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SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
Walking and urban planning
Maurizio TIRAEnvironmental Engineer, Full Professor of Town and region al
planning – Università degli Studi di Brescia
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
►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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
►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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
European medieval towns of similar size in the XIV century (Benevolo, 1997)
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
Street layout following contour lines in Siena(Italy) (Google maps ©)
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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!
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
►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!
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
The effect of “urban distances ”as determined in urban planning
It seems that the acceptable walkabledistance 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 .
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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)
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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);
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
LOOSING PROXIMITY
►work places are not fixed, so trips are multi-scope and they need a flexible means of transport;
► the relatively less expensive transformations in rural areas make sprawl more cost-efficient than urban renewal;
► low density is better appreciated by high income communities and sometimes defended for landscape preservation
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
►Walking is a dangerous activity. More than half (sometimes up to three -quarters) 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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
Integrated traffic
Some references deal with the solution of these problems…
Closing roads in UK (OECD, 1979)
The need for an integrated mobility and urban planning
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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 self-explaining road layout
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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 brown -field regeneration, taking into account the relationships between administrators and developers;
► the new implementation of transport networks in existing urban infrastructure.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
A new land use development model is needed
► “New Urbanism ”► “Growth Management”► “Smart Growth ”► “Transit-oriented Developments ”► “Car-free cities ”are coming to illustrate new possibilities
for integration of transport and land use planning.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
A new land use development model is needed
A generic model of an area-oriented to public trans port with a pedestrian network (Pozueta, Lamiquiz & Porto, 2009)
Legend: residentialarea (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).
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
A new land use development model is needed
TOD scheme (City of Ottawa, Transit oriented development Guidelines, City Council, 2007
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
Proposals for utilising the planning process to encourage
walkingThe Urban Safety Management schemeAmong 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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
TOWN HALLTOWN HALL
trafficcontrol
network
management
traffic environment
safety planning Landuse
Road users
URBAN SAFE MOBILITY PROGRAMMEPoliceenforcemen
tEducation
Health
PublicTransportAnalysis Implementation
Strategy AssessmentPlanningDesign
CentralGovernment
CountryPublic
OpinionLOCAL
POLITICS
FINANCELocalPublic
Opinion
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
ACTIONS NEEDED
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
► 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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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.
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
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
SOL COnference – Budapest, 29 June 2011 Maurizio TIRA
Thank you for your attention
http://dicata.ing.unibs.it/tira/