PLANNING AND DESIGNING A PEOPLE FRIENDLY CITY WITH UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY PUNE,

Abstract

Cities today are planned as per prevailing of land uses and integrated with the components of necessary infrastructural requirements. These are then detailed out in Zonal plans and Area plans. In the absence of specific guidelines and byelaws for public spaces, our urban spaces including streets, squares and public places remain unfriendly and even inaccessible to vulnerable age groups comprising of children, women, aged people and persons with disability. Therefore there is an urgent need for studying the urban public domain in terms of its usability and accessibility by vulnerable age sex groups to establish their present status and recommend suitable planning and design guidelines to iimke public spaces people friendly and accessible. The study was based on three important components of a people friendly city namely streets, public spaces and transit tenninals. Cities are looked upon as a collection of spaces rather than individual buildings and vehicular traffic. Emphasis has to be laid on creating intricate spaces related to the scale of people walking not driving. Spaces between buildings are more important in comparison to the buildings itself. Public spaces, low buildings areas, shopping areas, commercial areas, recreational areas should blend together with blurred overlapping borders which enhance the richness of the urban space. People prefer natural cities because of its recognizable patterns and complexity within order which allows the city to be compact, easy to relate with, therefore friendly, attractive and comfortable There are various legislations and laws which have a bearing on the commissioning of design, construction and management of the built environment. These legislations have been prescribed in the form of standards and guidelines specified by Bureau of Indian Standards, National Building Code 2005, CPWD Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier free built environment for Disabled and Elderly persons, 1998, Manual for Barrier free environment and Model Building Byelaws, 2004 given by the Ministry of Urban Development. The review of these accessibility documents reveal that they are outdated and need revisions, also they lead to multiplicity in the adhering standards and the result is reflected in the poorly designed Urban domain. The review of various city development plans, master plans and annual action plans of various ministries dealing with accessibility reveal that though the plans talk about the public domain, none of the documents mention any standards or guidelines that needs to be followed to achieve it. The standards and guidelines of cities with best practices are in stark contrast to the Indian legislations, as they comprehensive and detailed from the perspective of vulnerable user groups like the elderly and persons with disabilities The third chapter deals with case studies of Chandigarh city center and Manek chowk at Ahmadabad as Indian examples followed by the case study of Berkley city. The study showed that Indian public spaces have traditionally facilitated a number of different activities as spaces modify themselves to the requirements of the user. Thereby suggesting that any Indian public space should cater to more than a single activity. The international case study of Berkley city with its suitable Urban structure, street connectivity, local and city wise accessibility to key facilities with a wide range of mobility options make it people friendly. Many of the factors responsible for Berkley city's success can be directly applied to Indian cities The next chapter is about the profile of Pune city, its physical, social as well as economic characteristics. The chapter deals in depth the growth pattern and the resultant urban structure of the city. Chapter 5 deals with the Analysis of existing public realm of the city for which important residential, commercial, transit tenninal and educational streets were analyzed to determine their accessibility. This was followed by the survey and analysis of public spaces to determine their success as user friendly, accessible spaces catering to activities for all user groups. The survey and analysis led to the selection of three different study areas in the city, which consists of the major streets, public spaces and transit terminals of the city. The sixth chapter deals with the analysis of the three identified study area I - FC road and JM road, a predominantly educational street with proximity to Shivajinagar Railway Station, Study area 2 - Laxmi road, a traditional commercial street and Study Area 3 - Sarasbaug area, a predominantly recreational space. The selected study areas were analyzed in terms of their people friendliness, accessibility and success of streets, public spaces and transit terminals located in the areas and urban design level proposals were proposed to revitalize these areas to make them people friendly The last chapter deals with general recommendations as well as legislative recommendations and policy guidelines individually dealing with all three spaces - streets, public spaces and transit terminals.