The Importance of Creating Awareness for Modal Shift while Integrating Land use and Transport

Land-use Transport Integration is the newest mantra for planning livable cities. The concept utilizes the idea of integrated planning for infrastructure development in order to check sprawl and create compact cities. The underlying idea behind Transport Oriented Development and Compact City Approach is that people will be encouraged to use public transit as the transit stations will be accessible.

This may be true for some countries where people have a sense of belonging and have instilled ownership for their cities. But in case of India, from my primary surveys in Ahmedabad for the impact on land development for the BRTS, I have sensed a resentment brewing within people living in the vicinity of the transit nodes. They resent the "usurping" of their road space, the hindrance in crossing for pedestrians and the lack of parking space for their vehicles. I see a similar situation in Mumbai in the case of the failure of Sky walks, the pedestrian foot-over-bridges connecting the local railway station with the bus depot and the main road.

So, in my limited experience, I felt it is extremely important to generate a general positive public sentiment before any development in public transport infrastructure. I feel it is time that the urban planning authorities realise that the people know what they want - they are more "self-actualised" than generally perceived - and start considering public opinion while planning. Consultations are not a mere process of preaching; a step that needs to be done with while drafting a plan for the city. Instead public hearings and consultations should be taken as opportunities to involve people in the process of planning for their cities, for their future.  

Ideally, planners should use their expertise to facilitate the process of planning, adding their input only in technical areas in which the general public is not trained. Such a process shall ensure that collective rationality prevails, instead of individual rationality, in the growth of the city. The statistics and projections should be worked out by planners and different scenarios should be placed in front of the public to discuss and debate upon. Initial ideas could be put forth by the planners as options which are not necessarily exhaustive in nature. 

In case of TOD, the projections of growth in the number of vehicles, per capita road space and congestion, and air quality should be put in the public domain. The people should also be shown the benifits of a modal shift, at an individual as well as a community level. A sense of ownership would be thus instilled for the infrastructure of their cities; infrastructure that they have planned for. I believe this would be instrumental in creating a positive sentiment about the public transit infrastructure, and ensure higher ridership. Problems like acquiring land, resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced, would become much smoother processes.

Finally, although the process may be more time consuming, it can always be planned in advance. This process may also make people in our cities more politically active and ensure higher participation in suffrage. Thus, this process could be a concrete step forward in our quest for livable cities.