impact of urban form on travel behavior: a case study of Bhopal

Abstract

Increasing urbanization is affecting the environment more than ever before. The focus has now shifted towards making cities more sustainable. This can be supported by the planning approaches such as Low carbon emission development, Smart Growth, Transit oriented development etc. that we are now taking in the urban planning realm. The main argument put forward by the proponents of these development approaches is that the characteristics of urban form have a direct impact on the scope of travel behavior of people. Thus, the manner in which the future cities grow, is considered to be critical in context to transportation. The way we move tells a lot about the built form. It has been established that cities with higher density and better public transportation accessibility leads to efficient travel pattern & low carbon emission. India is a fast urbanizing and with existing densities in the 2 tier cities are on the verge of huge urban sprawl and there is a potential within city limits to use land efficiently. The research tries to establish that how urban form of a city can change the way people travel in it. For the research, 3 wards from Bhopal City were taken as the case study area. These were selected based on the distance from the city center. Various determinants where undertaken to individually study the urban form (density, FAR, public transportation accessibility) & travel behavior (trip length, modal split, vehicle ownership). Based on a scoring system adapted from the literature review, both urban form and travel behavior of 3 wards was studied and the impact was assessed. From the analysis, it was found that urban form has a direct impact on travel behavior. Ward with the least score for travel behavior had the least score for urban form .Based on this, the changes in urban form can be suggested. This will include the changes in Development Regulations with one of the wards as a pilot area. A post implementation assessment will also be done so as to see how much of change in urban form can lead to more sustainable travel behavior.