The Manila Times

Making our cities walkable

MOBILITY MATTERS

THIS week, an article on walkability caught my eye

(“50 Reasons Why Everyone

Should Want More Walkable Streets,” Aug. 24, 2016, Fast Company). It was based on a study prepared by Arup, a global consulting firm, on the benefits of walkable streets (“Cities Alive: Towards a Walking World,” Arup, June 2016).

We all know about the health, efficiency and environmental benefits of a more walkable city but how about happiness? The Arup study found that “[s] omeone with a one-hour commute in a car needs to earn 40 percent more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, researchers found that if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love. People who walk 8.6 minutes a day

are 33 percent more likely to report better mental health.”

An idea so simple and elegant, yet so elusive. We plan mega-projects, we spend trillions on the Build, Build, Build program, and we long for better mobility with more infrastructure. Yet there is hardly a mention in our infrastructure plans about making our streets and neighborhoods walkable. Instead, more and more road space is devoted every day to the use of four-wheeled motor vehicles, even though only 5 percent of Filipino households own one. This is a bad trend that needs to be reversed.

We are all pedestrians, and the majority of Filipinos do not have access to a motor vehicle. This alone is sufficient justification for prioritizing efforts and funds to make streets more walkable so that walking to our jobs and schools, doing groceries or errands, or even just for leisure and exercise will be safe, convenient and attractive. For local officials with only a three-year term, the good news is that pedestrian infrastructure projects are relatively quick to bid out and implement, low-cost, employmentgenerating, highly visible, and implementable in every barangay.

Why are Philippine cities so unwalkable and what can we do about it?

First, there needs to be more space for walking. There are many roads where sidewalks are too narrow or missing; most are non-compliant with accessibility laws. We should not wait for more land acquisition or for the road to be further widened. Pedestrians should get their fair share of existing road space, even if it means converting existing car lanes into bike lanes and sidewalks. It needs to be done particularly on roads where vehicles travel at speeds

above 30 kilometers per hour. It will make our streets more equal and efficient and it will save lives.

There are many streets where sidewalks have been converted illegally into driveways or car parking spaces, with pedestrians then forced to walk on the carriageway, endangering themselves. Appropriating the use of a sidewalk for a private purpose violates national laws and should be penalized.

On some streets, instead of taking the space away from cars, a good option might be to make the entire carriageway safe for everyone’s use — shared by motor vehicles, children, the elderly, and people using bicycles or wheelchairs. With a “slow” or a “shared” street, vehicles are limited to 30 kph or less, pedestrians and cyclists are given priority at all times, and traffic-calming infrastructure (such as speed humps and chicanes) are introduced. A street could also be closed to through traffic so that only residents’ vehicles are allowed to enter and exit at very slow speeds. A street could also be pedestrianized or closed to all motor vehicles.

The big advantage of pedestrianized and slow/shared streets is that they not only become part of the network of safe walkways and bikeways; they also offer residents additional open space for leisure and exercise when vehicle traffic is low or absent. Portions of a street can be converted into small parks, playgrounds or gardens. With public open space in short supply in most Philippine cities, this approach offers a ready and cost-effective solution.

Second, streets should be safe for people of all abilities at all times. Sidewalks need to be free of cracks and potholes. Street lighting is a basic requirement. Sidewalks need to be continuous with properly designed ramps for wheelchairs and strollers. Tactile surfaces on sidewalks are crucial for guiding the visually impaired. More people walking also provides “eyes on the street” — a desirable form of community surveillance that helps deter crime.

Third, streets can be more pleasant and attractive by adding greenery and shade trees. Tree-lined streets absorb heat and carbon and are more inviting to use. Planting trees on our streets can lower ambient temperatures by 1 to 5 degrees Celsius and fight the “urban heat island” effect. The chicanes mentioned earlier can provide new areas along a street where trees and greenery can be planted.

Finally, we should aim to create compact, dense, mixed-use and socially-connected neighborhoods in cities where everything you need to access (housing, jobs, shops, schools, parks, recreation and health services) is no more than 15 minutes away as much as possible by foot. Zoning in cities should welcome diverse uses, activities and types of housing within the same districts. Allowing additional density will enable housing stock to expand and include more low-cost housing. The 15-minute city concept will only succeed where it applies to everyone, not only the rich.

Because we are all pedestrians, because every trip starts and ends with walking, because more walking makes us happier and healthier, because we need to protect the most vulnerable road users, because zero emission travel helps our environment and planet, because more people walking make our roads more efficient, and because investments in pedestrian infrastructure deliver early and broad-based impacts, making our cities walkable makes total sense.

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2022-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281874416796907

The Manila Times