Abstract
Abstract A vast body of literature advocate mixed land use as a measure for compact and sustainable development. In the Western nations, the idea was promulgated through the works of Jacobs and others, and was thought to reduce the need to travel and bring vibrance to the monotonous streets in the West. In the developing world, however, mixed land uses have existed traditionally and often organically and continue to dominate in old city areas. Proliferation of unplanned mixed land use in planned residential areas in the developing world is also common and cities such as Delhi legalise these mixed-use areas over a course of time through notifications. With each iteration of Master Plan of Delhi, the mixed use policies in Delhi have become more liberal. The spillover of commercial activities into residential areas has been regularized time over time through various notifications and iterations of Master Plans. Past researches have established that land use mix has significant and positive effect on travel behaviour such as trip length, non-motorized mode choices and public transport choices. Yet, very less work has been done to understand their relationship especially in developing countries where unplanned mixed land use is sometimes more of a problem than a tool for sustainable development. The issue deserves a probe since unplanned mixed land use also come with a set of externalities in the form of increased traffic, noise, and parking. This research explores the correlation between the degree of mixing and travel behaviour, its resultant impacts and the stakeholders’ perception on quality of life. Ten case studies of notified mixed use streets with varying degree of mixes in the city of Delhi are taken, keeping residential density and predominant land use as control variables. It also tries to assess whether proximity to a transit node has an impact on travel behaviour across the case study areas. The study finally tries to critically analyse whether the underlying principle of closer job-home relationship, the key driver to sustainable mobility and development, exists in these types of unplanned mixed land use areas. The study finds that this post-facto regularization of mixed-use creates more problems than it solves. The impacts measured in terms of traffic congestion, noise levels and parking intensify on streets with higher degree of mixing when compared to streets with lower degree of mixing. It is also observed that the average trip lengths of both shop owners and shoppers are greater on streets with higher degree of mixing, indicating that commercial activities no longer serve local needs after a certain threshold. This finding, therefore, contradicts the closer work-home relationships underlying mixed land use. Finally, the paper provides suggestions for changes in policy and approach towards post-facto regularized mixed land use in developing nations like India, in order to ensure that mixed land use is environmentally sustainable and its cons don’t outweigh its pros. KEYWORDS: Mixed land use; Sustainable development; Sustainable mobility; Land use and mobility; Mixed land use in developing world; Travel behaviour in mixed land use
