SPACES Sept issue 2017

URBAN PLANNING
RECLAIMING STREETS
The street networks in the old
settlements of our cities were built for
navigation on foot. In the course of
time, some streets were widened and
some not, but they somehow became
“motorable” roads. Two-wheelers first
laid claims on the roads, followed next
by four-wheelers, and then by vehicles
of any size technically possible. The
sharp turns and numerous junctions
and paths that crisscross these streets
were not meant to facilitate vehicular
traffic – not even two-wheelers. As a
result, these streets are often always
choked with vehicles. The vehicular
abuse of streets has continued but it is
time to correct the mistakes.
In many countries, particularly in Europe,
cities are transforming car-friendly areas
into car-claimed, pedestrian-friendly
zones. Barcelona is transforming nearly
60 percent of streets currently used by
cars into public spaces. Paris is also
slashing the number of lanes on major
axes and redesigning seven major
squares to reduce vehicle lanes and
parking. Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon
Restoration Project is legendary
in urban planning circles: the city
replaced a major highway with smaller
roads and green infrastructure without
deteriorating traffic situation in the city.
If the city planners of Barcelona, Paris
or Seoul have done the “unthinkable”
and yet emerged victorious, what is
holding us back?
Past efforts to pedestrianize old
neighborhoods in Kathmandu have
met with little success. The benefits
of pedestrianization might not have
been clear to the skeptics. Studies on
pedestrianization and traffic-calming
schemes in Germany and United
Kingdom over years have shown that
shops inside pedestrian areas benefit
more than those outside, and parts of
the increased turnover is transferred
to landowners (or locals). Likewise,
a recent study by EMBARQ on the
pedestrianization of Istanbul’s historic
peninsula has found that locals were
largely happy with the results that
included decreased noise levels and
improved air quality.
Studies around the world show that on
an average, cars are parked 95 percent
of the time or more which implies that
most of the time, cars just occupy scarce
urban space. Land is a scarce resource,
and should not be wasted on roads and
vehicles at the expense of better use of
land. It is not enough to build pedestrianfriendly
roads but to build more
compact, walkable neighborhoods that
require less commuting and have more
public space.
Humans first learn to walk, then run
and then to drive. This is how the
priority for using urban space should
be set. •
SEPTEMBER 2017 SPACES / 41