Abstract
Cities across India are facing challenges of unplanned development and burdened infrastructure, housing stock crops up before land-use planning while street infrastructure & public transportation is made to play catch-up with the already developed housing stock. The civic bodies struggle to provide basic amenities of sanitation, water supply, electricity etc. and pay little or no attention to developing infrastructure which is conducive to promoting sustainable modes of transport such as walking, cycling and access to reliable public transport. The city of Puducherry is located 160 kms away from metropolitan city of Chennai and is facing similar issues. It is a unique case in an Indian context as the old city was designed in an orthogonal-grid pattern by the Dutch and the French colonizers, while the later additions to the city were designed in a more ad-hoc manner. In the rapidly developing urban landscape of the city, increase in traffic congestion and lack of pedestrian friendly infrastructure are emerging as pressing problems. The Government also recognizes these challenges and consequently pedestrianization, efficient urban mobility and green mobility also find mention in the Puducherry smart city vision. This study conducts an analysis of factors which influence walkability such as i) street network; ii) street intersections; iii) travel patterns of citizens for key activities; iv) convenience of walking in a neighbourhood; v) street design and vi) visual aesthetics of a street. The analysis reveals five major issues in the city: - Lack of mixed land-use in a neighbourhood is responsible for underused streets, it increases distance for everyday shopping as all commercial activities are situated on the periphery - Dis-continuous street network and cul-de-sacs have led to pedestrian inconvenience, it dissuades public transport modes and also limits public activity - Public and commercial spaces are beyond walkable distances and hence people rely on private transport modes to access them - Width of street section, physical barricades along a street and fast-flowing vehicular movement discourages pedestrian movement - Unregulated visual street elements are responsible for visual chaos on the commercial streets The study proposes following design solutions along urban acupuncture interventions: - Create a continuous street network and bridge neighbourhood boundaries, making the street network more permeable for the street hawkers to enter the street and bring daily needs further closer to doorstep. Additionally, the manual rickshaw can now ply on this network further increasing the non-motorized public transportations presence in the neighbourhoods. - Increase neighbourhood’s self-sufficiency of both public and commercial spaces. The interventions suggest giving breathing spaces to choked neighbourhoods and providing them with leisure and everyday needs shops closer to their homes and reduce their need to visit the crowded peripheral roads. The intervention becomes significant in a corona-crisis stricken world. Self-sufficiency will make social distancing more viable in case of a pandemic. - Resolve conflicts in street sections and re-design to ensure equitable road space for all modes of transport. - Improve pedestrian visual experience by regulating street elements such as signages. Keywords: Walkability, Puducherry, self-sufficient neighbourhood, Road space equity
