Puducherry is a city in south of India which has during its history been colonized by Dutch, Portuguese, British and French although its na- tive history has been re- corded since 1st Century AD as a Roman trade destination. Threat: There is a huge quanty of 2 wheeler traffic and it will keep growing, moreover, as seen in rest of India, more and more people will switch to cars further choking the mobility in the city. Observaon: The old parts of the town are a complete con- trast with the later development, the new areas lack walkability. The new development is chaoc and the streets lack legibility and structure making normal traffic and public transport unpredict - able and worsening pedestrian experience. Government efforts: The transport body recently conducted a study on behalf of goverment to manage the traffic problem, however the study did not challenge how the need of trips by itself can be reduced. Moreover Pedestrian experience is not just a maer of the correct footpath widths but also the experience of walking which the study did not take into account. Thesis aim: The thesis aims to suggest urban accupunc- ture intervenons which will reduce the mo- torised traffic on streets and encourage pe- destrains and cyclists. The design proposal would be from an Ur- ban-Architecture perspecve which will not just deal with easing out pedestrian or other traffic, but would try to reduce the need of commung itself. What will the thesis produce: Steps and strategies to be able to make Puducherry a more pedestrian firendly city along with decongesng some of the streets. City centre Extension A street in commercial stretch of Puducherry in later extensions A typical street in Tamil Puducherry in old town A typical street in French Town in old town “As long as Engineers are incharge of traffic studies, they will predict the need for engineering. The main problem with traffic studies is that they almost nev- er consider the phenomenon of induced demand. It is a name for what happens when increasing the supply of roadways lowers the me-cost of driving, causing more people to drive.” The Walkable City, Jeff Speck Puducherry in 1788
Transcript
Puducherry is a city in south of India which has during its history been colonized by Dutch, Portuguese, British and French although its na-tive history has been re-corded since 1st Century AD as a Roman trade destination.
Threat:There is a huge quantity of 2 wheeler traffic and it will keep growing, moreover, as seen in rest of India, more and more people will switch to cars further choking the mobility in the city.
Observation:The old parts of the town are a complete con-trast with the later development, the new areas lack walkability.The new development is chaotic and the streets lack legibility and structure making normal traffic and public transport unpredict-able and worsening pedestrian experience.
Government efforts:The transport body recently conducted a study on behalf of goverment to manage the traffic problem, however the study did not challenge how the need of trips by itself can be reduced. Moreover Pedestrian experience is not just a matter of the correct footpath widths but also the experience of walking which the study did not take into account.
Thesis aim:The thesis aims to suggest urban accupunc-ture interventions which will reduce the mo-torised traffic on streets and encourage pe-destrains and cyclists.The design proposal would be from an Ur-ban-Architecture perspective which will not just deal with easing out pedestrian or other traffic, but would try to reduce the need of commuting itself.
What will the thesis produce:
Steps and strategies to be able to make Puducherry a more pedestrian firendly city along with decongesting some of the streets.
City centre Extension
A street in commercial stretch of Puducherry in later extensions
A typical street in Tamil Puducherry in old town
A typical street in French Town in old town
“As long as Engineers are incharge of traffic studies, they will predict the need for engineering. The main problem with traffic studies is that they almost nev-er consider the phenomenon of induced demand.It is a name for what happens when increasing the supply of roadways lowers the time-cost of driving, causing more people to drive.”
The Walkable City, Jeff Speck
Puducherry in 1788
ROLE OF CITY FABRIC ON MOBILITY
The way motorized traffic is ditributed onto the streets.
Overlaying the Traffic congestion map, one can see that it is these roads which suffer from slow moving traffic.
Congested traffic
Noise, Smoke
More people want to use
cars
Paedestrians experience
worsens
The New blocks are huge and the mobility is pushed to the edges because of discoun-tinous streets inside the block.
The medium sized blocks provide many more streets and intersections in the same area of land enhancing mobility
The way motorized traffic is distributed onto the streets
The New blocks are huge and the mo-bility is pushed to the edges because of discountinous streets inside the block.
The medium sized blocks provide many more streets and intersections in the same area of land enhancing mobility.
The way motorized traffic is ditributed onto the streets.
Overlaying the Traffic congestion map, one can see that it is these roads which suffer from slow moving traffic.
Congested traffic
Noise, Smoke
More people want to use
cars
Paedestrians experience
worsens
The New blocks are huge and the mobility is pushed to the edges because of discoun-tinous streets inside the block.
The medium sized blocks provide many more streets and intersections in the same area of land enhancing mobility
Plan of Pondicherry in 1788
From 1788 to 1820, the fortification around Pondicherry comes down and road is added.
Plan of Pondicherry in 1820
Pre 1788
Post 1820
Instead of continuing the grid, the new settle-ment develops around the road.
MOST PEOPLE PREFER SIMPLEST PATHS
720m 720m 720m 720m
720m
720m
+
+
CULPRITS
Cross Intersection Good Connectivity
T Junction Low Connectivity
New Development Puducherry
Piacenza
Old Development Puducherry
Prague
Dead End Bad Connectivity
Street connectivity is measured by the number of street intersections in a neigh-bourhood. A higher value indicates more intersections and a greater degree of con-nectivity enabling more direct travel between two points using existing streets and
pathways. Walkability Index, Health & Community Design Lab | School of Population and
Public Health
500m
200m
A comparison between Old Puducherry, Piacenza and Prague brings up an interest-ing observation.Piacenza is generally more walkable for an end to end distance viewpoint because of its grid. Prague has more mystery because of its T Junections.However, both cities do not have too many dead ends and the streets connect to other streets. Something that lacks in the new development of Puducherry.
MONOTONOUS ZON-ING IN INTERIORS
DISCONTINOUS STREETS
UNREGULATED CITY ELEMENTS
ROADS AS BARRIERS
PUBLIC SPACES FUR-THER FROM WALK-
ABLE DISTANCES
•DEAD STREETS
•INCREASED DIS-TANCES TO WORK
•INCONVENIENCE TO CONSUMER
•INCONVENIENCE TO WALKER
•LIMITED TRANSPOR-TATION ACCESSIBILITY
•LIMITS PUBLIC AC-TIVITY
BOUNDARY WALLS
•EYES ON-STREET LOST
CHAOTIC AD-VERTISING & ELEVATIONS
•CREATES VISUAL TENSION
•PROHIBITS MOVEMENT AND FLOW
•HINDERS NEIGHBOUR-HOOD INTERACTION
•INCREASE IN PRIVATE TRANSPORTATION
•INHABITANTS BEING CUT OFF FROMLEI-SURE ACTIVITIES
Continous streets are commercially viable, hence most activity gets shifted to exterior of neighbourhoods
Urban Accupuncture applied in a few places to allow the streets to become continous.
Continous streets have more commercial value, hence more businesses open up in the interior of the blocks bringing more activities to walkable distances.
STRATEGY 2Neighbourhood self sufficiency
CONTINOUS STREET
THROUGH MOVEMENT
COMMERCIAL VIA-BILTY
INCREASE IN PUBLIC ACTIVITY
SHORTER COMMUT-ING DISTANCES
Acquires
Acquires
Acquires
Ground Floor Rights
Full Land Rights
Full Land Rights
Single Property be-tween Roads
Double Property between Roads
When Roads don’t align
Sight Lines are important, if people do not see a space, they will not use it.William H.Whyte
Merchants have always known that it is all important to be located precisely where people pass by and to have the display window facing the street.
Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings
Buildable Rights
Construction
Owners
TO
FOR
Existing Area - Low Density
Adapting specific roads for better public transport. Traffic in india can have multiple dimensions, bicycles, auto rik-shaws, pedestrians, buses and cars all ususally have different speeds, this is one of the reasons why Indian roads are infa-mous for overtaking as the lanes are not defined.
Selected roads will be defined to resolve confliction of lanes.
STRATEGY 3Adapting specific roads for better public transport.
No standard width
No standard height
Regulating Pedestrian in-teraction with city edge
Advertising panels dominate the visual quality of the streets bringing chaos.
No standard colour
STANDARDIZING
ADVERTISING
P A N E L S
STRATEGY 4Improving experience of walking.
Different speeds of mobility on an Indian street
Defining clear spaces for Footpath and Parking
Even in cities with high residential densities and great transit systems, ample parking en-courages driving that would not occur without it.
Jeff Speck , Walkable City
Why does the Puducherry street have a conflict of interest ?
VSVSVSVS
Undefined and Unregulated Spaces Jostling for Space
Removing encroachment clearing the path for the pedestrian
Putting economic value to space.
SHO
P
SHO
P
PRIVATE
750
mm
RENTED
OWNER OWNERACCORDIN
G
TO
PAYS
TO
TO
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE
GOVT.PRIVATE/
GOVT.
FOO
TPAT
H
FLEX
IBLE
STR
IP
The strip of land between footpath and road can be rented out by government
Hawker (Also gets unoccupied strip)
FLEXIBLE STRIP
Business Exansion
2 wheel Parking
Car
$
$ $ $
STRATEGY 3 Resolving conflicts and adapting for better public transport
X 5/6
X 1
X 1/2
X 1/2
RATE
Agents of conflict
No defined space for waiting
A view of a Puducherry street Lack of pedestrian crossing
Random spaces as-signed to parking
Conflict of different traffic lanes
Street Aesthetic analysis
Chaotic elevations
Chaotic elevations
Compound walls next to pedestrian deteriorates experience.
A contrasting street in the old town.
STRATEGY 4 Improving experience of walking
STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4
STRATEGIES APPLIED
Theory of WalkabilityJeff Speck
Useful means that most aspects of daily life are located close at hand and organized in a way that walking serves them well.
Bibliography“Pondicherry Past and Present” http://www.ifpindia.org/digitaldb/site/pondicherry/data/part_1_5.html
Tim Stonor, “ ‘Spatial accessibility and Social Behaviour’: Designing multi modal, multi scale and multi-active spatial environments” (researh presented at Align Breakfast seminar, Christ-church, Space Syntax 2013).
“Wakability index” http://health-design.spph.ubc.ca/tools/walkability-index/ , the University Of British Columbia .
Jeff Speck “Walkable City : How downtown can save America one step at a time” New York, 2012
William H Whyte, “City, rediscovering the center”
Jan Gehl, “Life between buildings”
Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of nature. A psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Alice Hollenstein, “Empirische Ästhetik, Welche Umgebungen und Objekte finden Menschen schön?” (Research presented in Fachhochschule Potsdam, 16. November 2016)
“How to make a city attractive” school of life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy4Qjm-KzF1c, published by ‘The school of life’
Jane Jacobs, The death and life of great American cities. New York: Vintage Books.
Commercial Viability of Streets Increased
Increased Public spaces
Aesthetic im-provements
Reduction of chaos and more interest
Connections enhanced
Reducing points of conflict
Eyes on the streetTraffic restricted internal streets
Safe means that the street has been designed to give pedestrians a fighting chance against being hit by automobiles; they must not only be safe but feel safe.
Interesting means that sidewalks are lined by unique buildings with friendly faces and that signs of humanity abound.
Comfortable means that buildings and landscape shape urban streets
into ‘outdoor living rooms.
Connecting streets, bridging ur-ban boundaries.
Resolving conflicts and adapting for better public transport
Improving experience of walking.Neighbourhood self sufficiency
