[Reader-list] Postmodernism & transport planning

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All,

In  addition to the recent exchange of mails on transport and nano,
here's on more view. The writer of the post below is an IAS officer
and he suggests that in so far as transport planning for Indian roads
is concerned, maybe we require  'a different set of rules to reconcile
competing and conflicting claims for safety, efficient movement, and
the quality of the built environment. In this setting, real
improvement in traffic congestion is only possible by using contextual
designs, based on postmodern ideas, to influence traffic speeds and
driver behaviour'.

I think for all of us here, ideas like small cars, road capacity,
urban traffic congestion and so on must be viewed from a range of
perspectives to arrive at a more informed understanding of the debate.

Regards

Taha




http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Postmodernism--transport-planning/articleshow/4416628.cms?curpg=2


Postmodernism & transport planning
18 Apr 2009, 0556 hrs IST, Sameer Sharma ,

 The emergence of postmodernism as an alternative to modernism has
useful lessons for Indian policymakers. Modernism, in the words of
David
Harvey, “entails a ruthless break with any or all preceding historical
traditions” and the west during the pursuit of the “High Modern”
project completely disassembled existing historic structures because
all historical social systems were perceived to be inherently
backward, which held back progress; therefore, had to be abandoned. On
the other hand, India never completely let go of its past and the
“revalorisation of tradition” has once again made India a wonder for
the western mind, in the way described by A L Basham.

A product of Enlightenment, the modernist project rests on the
underlying notion that laws of reality objectively exist and by
applying scientific principles these can be discovered and mastered to
promote human welfare. Hence, modernism searches for general theories
and universal laws, disregarding culture and context. On the other
hand, a paradigm shift occurred with postmodernism, which tries to
understand reality by looking for culture-specific characteristics and
unique local conditions.

Similar trends are visible in urban planning, which has veered away
from a “Fordist” approach to create technologically efficient urban
forms, such as mass suburbia, “international-style” towers in inner
cities, and auto
-dependent neighbourhoods to recognition of urban diversity and complexity.

Accordingly, Corbusier’s concept of a house as a “machine for living”
and claim that a “city made for speed is made for success” has been
replaced by Lynch’s “good city form”, Boyer’s search for a “city of
collective memory”, and Calthropian human, as opposed to
machine-based, planning-scales. Postmodern urban sensibility, directed
towards “pluralism, a search for character, urban identity, unique
features, visual references, creation of landmarks”, provides a basis
to design innovative and inclusive India-specific urban policies and
one example is the application of post-modern principles to transport
planning and traffic engineering.

Western transport planning is based on creating “traffic zones” to
achieve consistency, conformity and predictability in auto and
pedestrian movement. Roads are categorised into a hierarchy of road
types, suitable for various functions, speeds, and traffic volumes
(e.g., national highways, neighbourhood roads). Furthermore, there is
segregation between traffic and pedestrian networks on roads.

The principles of categorisation and segregation were operationalised
by the west during the last 75 years. Commonly, Eugene Henard is
considered to be the progenitor of modern traffic engineering, and
Holroyd Smith introduced these principles to the US, which were later
codified by Arthur Tuttle and Edward Holmes. Segregation between
traffic and pedestrian networks was first tried in Radburn, New
Jersey, and the separation principle was further developed in the
Buchanan report, Traffic in Towns.

Undoubtedly, such “traffic zones” are required for the exclusive use
of vehicles on highways, but recent postmodern practices in Europe are
also looking at roads as “social zones”. Unlike traffic zones, social
zones integrate car and pedestrian movement. The combination of
traffic with pedestrian movements, children’s play, and social
activities is based on the “woonerf principles” developed by Niek de
Boer and Joost Vahl in the Netherlands. Similar postmodern concepts
were also experimented in the UK in the “Home Zones” programme.

Traditionally, transport planning is based on the 3Es — enforcement,
education, and engineering. The common belief is that traffic will
flow smoothly if traffic rules are enforced, public educated, and
roads upgraded to universal standards. On the contrary, woonerf
principles envisage streets to be social zones.

For instance, the city of Christiansfeld, Denmark used “ambiguity and
urban legibility” in street design to reduce high death rates on the
town’s central traffic intersection. Instead of erecting warning
signs, road markings, and traffic signals, Bjarne Winterberg and the
engineering firm Ramboll removed traffic signals and road markings. No
mode of transport was given priority and pedestrians, buses, cars, and
trucks used eye contact to negotiate the junction.

Surface treatment, lightning columns, and junction corners were
squared up. The purpose was to make the intersection resemble the
centre of the town or to create a public realm. Expectedly, the number
of killed or seriously injured (KSI) during the last three years was
reduced to zero, moreover, traffic backups were reduced. Compared to
junctions having traffic signals, ambiguous junctions prevent
accidents, reduce delays, and are cheaper to construct and maintain.
Shared space is another woonerf principle that is applied to transform
busy traffic intersections. In Friesland market town of Oosterwolde,
different types of traffic intermingle giving an impression of chaos
and disorder, in fact, traffic negotiates the junction using eye
contact and care for other types of transport. No state regulation or
control is visible and traffic movement depends on informal convention
and legibility.

Living in an urban environment in which kerbs are used to prevent
interaction of pedestrian activity with carriageway and painted lines
show places humans should walk and cross streets, people coming from
the high-income countries are appalled by the absence of kerbs, road
markings, bollards, traffic signals, barriers, and signs in India.

What they fail to understand is that the traffic, as it is in Indian
cities, reflects the local values and cultural history of the place
leading to lack of uniformity and ambiguity, requiring a different set
of rules to reconcile competing and conflicting claims for safety,
efficient movement, and the quality of the built environment. In this
setting, real improvement in traffic congestion is only possible by
using contextual designs, based on postmodern ideas, to influence
traffic speeds and driver behaviour.

(The author is an IAS officer. Views are personal.)