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Smart Cities Put People Before Cars - Lessons for Bangalore

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Written By cvikash - 16 April, 2008

Bangalore Culture People

It is no wonder then that the most vibrant cities in America — New York, Boston, San Francisco and Washington — are ones that have been able to curb the voracious appetite of the car for space. The cities we love around the world are the ones that have been able to devote more space to people and less to cars. ...Still, it was not until the 1970s that cities began to have buyer's remorse. And some actually dared contemplate the radical step of freeway removal. The first American city to undertake this bold act was Portland, Ore, which created a riverfront park on the site of a downtown freeway. In San Francisco, the story was slightly different. True, it was the earthquake that damaged the freeways, but it was the vision of the leaders and its citizens who saw the potential in removing two different freeways and replacing them with urban boulevards that are now such iconic images of urban life that they are showing up in TV commercials. Cities around the country are beginning to learn how they can restore their communities by removing or minimizing highways that serve as dividers and destroyers of property value. The examples of Portland, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Seoul teach us how highway removal can reverse the process of disurbanism — and create great social and economic value in the process. Moreover, these cities have not only avoided creating gridlock — they have, in fact, been able to maintain and enhance access, demonstrating the point that traditional streets and boulevards are far superior to limited-access roads for moving traffic in urban settings. Source: http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-plcgarrick0413.artapr13,0,1257015.story

COMMENTS

Photos of narrow roads

shas3n - 16 April, 2008 - 08:47

While I am at it, here are a couple of photos from those roads. Observe how narrow the road is and how wide the foot path is in ralation to the road width. [flickr-photo:id=1540452025,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=1540446821,size=m] This is another street. [flickr-photo:id=1541309510,size=m] And finally petty curry which allows no traffic. [flickr-photo:id=1540449125,size=m] -Shastri

Not feasible in India

bangalorean - 16 April, 2008 - 07:36

Talking of US or Europe and other cities and trying to implement those here is really not possible due to the following reasons, 1. Size of the roads, even the smallest of small roads in US would be as big as bannerghatta road in bangalore. You can think how big the main roads would be. Main access roads would be 3/4 lanes in one direction. Is it possible to do that in India that too in bangalore 2. Criss crossing, there is a heavy network of criss crossing on indian roads. there is a junction for every 50 meters in some places. (Bannergahtta road best example) People moving around, like road is their next home. 3. People donot follow crossing only in zebra cross. People are so lazy even to walk 10 m to the nearest signal. They just pounce on the road and run like deers to cross the roads. There have been incidents when people are hit badly while running recklessly on the road. I donot mind stopping for people to cross, if they follow corssing in Zebra cross. In US if people cross in other places other than Zebra cross, there would be cop waiting for you and have good 10 min chat with you not to do it cause it is not safe... Is it possible to do it here......... (Not possible for atleast another 10 years, my bet 10 years of traffic education is needed for india)

Narrow roads

shas3n - 16 April, 2008 - 08:34

Bangalorean, I agree with you that we need at least a decade of traffic training before we are any better. But I believe narrow roads are not a problem in implementing what cvikash is saying. In fact narrow roads might be the very motivation for cities to do such implementations. Several cities in Europe are very old and town centers have extremely narrow roads. I have extensively seen Cambridge, UK and surprised that they have such a people-friendly town center. For example, in the map below, all the roads which are gray are extremely narrow. [gmap zoom=14 |center=52.20619967468294,0.11911153793334961 |width=480px |height=320px |id=macro_map |control=Small |type=Map] But instead of trying to get more traffic pass through them, the city council has put people before vehicles and all these roads now allow only bicycles and public vehicles (taxis are allowed). In fact the street called 'Petty Curry' which is on the map is a no-traffic zone and only pedestrians are allowed. You have to see it to believe that this can be so effective in making lives easy for everyone. I think that is what cvikash is referring to in his post. Just imagine how clutter free our chikkapeTe, baLepeTe area would be if we allowed only public transport and pedestrians. Many of the roads on this map are narrower than the roads in chikkapeTe. -Shastri

'Not Faesible in India' - This mindset needs to change

Naveen - 16 April, 2008 - 10:32

Hi Bangalorean,

Read yr post - & I agree that under the present conditions, changes might seem quite impossible.

However, if we do not attempt & feel that we can never change, then we wl surely remain as we are, & probably get worse !

Cities like Keelung, Kaohsiung (both in Taiwan), Bangkok & Guangzhou (China) were much worse than what bangalore or any Indian city was about 15-20 years ago, but today, they are all far better as people realised & leaders had done their homework & moved their cities away from further degradation.

All it needs is a sort of 'renaissance' or 'revolution', & I see it begining ro happen in our cities - the chaos & congestion are being felt by many right thinking citizens - this thought process will continue & may take some time before a turnaround. The only problem I see is that the quality of the politicians & authorities must also improve to face up & meet the challenges ahead, else it might take longer.

UK is frendliest to peds & cycles

idontspam - 18 April, 2008 - 06:05

UK is the best example of how to make a city ped & cyclist friendly and environmentally safe. US is a bad example for anything to do with environment.

I saw similar scenes to the above in southampton. In fact I heard they are tearing down some old factories on the south side towards the waterfront to make a park. We are going the other way tearing down parks to make way for buildings.

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