The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which we have acceded to mainstream in our policies explicates city planning in SDG-11. With a large section of population starting to congregate in the urban areas evident with the 4% annual population growth in Kathmandu itself, it can be easily alluded that the future cities are going to be the centers for economic growth. The way we plan our cities or adjust the land use of existing cities will not only be intrinsic in alleviating urban pollution but play a crucial role in economic conditions as well.
The SDGs attempt to reduce the C02 emissions by 50% and since almost 23% of the global C02 emissions pertain to consumption of transportation fuel, transportation planning, even from the environmental point of view, is certainly going to play a key role in the future. The adherence to SDG-11 wherein the importance of transit based or walkable cities has been clearly stipulated, would not only answer the climate change agenda but also invigorate the economic growth of our cities.
Cities like Atlanta or Denver in the US, Perth in Australia, Barcelona in Europe are more or less similar in economy, but differ significantly in land-use as a result of which the means of transport, their abodes resort to are significantly different. Thus, the population density which significantly impacts residential as well as commercial land use, can be postulated as a key design parameter of transportation network in the future cities. For instance, Barcelona which is a dense city (in terms of residents per area) as compared to most cities in the US have had remarkably smaller figure of transportation fuel consumption per person. This gives a clear picture that fuel based transportation is not a compulsion for economic growth. Thereby, the stereotype that we have blissfully been complacent with, that cars plying on roads represent affluence has to be abdicated.
There can broadly be three types of cities designed in terms of transportation; the ones that use automobiles (electric or fuel based or even automatic vehicles) as primary mode of transport as in the US, or transit cities and finally comes the cities that have walking as the predominant mode of transportation. The latter ones would have to be of higher density both in terms of residents per area and the location of urban infrastructure. While the dominance of car based transport is alleviating in the urban areas even in the US and the cities there are forging towards transit modes in addition to cities like New York recently introducing policies like Congestion Pricing and while more than 50 metropolis in both India and China investing on metro networks, we are making plans for road expansions so as to induce more motorbikes and cars to ply on them, and that is where we go wrong. For cities with high residential density as that of Kathmandu, and spread economic zones, metros would be the most viable option. A financing tool known as “value capture”, the notion of which was already included in the 1st National plan of Nepal, if implemented properly, would ensure making up of a large portion of investment in mass transit. Value capture is a tool that recovers a portion of the escalated value of the private properties as a result of introduction of any public infrastructure. It has proven to be very effective in the development of large metro networks. The growing cities on the other hand shall be considered for being designed as walkable cities. Studies have succinctly depicted that cities which are more walkable have relatively vibrant economies. Pointing out the social benefits of having walkable cities would be quite otiose here.
Academia around the globe are thinking beyond car based transportation planning and are looking for either transit or bicycle or walking modes to make their cities sustainable. On the other hand, we have motorbikes accounting for more than 50% of the traffic count in our cities. As the income escalates, people who are using bikes are certain to switch towards cars and pertaining to the transportation infrastructure in our urban areas we may have to face some appalling conditions relating to traffic, ranging from long hours of congestion to seriously high number of crashes. In order to offset these conditions it is time we emphasize on integrated land use and transportation plans for our cities as land use, population and transportation plans shall be of no avail on their own, in the near future.
Considering the fact that our trade deficit is mostly out of import of oil and that a large section of population will dwell in the cities in future, it is urgent that we think of designing the transportation network of our cities in the best sustainable way. The idea about the desired residential density in any urban area shall play a key role in the days to come.
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