About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) · About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CUE was established at...

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Transcript of About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) · About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CUE was established at...

Page 1: About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) · About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CUE was established at CEPT University in 2009, evolving from the Urban Poverty Alleviation (UPA) Cell established
Page 2: About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) · About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CUE was established at CEPT University in 2009, evolving from the Urban Poverty Alleviation (UPA) Cell established

About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE)

CUE was established at CEPT University in 2009, evolving from the Urban Poverty

Alleviation (UPA) Cell established in 2008. CUE advocates a human-centered and equitable

urban development paradigm. CUE undertakes research and advocacy; conducts training and

capacity-building; imparts education; and networks with stakeholders on various aspects of

human settlements with a focus on urban equity.

Contact

Centre for Urban Equity (CUE)

CEPT University

Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus

University Road, Navrangpura

Ahmedabad - 380009, India

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.cept.ac.in/cue

Centre for Urban Equity 2015

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Abstract

Urbanization poses enormous challenges including disparities that cause insecurities and

conflicts. Urban policies, planning, design and governance in the interconnected domains of

land and housing, spaces for livelihood, basic services and amenities, transport, public spaces

and streets can play a significant role in reducing insecurities and conflicts and creating safe

and inclusive cities. This course placed its focus on the street from this perspective. Streets in

Indian cities are increasingly being seen as spaces for rapid unrestrained movement rather

than providing access, fostering activities and nurturing sustainable environment. With rising

incomes and vehicular ownership, automobiles have replaced people as the central point of

street design. In fact, „model roads‟ made by the city government in Ahmedabad exclude

street activities like vending which has led to everyday struggles amongst vendors. Bus bays,

segregated cycling lanes and footpaths are usually limited to being shown in computer

generated renderings. Enabling facilities for vulnerable groups like children, elderly and the

differently-abled also seem to have escaped the consideration of planners and designers.

Increasing cases of on-street violence against women like chain-snatching and harassment are

partly linked to land use and street design. The street has become a venue for conflicts

between various stakeholder groups that lay claim to the „right to the street‟. This course,

conceived by the Centre for Urban Equity and jointly developed and offered in collaboration

with the Centre for Green Mobility as part of CEPT University Winter School 2014, aimed to

encourage students to understand such exclusions and conflicts through the study of

Ahmedabad streets, and to propose design, policy, legislation and governance-based

interventions to address them. This report describes the objectives and structure of the course

as well as the larger debates surrounding the use and experience of Indian streets that the

students were exposed to as part of the course. The students‟ output, exhibited at CEPT

University Open House 2014, is also presented in this report.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Mr. Anuj Malhotra and Ms. Ruchita Shah from the Centre for Green

Mobility (CGM), Ahmedabad, for collaborating with us in developing and offering this

course. Their contributions were crucial towards realizing the objectives of this course.

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Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... ii

Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................. iii

1. Introducing the course ....................................................................................................................... 1

2. Course objectives and structure ......................................................................................................... 3

3. Whose street is it? .............................................................................................................................. 3

4. Legality and legitimacy ..................................................................................................................... 5

5. Design as the solution ........................................................................................................................ 6

6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Appendix ................................................................................................................................................. 8

Sheets exhibited at CEPT University Open House 2014 ........................................................................ 8

List of readings ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Checklist for street audit ....................................................................................................................... 17

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1. Introducing the course

The „Planning and Designing Streets for Safe and Inclusive Cities‟ course was offered as part

of the CEPT University‟s Winter School 2014. The course was a result of a collaboration

between the Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) and Centre for Green Mobility (CGM), an

Ahmedabad-based non-profit with interests in promoting Non-Motorized Transport (NMT)

modes. The course had the aim of engaging students with questions around safe and inclusive

streets versus insecure and exclusionary streets, and initiating studio-based learning on the

elements and processes of planning and design that can make streets safe and inclusive.

Streets are important in multiple ways and are central to the city‟s planning and design. The

street plays a central role in providing connectivity between different parts of the city; in

enhancing mobility and providing access to opportunities that the city has to offer; in offering

a public space to be in for leisure, social interaction, livelihood, etc; and in creating a better

relationship of the city and its inhabitants with the environment. Streets also play a role in

creating safe urban environments. Streets are thus central to the daily social and economic

lives of city inhabitants as well as important from the sustainability perspective.

However, planners, engineers, architects, urban designers often fail to understand the street

from these multiple perspectives and do not have the planning and design tools and skills to

create better streets. This is why recent interventions have often been focused on providing

streets (roads) only for connectivity – additionally, these interventions have been focused on

motorized vehicles, increasingly the private motor vehicle and especially the car (for their

efficient movement and parking), and more recently for public transport. However, only one

in ten Indians owns a motorized vehicle (four-wheelers and two-wheelers)1, although that

figure has grown at a CAGR of 16.4 percent over the period 2001-2011. Such rapid

motorization is bound to have disastrous outcomes in terms of social, economic and

environmental sustainability.

Public transport interventions are desirable, however, in view of the recommendations of the

National Urban Transport Policy, 2006 the BRTS was supposed to also integrate footpaths

and even bicycle tracks (i.e. non-motorized transport) but these spaces remain non-functional

on the ground in cities like Ahmedabad. As a result, pedestrians and cyclists have been

marginalized on many of the newly designed streets. Recent interventions have also failed to

integrate other activities on the street such as leisure and loitering, social interaction, and

livelihood activities. Actually, the two are also often interconnected – the pedestrian‟s

experience of a street can often be enriched and made safer by the use of the street for these

other activities. Instead, we often hear about conflicts between pedestrians and street vendors.

This can be attributed to elite, increasingly sanitized attitudes towards public space as well as

less space given to both and lack of or improper design and governance to accommodate

both.

In light of these recent interventions and ongoing conflicts, planners, engineers, architects

and urban designers, will have to engage with the question of whether and how it might be

1 2013 data retrieved from MoSPI‟s webpage http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/SYB2013/ch20.html.

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possible to accommodate the different roles that a street plays in the life of a city and its

inhabitants. Is it inevitable that there will be competing claims to street space and some

activities and uses will have to be accommodated more than others? How can planning and

design play a role in facilitating the street‟s use for multiple purposes – and also multiple

groups (class, age, gender, etc)? At a broad level, this exercise was an attempt to introduce

the students to the wider debates on who the streets are for. It provided them an opportunity

to look at the street as a microcosm of the city. This exercise encouraged the students to look

at the street not merely as part of a road network that helps people travel from point A to

point B, but also as a venue for a host of other important activities (discussed before) in the

lives of the people who inhabit the street and beyond. By the end of the exercise, the students

were expected to arrive at a design solution that is inclusive. For the purpose of this exercise,

a stretch of the Kasturba Gandhi Road (http://goo.gl/7mhZDi) was chosen.

Map 1: The Gandhi Bridge-Dilli Darwaza stretch on Kasturba Gandhi Road

The Kasturba Gandhi road is an important arterial road of the city and is an important

connection between areas in West Ahmedabad and Kalupur and beyond. Besides, there is an

interesting mix of land use on its sides. Residential, commercial and industrial (on a relatively

small-scale) land use can be found on its either sides. These activities attract a steady stream

of pedestrians and cyclists all through the day. Not unlike most other streets in the city, it also

provides livelihood opportunities to a variety of street vendors dealing in goods like clothes,

vegetables and eatables at various times of the day. The traffic on this stretch is heavy owing

to its arterial character and poses great risk to all these „other‟ users of the street, especially in

the absence of enabling infrastructure like footpaths and segregated cycleways. Overall, it

was felt that this stretch would be interesting sites for the students to explore the questions

posed by this course and arrive at possible design solutions that recognize the variety of user

groups and respect their right to the street.

N

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2. Course objectives and structure

CUE and CGM structured the three week long course around three significant learning

outcomes. These included appreciation of the street as a significant part of the public realm

vis-a-vis its importance in the lives of the various people using it as a venue for various

activities such as vending, seeking work, shopping and loitering / recreation. For this

purpose, discussions were organized with advocacy groups and people working with various

stakeholders. A discussion was also organized with the traffic police administration to

introduce students to their perspective as well. The second objective was to make the students

aware of the legal provisions that encourage the use of streets for purposes other than

vehicular movement. This was achieved through review of relevant literature followed by

classroom-based discussion. Finally, a third objective was to sensitize the students to various

user groups and their requirements as part of the street re-design exercise. For this purpose, a

classroom-based envisioning exercise was undertaken with students being encouraged to play

the role of various street stakeholders. This was followed by negotiations between various

stakeholder groups in order to arrive at a street cross-section. Table 1 shows the course

structure created to achieve these learning outcomes.

Table 1: Course structure

Week 1 (December 1-7) Week 2(December 8-14) Week 3(December 15-21)

Introducing the course and logistics Studio work - analysis Studio work - design proposals

Site visits Table-top review Review of work

Readings and discussion: Readings and discussion: Open house

a) National Urban Transport Policy,

2006

a) Non-motorised Transport related

literature

b) Other relevant literature b) Street Vending Act, 2014

Interaction with: c) Other relevant literature

a) Street vendors Envisioning exercise

b) Construction naka workers Review of strategies and concepts

c) Planner and researcher on urban

mobility

d) Traffic police

The course was taken by a mixed group of undergraduate and postgraduate students of

architecture, planning and technology at CEPT University. It was expected that their varied

skill sets would positively contribute to the success of the course.

3. Whose street is it?

A significant argument presented as part of the course was that the street belongs to all user

groups as against only the motorized traffic that has come to dominate Indian streets. This

domination has come at the expense of other vulnerable users such as the young, elderly,

women and differently-abled. The students were encouraged to undertake an exploratory site

visit on the first and second days and record – through photographs and videos – how these

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users went around doing their business on the streets and the role of different elements of the

street in facilitating / discouraging this. The students brought back their first experiences with

the street and discussed them amongst themselves and with the instructors.After the two

exploratory visits, the students were encouraged to undertake more site-visits to do

systematic mapping, interviews, and street audits (refer to the checklist in the appendix), to

understand the street comprehensively.These visits were planned at various times of the day

to capture the temporal nature of the use of streets by various user groups. Some of the details

that were captured as part of the exercise were footpath obstructions (like pot holes,

discontinuity, building entry, light poles, electric power transformer etc), vending spaces,

parking, carriage way, pedestrian movement, cyclist movement, traffic volume(counts), land

use, building heights, signage, trees, public toilets, street infrastructure (seating, dustbins,

street lights), safe and unsafe locations, accident spots etc. This exercise was followed by

classroom discussion on the students‟ first impressions about their experience with the street.

They were encouraged to reflect on what worked and what did not as also the reasons behind

the observed behavior.

Image 1: Discussion with construction naka workers facilitated by Ms.Preeti Oza of

Prayas CLRA

Writings by academics (Anjaria, Edensor) and activists (Narain, Vishwanath) were given to

students to present them with different perspectives on the street (see appendix for the course

readings). Interactions were organized with a few women street-vendor members of the

labour union Self Employed Women‟s Association (SEWA), a representative of Prayas Centre

for Labour Research and Action (CLRA) and a few construction naka workers2 (Image 1), a

planner and researcher on urban mobility and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic)

Ahmedabad.Students also raised questions to the guests, and we found that these interactions

often unsettled their beliefs about the legitimate uses of the street, opening a space for them

2 Construction naka workers refer to construction workers who gather at selected nakas, that is,

streets/crossroads which serve as informal labour markets.

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to start reflecting on whose street is it and the role of planning and design in shaping this.

These discussions also helped orient the students to the requirements and views of various

users of the street.

4. Legality and legitimacy

A common feature with regard to any discussion on the use of the street in India is the

legality of use. Legality is often used to exclude certain user groups – vendors being the most

prominent – from carrying out their activities on the street. At the same time, other users such

as cars and two-wheelers have consolidated themselves as the major users of the streets.

There have been well-meaning initiatives from the state in the form of the National Urban

Transport Policy (NUTP), 2006 and Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation

of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The NUTP, 2006 among other things encourages the provision

of infrastructure for NMT modes with a view to arrest the high rates of motorization. It

recognizes the multiplicity of transport modes on the streets and calls for a more equitable

distribution of street space amongst them. Similarly, the Street Vendors Act, 2014 imparts

legal status to street vending activities, albeit in pre-designated vending zones. It also talks

about issuing vending licenses to street vendors so that they are spared from unnecessary

harassment from the executive wing of the government. The students were introduced to the

debates surrounding legality and illegality through discussions (Image 2).They were

encouraged to understand and discuss the arguments presented in the writings of scholars and

activists to engage with the debates around legality and societal control surrounding the use

of streets by vendors, women and other groups.

Image 2: Discussion on the importance of provision of infrastructure for NMT

The discussions helped the students come face-to-face with their conceptions of who the

legitimate user of the street is. It also gave them a chance to reflect on their own experiences

of using the street as a pedestrian or a cyclist. This was evident in the manner in which

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students came to argue over issues of accessibility to local parks, children‟s ability to reach

their school across the streets as well as illegal parking as a menace that needs to be tamed.

5. Design as the solution

Given the inequitable distribution of road space between various user groups, the instructors

facilitated an envisioning exercise where the students were asked to re-imagine the street and

frame a suitable vision statement. The students were to imagine themselves as representatives

of various user groups and propose what amount of the street‟s cross section they would

ideally like to consume. Given that the four major user groups had their obvious

disagreements, the faculty stepped in and facilitated a negotiation between them while

ultimately arriving at a final design. The street cross-sections proposed by various user

groups and the negotiated final design are captured in Table 2 below. These were to be

realized using a combination of physical design and policy.

Table 2: A summary of the street design exercise undertaken as part of the course

Elements of the

street

Space demanded by stakeholders (m)

Bus Vendors Traffic NMT Negotiated

final

Footpath 2.5 5.0 2.0 6.0 2.5

Carriageway 7.0 10.0 9.5 9.0 7.0

Median 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5

Bus lane 3.5 - 3.5 - -

Multi-utility lane 2.0 - - - 3.0

Cyclists - - - 2.5 2.5

Total 15.5 15.5 15.5 15.5 15.5

Once the street section was finalized, students went on to prepare a master plan for the street

and junction redesign for the conflict-ridden Delhi Darwaza junction. The Delhi Darwaza

junction redesign exercise made use of new, shorter signal cycles and better segregation of

traffic to resolve congestion at the junction, especially during peak hours. With regards to the

street design over the selected stretch, the students decided that they would not provide a

dedicated bus lane but would provide dedicated footpaths and cycle-tracks of 2.5 metre width

as also a multi-utility lane of 3 metre width that would accommodate vending, loitering and

recreational activities. Some of the existing - yet discontinuous and isolated - recreational

infrastructure like parks was proposed to be combined with the pedestrian spaces so as to

make them appear inviting, functional and safer. These proposals were presented to the

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Shri Rajdeepsinh Jhala on the day of the final

jury. The entire exercise was exhibited at the CEPT University Open House which marks the

end of the Winter School (Image 3).

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Image 3: Sheets displayed at the CEPT University Open House

6. Conclusion

This course was offered with the aim of achieving three objectives. These included

appreciation of the multiple-use characteristics of the Indian street, awareness on the legal

provisions that facilitate or hinder such use and sensitizing the students to various user groups

and their requirements .It appears that as a result of exposure to various user groups and

literature followed by classroom discussions, the students were able to realize that the streets

were meant for more than vehicular movement. However, this realization may not have been

reflected adequately in their design proposals. This was partly due to the background of the

student group in terms of their diverse yet limited skill-sets. We also realized that making

students truly imbibe radically expansive notions about the legitimate and desirable users and

activities on the street and then approaching planning and design from this perspective is

quite a challenge, especially in a short course like this. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the

students will be able to use this experience and positively intervene in their respective areas

of work.

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Appendix

Sheets exhibited at CEPT University Open House 2014

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Sheet 1: The Street and its location in the context of the city

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Sheet 2: Focus on the street as experienced by various stakeholders

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Sheet 3: Focus on the street as experienced by various stakeholders (contd.)

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Sheet 4: Focus on the state of infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists

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Sheet 5: Vision statement and master plan for the street

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Sheet 6: Junction design and traffic management proposals

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List of readings

1. Edensor, T. (1998). The Culture of the Indian Street. In N. R. Fyfe, ed. Pictures of the

street: Planning, identity and control in public space. Routledge: London, pp. 205–221.

2. Anjaria, J.S. (2012). Is there a culture of Indian streets? Seminar, 636(August).

3. Viswanath, K. and Mehrotra, S.T. (2007). “Shall We Go Out?.” Economic and Political

Weekly. [online]. Available from: http://www.epw.in/review-womens-studies/shall-we-

go-out.html [Accessed November 24, 2014].

4. Narain, S. (2013). Come out and claim the road | Business Standard. [online]. Available

from: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/sunita-narain-come-out-and-

claim-the-road-113111000632_1.html [Accessed January 31, 2014].

5. Narain, S. (2013). Pedestrian questions. Down To Earth. [online]. Available

from: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/pedestrian-questions [Accessed January 27,

2014].

6. Badami, M.G. (2009). Urban Transport Policy as if People and the Environment

Mattered. Economic and Political Weekly, xliv(33), pp.43–51. [online]. Available

from: http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2009_44/33/Urban_Transport_Policy_as_if_Pe

ople_and_the_Environment_Mattered_Pedestrian_Accessibility_the_First_Step.pdf.

7. Viswanath, K. (2013). Planning cities as if women matter. Seminar. [online]. Available

from: http://www.india-seminar.com/2013/648/648_kalpana_viswanath.htm [Accessed

November 24, 2014].

8. Litman, T.A. (2011). Economic Value of Walkability. , 10(1), pp.3–11. [online]. Available

from: http://www.vtpi.org/walkability.pdf.

9. Leather, J. et al. (2011). Walkability and Pedestrian Facilities in Asian Cities. [online].

Available

from: http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/Walkability_Final_Report_15Oct2010.pd

f.

10. Bhowmik, S.K. (2005). Street Vendors in Asia: A Review. In Economic and Political

Weekly. [online]. Available from: http://www.epw.in/review-labour/street-vendors-asia-

review.html [Accessed November 24, 2014].

11. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act,

2014

12. Ahmedabad Street Vending Scheme, 2010

13. Ranade, S. (2007). The Way She Moves. Economic and Political Weekly, XLII(17),

pp.1519–1526. [online]. Available from: http://www.epw.in/review-womens-studies/way-

she-moves.html [Accessed November 22, 2014].

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14. Jagori. (2007). Is This Our City: Mapping Safety for Women in Delhi. New Delhi.

[online]. Available from: http://jagori.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/is-this-our-

city.pdf.

15. CAI-Asia Center, Shakti Foundation and Samarthyam. (2012). WalkAbility Audit

Reports. Pasig City, Philippines. [online]. Available

from: http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/active-

transport/AT_WALK_P_Walkability_Audit_Tool.pdf.

16. MoUD. (2006). National Urban Transport Policy. New Delhi.

17. ITDP and EPC. (2011). Better streets, better cities: A guide to street design in urban

India. Ahmedabad.

18. UTTIPEC. (2009). Street Design Guidelines. New Delhi.

19. MoUD and ADB. (2008). Module 5: Guidelines for Non-Motorised Transport Measures.

New Delhi.

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Checklist for street audit

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