What does a city with twice the density of New York City do when there is simply no more space on the ground for pedestrians? The city of Mumbai has come up with the idea to create a skywalk network for those on foot trying to get from one place to another while getting them out of the way of the dangers from being forced to walk in the streets due to overcrowding from street vendors, squatters, vehicular traffic and also the lack of sidewalks.
It’s an unfortunate situation when the solution is to pull the people out of the streets and give them a sort of pedestrian super highway to bypass the streetlife. The idea may seem like a nice one at first, providing pedestrians the ability to stroll leisurely from the train station for up to two miles to their ultimate destination through a covered walkway with fresh air and views out over the city but at the same time, what is to happen with the streets and what will keep the skywalks free from the problems that brought on the construction of the skywalks in the first place? Are the streets of Mumbai simply beyond repair? Is creating a network of skywalks really the best thing for Mumbai in the long term or is it like giving up on the city streets and seeking the easy way out?
From the Wall Street Journal:
“The fate of the city’s foot soldiers is crucial because close to 60% of the trips made here are on foot. That makes this one of the most pedestrian-powered metropolises in the world. Until now, however, pedestrians have been largely ignored. Some Mumbaikars, as citizens are known, aren’t happy. Retailers say they are losing business while residents say skywalks block views, allow pedestrians to peek into private homes and are just as likely to be taken over by homeless families and shopless vendors as the sidewalks.”
“Still, something had to be done, city planners say. The road under the Yellow Caterpillar (the first skywalk built which is bright yellow, thus nicknamed by the locals), like station roads across the city, is an obstacle course through a minefield. Commuters spill down the Bandra Station steps and into a knot of three-wheeled auto rickshaws, buses and trucks on the street below. The closest thing to a sidewalk here is a patch of dirt next to a crud-filled creek. Hundreds of commuters walk in the street, dodging vehicles as they go.”
“On the way to the nearby business park—home of Citigroup’s main India office and the National Stock Exchange—they pass through a slum. The roadside is occupied by small shops, families living in plastic-tarp homes, parked motorcycles and goats rooting through garbage. The tiny stretch of sidewalk that eventually emerges about five blocks from the station is cut short by the fence of a small neighborhood police station built directly on top of it. Then pedestrians have to find their way across an off-ramp of Mumbai’s busiest highway. There is a functioning traffic signal and even a policeman at the corner, but drivers often ignore both.”
“The obvious solution of widening the sidewalks just isn’t an option. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is a thin spit of land bound on three sides by the Arabian Sea. Moving buildings to widen roads is next to impossible thanks to tough tenancy laws. Courts and politicians sensitive to the needs of the micro-entrepreneur make it difficult to move illegal street vendors.”
“Skywalks are quick to build, relatively inexpensive and only require land the city already controls. The projected bill for the 50-plus skywalks is around $300 million. The city expects to recover most of that cost by selling advertising space on them.”
“Building the perfect skywalk, however, hasn’t been easy. While the walkways run over government roads, there still often isn’t space on the ground to plant enough supporting columns. Longer stretches between columns mean the city has to spend more on stronger, lighter materials and thicker columns. Commuters found the early skywalks too boxy and bright, so new ones use curved roofs, dark colors and chrome.”
“When engineers started digging to build the foundations, they found the chaos on the street continues underground. A few feet down, they ran into uncharted water, electricity and phone lines as well as sewers, forcing them to redesign whole skywalks. Trying to get the city water authorities or state-run telephone company to shift infrastructure would take too long.”
“Engineering difficulties and neighborhood opposition have blocked six planned skywalks and could stop more, city planners say. But they will continue building them because the streets are getting worse everyday. The city has hired armed guards to keep skywalks clear and the response from commuters has been largely positive.”
Depsite the controversy of the skywalks and what the future holds for the street level, the people of Mumbai who use the skywalks are enjoying them because it cuts down their commute times, offers a stress free walk to work and even provides an enjoyable setting for a walk on one’s day off. In a crowded city where walking in the street is not only stressful but dangerous, Mumbai has come up with a solution that seems to be working for some pedestrians, at least temporarily. But what will come of the life in the street? Is there a creative solution that can work for everyone and doesn’t just take the pedestrians out of the equation altogether?
As fall sets in, so does the Seattle rain. It is a good time to check out the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel, the urban park-like water quality facility designed to mimick a natural stream bed and riparian zone would handle the varying levels of water flowing through the system. Nate Cormier of SvR Design snapped some great photos in late September and early October. Looks like it’s performing as planned and looking quite lush.
In Colombia, the city of Bogotá has an incredible committment to creating a healthy environment for it’s people which is especially difficult when there are 7 million of them. But depsite the odds, the city is changing and the people are changing with it. They are growing to know and understand their city as well as learning to appreciate it. It is no longer simply a place that they live, but a place where they can experience enjoyment…something that didn’t even cross the minds of so many in this city once felt to have lost all sense of self-esteem.
One major event that has completely changed the city is the weekly Ciclovía, the first of several improvement to the way of life within the urban environment in Bogotá.
The best thing about the Ciclovia is that everyone can participate, from the rich to the poor and everyone can have fun and be active. It is an event that brings everyone together every Sunday of the year with over 70 miles of car free streets dedicated to the people from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Also offered during this time are recreational classes for both adults and children in such things as aerobics and dance, geared towards not only getting people moving but to bring people out of their homes to meet others in the city and to make friends.
The big part to understand is that there is a huge amount of preparation that goes into the event, much more than just setting up a couple signs. This film does a fantastic job of documenting the event and everything that goes into it. Check it out:
The rest of the world is learning from Bogotá with dedicated bus lanes and cycling events popping up in many major cities from Toronto to New York to Mexico City. The general thought is that if a city such as Bogotá with little money and so many things fighting against those who wish to make the city a better place, then any city can do it.
In addition to highly-coordinated and regular events specifically designed to bring people together, the city has also taken an aggressive view towards their transportation infrastructure. The traffic in Bogotá has been a major problem and the city needed a better system to move large amounts of people quickly than the private mini-busses clogging the streets alongside personal vehicles. However, the city had little money and building more roads or a subway system was too costly not to mention the addition of more roads was not going to solve the problem.
Enter TransMilenio, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system designed to move large amounts of people quickly and independantly of the rest of the traffic. The vision came from Enrique Peñalosa, the city’s mayor from 1998 to 2001. He wanted the system be more than just buses, but a whole new identity for the city. The name was chosen for the idea that this system was a piece to the larger puzzle in moving from one millenium to the next, moving into a better, brighter future for the people of Bogotá.
Since the first line opened in 2001, the city now boasts 7 interconnecting lines that have allowed them to remove 7,000 mini-busses from the streets and have a huge impact on the traffic situation. This was a huge deal because the previous system of mini-busses was operated by a polically powerful group of people, a maffia if you will, and they felt threatened by the possibility of a major part of their business being taken away from them by the government. A smart move on the city’s part was to then incorporate those people into the TransMilenio system and become shareholders such that no one felt threatened, the project could move forward and both sides were happy.
image via nytimes
While BRT systems would not be the best solution for every city, for Bogotá it has been successful because they were able to work with their existing framework. By working with the freeways already in place, the city transformed 2 to 4 lanes in the center of major boulevards. The lanes were then separated by low walls from the rest of the vehicular traffic and covered stations were provided in the center divide with access via pedestrians bridges. The sleek stations sit level with with the bus doors allowing for fully accessible entrances to all riders.
The system is also very high-tech. Satellite systems are used to track the buses and every one of them can be located in real time. The system always runs to capacity, keeping the numbers high during rush hour and lower in the slower times of the day to help reduce emissions and keep from running buses empty.
Entrance to the station is allowed to passengers once they swipe a pre-loaded card which reduces the wait times for busses since people no longer have to pay as they enter. However, I wonder how well the cards work for people as this has been a huge source of frustration with the BRT system in Mexico City where the machines are difficult to use and are often just broken. It has become easier for people to just wait for others with cards and hand them the money as opposed to trying to buy their own card.
Like the Ciclovía, TransMilenio extends from the rich to the poor, moving the people within the city as one. For those people who are not lucky enough to live near a terminal, they can take one of the free shuttles that brings people in from the outlying areas directly to the terminals. One ticket also works for the whole system so if someone needs to make a transfer, they can ride on the same ticket as opposed to having to pay for each bus with the old privatized system. This saves people money every day in addition to their time savings.
For many people, the TrasMilenio has changed their lives allowing for dramatically less commute times therefore much healthier and happier people. These same people have more time and energy to take to the streets and parks to engage in active recreation with their families and to meet their neighbors. The city is changing around the system and a level of optimism and hope for the future has been instilled within the people.
Public space is the most needed in low income neighborhoods and unfortunately, the areas typically with the least funding and abilities. Peñalosa set out on another idea, to put money not towards roads but towards connecting the low income neighborhoods with the city. Since these in these neighborhoods people typically cannot afford cars, the roads were lowest priority. Instead, walking and biking are the preferred mode of transporation and therefore would be the priority. This project is called the Alameda el Porvenir.
The Alameda in Bogotá at 11 miles and growing, is the longest pedestrian walkway in Latin America and provides the southwest part of the city, an area of low income and unregulated income, with a green network of pedestrian and cycle paths connecting 3 million residents. It also acts as a connection route for to three lines of the TransMilenio. The Alameda also touches new parks, schools and libraries and provides outdoor furniture and vegetation strips. The original intention was for it to be used for transportation but the people have turned it more into a linear park. People flock to it on weekends to kick around a soccer ball, fly a kite, ride a bike and it has changed the way people interact with the space outside their houses where there never used to be such public space available to them.
This is what lowers crime rates, when the neighbors know each other and they are all friends. When the Alameda was built in an area previously known as the most dangerous part of the city, it changed completely. The area is no longer considered the most dangerous place and now people get outside, meet their neighbors and enjoy the city together.
Not only does bringing infrastructure to the city improve the daily quality of life but it improves the way in which people view the government. Suddenly the government is on their side and that earns the system more credibility. People are then less likely to break the law because they feel the law has more meaning.
Bogotá is a great example of the power of urban design and in how such a simple idea as putting people first in planning can make all the difference. When cities are designed around the idea that the person is sacred, the city will reflect that sense of importance and the people will feel it. It is not just about trying to lower the emissions or move towards a greener city, but a happier city…a city where it’s own inhabitants love it and also care for each other. The people make a city and if the people are happy, the city will thrive.
As Enrique Peñalosa himself said, “As a fish needs to swim, we need to walk. Not in order to be healthy, but to be happy.”
