Towards complete streets;street as a ‘place’ and as a ‘link’ : a case study of Indore

Abstract

When someone asks to recall a city you’ve ever paid a visit to, the one of the few things that flashes in front of our eyes are the city’s streets and the built fabric adjoining the vast network of these streets? It is no surprise that if a city’s streets are interesting and full of life, the city is perceived as a lively, well-developed and a vibrant urban center. The streets of a city is what defines a city’s nature and character. It defines the limits and bounds to which a city grows. Likewise, streets in India have traditionally been public spaces around which social life revolved. They constitute the urban public realm where people congregate, celebrate and mingle; at the same time are corridors for high speed traffic, clogged with ever increasing vehicle trips. The premise that forms the basis of this thesis is that there is an urgent need to understand and design streets of urban India as living dynamic corridors, constituting streets as both a link and a place. In order to retain, conserve and renew the identity of Indian streets, it is important to realize the complexity of the streets and the factors which give shape to them. Most of the existing studies on Indian streets have been conducted on social, physical, economic, cultural aspects of streets. My thesis endeavors to utilize the prior components and comprehend the relationship between road as a ‘link’ and a ‘place’ with an exploratory spatial analysis of streets. Majority of the streets in India do not have a set of street design guidelines except the few metropolises. Street design has been taken up as a challenge to overcome issues in cities like Delhi, Pune, and Ahmedabad. Thus, there is an urgent need to think out of the box and create a set of guidelines for urban areas that link streets as a place and a link and set out a matrix which shall clearly define the characteristics of different street typologies with their adjoining land-uses. The evident problem being different land-uses relate to different street typologies. Different street typologies relate to a hierarchy of streets. Indian streets lack the fundamental concept of linking streets to the adjoining land use. The purpose of streets has changed from the prehistoric streets with limited traffic to today’s vibrant cities streets catering to multiple users (social and economic users) and exponentially grown traffic volume. This paradigm shift requires establishing streets as both a ‘link’ and as a ‘place . So, the need for study can evidently be established as one needs to understand how people, behave on streets. What are the factors that brings citizen and residents to the streets and what is the purpose behind the close connection between people and streets? What makes streets such a dynamic and versatile place? Full of life and energy. One needs to analyse the causes that hamper the smooth functioning Indian streets and providing interventions for creating a healthy environment on streets. Lastly, yet most importantly the dire need to establish the street as a ‘place’ and a ‘link’ and obtain the perfect balance between these two primary functions by coming up with the most appropriate street design based on land-use characteristics and street typologies. So, the aim of the thesis is to “Assess the Existing Character of Indian Streets to Establish a Relationship between Streets as a ‘Place’ and as a ‘Link’ to achieve a Complementary Street Design.” Through the thesis, I would like to attain the following objectives. • To study the existing street pattern and land use along streets in various land uses. • To establish the relationship between streets and land use with respect to street as a ‘place’ and as a ‘link’. • To assess and prioritize the requirements of motorized traffic and other road users in various street typologies. • To give recommendations to achieve a balanced street design by considering street as a ‘place’ and as a ‘function’. Literature study for the thesis is grounded on a multi-disciplinary reading where reading has been read from a vast array topics. These subjects being streets and their primary function, scenario of Indian streets, hierarchy of Indian streets and their respective design speeds, democratic use of street space, complete streets, character of streets as a link and as a place, social behavior of people on streets, design principles for complete streets, and elements of urban design. Global and national best practices have also been studied to better understand the role of street design in making cities a better place to live in and travel through. Using Indore as a case study, the thesis aims to understand the spatial and dynamic forces that shape street experience and culture at the scale of the city, surroundings and street itself. First hand delineation of a broader area from Indore Municipal Area based on major qualitative and quantitative factors is done by performing a reconnaissance study and analysis of factors from which eight sample street stretches have been selected based on the place (land-use) and link (hierarchy) value of streets using the ‘link’ and ‘place’ matrix. These streets range from arterial streets to local streets for both residential and commercial land-uses. Through this thesis, I shed new light on the social life of different types of streets and how to balance these interactions with the fast-paced urbanizing India. The study of these streets is conducted based on numerous factors based on both the link value and place value. The factors like volume counts for peak hours, pedestrian counts for peak hours, street parking surveys, both on-street and off-street, building use survey, building heights, average journey speed on the street stretch during peak hour, road inventory, transit and para-transit stoppages along the stretch were used to define the link value of the streets. Factors like activity mapping, behavioral mapping, grabbing a perspective of the road users, universal design elements if any, street furniture if any and vending zone survey were used to define the place value factors. Upon analysis, the nature of each street had been studied from both link and place perspectives. This study shall be the foundation for recommendations and redesigning of streets as complete streets that has been done as the final stage of the thesis. Therefore, redesigning of the selected eight streets is done in order to give recommendations which can be adapted for designing ‘complete streets’ that complement the nature of streets as a ‘place’ and as a ‘link’.