobility of roman towns could be considered as very safe when compared with the traffic of a spare day in the today s Rome!

10 Pedestrian facilities were conceived to allow a more comfortable movement even at the time when animal power drive chariots were the only danger. See the pedestrian raised crossings of Pompei, the Italian city destroyed under the Vesuvio eruption!

11 The relationship between urban planning and walking trends When looking at available mobility data (of which there is little relating to pedestrian movement), walking has not disappeared from statistics, but the its priority is affected by several factors. Some of them are related to psychological elements and to the way societies are structured.

12 The relationship between urban planning and walking trends The era of the private car has completely changed town design worldwide. Some urban settlements have been planned explicitly assuming the use of the private car.

13 The relationship between urban planning and walking trends Furthermore, general increases in personal income have led to increases in the rate of car ownership and, therefore, the irrational use of motor vehicles at the expense of pedestrian movement.

14 The effect of urban distances as determined in urban planning It seems that the acceptable walkable distance is increasing with the size of the core city. When distances appear greater, facades are longer, streets wider, people accept a longer trajectory to get to the final destination.

15 The effect of urban distances as determined in urban planning This is true for the travel time, foremost for the walkable distance, but it reflects on the distance walked as well. Pedestrian trips by distance (%), Germany 1989 (Krag, 1993)

16 LOOSING PROXIMITY Another relevant reason why walking less is the lost proximity. So people walk less because there are no destinations within a walkable distance: shopping malls can be reached only by car (for distance and for safety reasons) and parking facilities are greater and free; services are concentrated for economic reasons (scale economy);

17 LOOSING PROXIMITY work places are not fixed, so trips are multiscope and they need a flexible means of transport; the relatively less expensive transformations in rural areas make sprawl more costefficient than urban renewal; low density is better appreciated by high income communities and sometimes defended for landscape preservation

18 Public space and building location and amenity Morphology of towns is going to be lost thus influencing the ability of people to read urban environment Road layout is given to users is an ever more intelligible way: the diffusion of GPS on cars is substituting maps, but continuing the tradition of clearing the way to car drivers.

19 Public space and building location and amenity That is not the case for pedestrians. Pedestrians hardly know the pedestrian facility network and they cannot really plan the trip: they will not know the sidewalk conditions, width, maintenance, continuity, visibility, lighting, comfort, etc.. The lack of information can highly influence the modal choice.

20 PEDESTRIAN SAFETY Walking is a dangerous activity. More than half (sometimes up to threequarters) of road injury accidents occur in urban areas, with vulnerable road user (pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders) fatalities from impacts with cars constituting some 25% of all road deaths.

21 The need for an integrated mobility and urban planning Separation of urban and mobility planning have been the general rule through most of planning attempts to include cars in cities, such as Athens Charter, SCAFT Guide (University of Göteborg, 1968), OECD, (1979) or Buchanan Report.

22 The need for an integrated mobility and urban planning The key underlying concept was the creation of independent zones for the four 'functions': living, working, recreation, and circulation. Some of these concepts have been widely adopted by urban planners, but mainly that of separating urban functions, rather than the inflexible approach to road hierarchy.

23 The need for an integrated mobility and urban planning Integrated traffic Some references deal with the solution of these problems Closing roads in UK (OECD, 1979)

24 The experience of woonerf in the Netherlands and later of 30 km/h zones in France and Europe show how vulnerable road users and cars can mix up provided the space is designed so that drivers are guided by selfexplaining road layout

25 The need for an integrated mobility and urban planning When considering the development of urban areas, three main phenomena occur: the building of city extensions (urban sprawl), consuming new land but easier for implementing mobility networks and also pedestrian-friendly schemes; the reconstruction of cities, through brownfield regeneration, taking into account the relationships between administrators and developers; the new implementation of transport networks in existing urban infrastructure.

26 A new land use development New Urbanism model is needed Growth Management Smart Growth Transit-oriented Developments Car-free cities are coming to illustrate new possibilities for integration of transport and land use planning.

27 A new land use development model is needed Legend: residential area (light blue); industrial area (red); retail area (yellow); parking (green); pedestrian paths (red arrows); 600m length (double black arrows); arterial road (1); distribution road (2); public transport stop (red dot). A generic model of an area-oriented to public transport with a pedestrian network (Pozueta, Lamiquiz & Porto, 2009)

28 A new land use development model is needed TOD scheme (City of Ottawa, Transit oriented development Guidelines, City Council, 2007

29 Proposals for utilising the planning process to encourage walking The first and main requirement is that of planning towns by taking into account the pedestrian movement as the most important and, as a consequence, the needs of pedestrians The need for car use must be reduced through gradual but permanent restoration of the proximity of urban functions

30 Proposals for utilising the planning process to encourage walking Pedestrian safety must be at the top of the political agenda Comfort, security and attractiveness must be planned, designed and maintained

31 Proposals for utilising the planning process to encourage walking The Urban Safety Management scheme Among others, the strategy setting and sharing interests turned out to be successful safety policies, in those European Countries where applied. It is an approach that looks at urban environment from the point of view of global safety and comfort, pointing them as the core strategy for any action

32 Central Government FINANCE LOCAL POLITICS TOWN HALL Country Public Opinion Local Public Opinion traffic control network management Road users traffic environment safety planning Land use Police enforcemen t Education URBAN SAFE MOBILITY PROGRAMME Analysis Implementation Strategy Assessment Planning Design Health Public Transport

33 ACTIONS NEEDED

34 A road hierarchy or classification is the essential basis for the planning process of speed management schemes In-depth analysis of non-clustered accidents when assessing sustainability of plans Integrating the managing offices of the cities (urban planning, public works, environment, maintainance, ) Monitoring procedures and information transfer Co-ordination with other strategies, such as the case of noise reduction or pollution control

35 In order to better understand the different situation of cities at least some features must be assessed: the institutional framework at National, Regional and local level; the legislative framework that guide the elected people; the rules and regulations for technical projects and countermeasures.

36 Briefly, some proposals Co-ordinating mobility/traffic and urban planning (no more roads without pedestrian facilities) Reducing the need for car use by restoring proximity Increasing density around public transport stations (relationship between developer investment; increase in land value and return on investment) Linking urban regeneration to limiting urban sprawl Reducing parking places and improving public transport facilities

37 Briefly, some proposals Co-ordinating mobility/traffic and urban planning (no more roads without pedestrian facilities) Reducing the need for car use by restoring proximity Increasing density around public transport stations (relationship between developer investment; increase in land value and return on investment) Linking urban regeneration to limiting urban sprawl

38 Thank you for your attention