Urban development in many cities around the world prioritizes making space for cars over pedestrians, cyclists or public transportation. In Brazil, this led to an average of more than 30,000 annual road crash fatalities nationwide by the turn of the century, as well as high levels of congestion and pollution. But in the last 20 years, fatalities have started to ...
Urban Design
New transport hub expands city centre of Toulouse
IG – Bjarke Ingels Group and A+ Architects unveil design for the 12,000m2 Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub in France’s fourth largest city, Toulouse. Located adjacent to the central station Gare Matabiau on the eastern border of the city, the building will expand the city center beyond the Canal du Midi and strengthen its public transport networks by uniting bus, railway ...
How Traffic Engineering can aid better Street Design
Streets in our cities are built and maintained with a myopic view centered around ensuring a smooth carriageway for motorized vehicles, even though most people in Indian cities walk, cycle, or use public transport. Effective street design needs a holistic approach to address the needs of all road users. There is a need to rethink street design as a multi-disciplinary ...
Metro Challenges in India
World Resources Institute looks at the challenges that metro systems need to address to ensure a complete integration with the city. When compared to new cities where the metro projects integration is factored in, retrofitted projects need to adapt to different travel patterns of the city, with existing rail systems where the city transport system and commuting patterns naturally evolved ...
Smart City Experiences Challenges, Benefits and Future Settings
T Krishna Prasad, Director General of Police and Chairman – Road Safety Authority, Government of Telangana, kicked off the session with his thoughts on the importance of mobility in Smart Cities by first defining what a Smart City is. According to him, there is no single definition, but to put it simply, if the citizens are happy, comfortable and convenienced, ...
Public-Private collaboration for Innovative Mobility Solutions
Public bus agencies, referred to as State Road Transpor t Undertakings (SRTUs), are investing millions in setting up Intelligent Transport Systems to improve the efficiency of bus systems. At the same time, mobility entrepreneurs backed by heavy investments, are developing innovative technologies and services to address prevailing mobility issues. This evolving ecosystem provides a great opportunity for public bus agencies ...
Creating Safer, Child-friendly Streets
An ideal child-friendly city integrates the voice, needs, priorities and rights of children in its public policies, programmes and decisions. An important aspect of such a city is to provide children with an opportunity to live in a safe, secure and clean environment, with access to green spaces says Vaibhav Kush, Project Associate- Cities & Transport, WRI India The situations ...
Smart Cities
India’s Journey of Urban Transformation
About 55% of the world’s population today lives in urban areas. In India it is 34% increase of about three percentage points since the 2011 Census. It was well assimilated by our policy makers that managing this urbanisation in a smart way shall provide for a significant opportunity for renewing the cities to become growth engines and leapfrog Indian economy ...
CHENNAI SMART CITY: Integrating multiple projects
What are the main components of Chennai Smart City project? Chennai Smart City Limited (CSCL) and Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) are implementing citywide parking management with camera-based recognition and electronic payment technology. We are also implementing GPS-enabled cycle sharing which will help last-mile connectivity. Chennai is also implementing a pedestrian plaza and other Non Motorised Transport facilities which is part ...
Taj Ganj Urban Development project: Streets as Connectors
In India, heritage is perceived as a valuable resource and hence the approach to urban redevelopment in old city areas has been based singularly on this premise. It is inherited but cannot be ‘consumed’ and therefore must be handed over preferably with enrichment, to future generations. Taj Ganj is a four centuries old district. Once an integral part of the ...