While Panjim seems to be getting a head-start in its attempt to reboot its planning and embrace new urbanism, the concept of new urbanism ‘Smart’ as we know it, has to include an extremely vital element without which the genesis of new urbanism fails. And this X factor is simply to reduce and gradually eliminate cars in its city centre and many of its surrounding spaces.
This is so important that it cannot be over stressed. Not just Panjim, but Margao, Mapusa and Ponda have to work towards clearing its town centres of cars and using the space to make these cities with entire networks of car free spaces
And while the rest of the world is rapidly adapting to this, this transformation in Goa will ride on the ubiquitous bicycle, which should become the principal mode of transportation along with a better network of bus services and even a high speed train network between towns.
The quality of life and living in Goa’s major towns will improve drastically if parking lots and other spaces, used by legal as well as illegal parking, are converted to cafes, spaces to play music, or simply as lovely pedestrian walkways.
Pedestrian cities are expanding across the globe. The joy and ease of being able to walk to shops, restaurants, markets, cafes and delis, is exactly the quality of life enhancement which should actually be the barometer of any city’s success. Ultimately, all that goes towards making a city smart, should result in happiness for its citizens. This is new urbanism.
The trend is international and Goa must embrace it. “In Copenhagen, we have pioneered a method of systematically studying and recording people in the city,” says Jan Gehl a Danish architect and co-author of ‘Public Spaces-Public Life’, in www.newurbanism.org
He said, “After twenty years of research, we’ve been able to prove that these steps have created four times more public life.”
A quick four point approach can be adopted by Panjim as a pilot project a) Eliminate parking spaces in the main city centre (Fontainhas, Mala, DB Marg, etc. b) Turn parking lots into thoroughfares, c) Have students, among others on bicycles to eliminate congestion around high schools and d) Use the freed up spaces for enhanced public engagement.
This obviously comes with a caveat that a well planned project of making our roads pedestrian and bicycle friendly and allowing the rent a bike concept to take off, as a non-negotiable element in the new urbanism project, is imperative.
Goa should well learn from international cities primarily because of the international nature of its capital, Panjim. And there is no reason why other towns cannot follow suit.
Madrid for instance will only allow access to bikes, buses, and taxis and ban cars from 500 acres of its city centre by 2020, with urban planners redesigning 24 of the city’s busiest streets for walking rather than driving. Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht are synonymous with cycling.
Goa therefore has an opportunity and perhaps a responsibility, to have the first mover advantage, if it really plans its urban regeneration, by recasting its major towns as pedestrian ones. The total number of vehicles used by people should actually drop and not rise. Yearly registrations of new cars should actually face a slump to indicate that our cities are getting smarter.
These may not spell good news for those in the business of cars, but that cannot and never in the future decide or dictate a city’s planning. People have to come first when we plan the future of the spaces they will live and occupy.
The approach has to be inter departmental and interdisciplinary. The availability of organised parking outside the pedestrian zones, electronic tagging of cars so that fines can be docked off drivers electronically, the imposition of a congestion tax for those parking closest to the pedestrian zones, should be worked on.
Let us look at this future with hope, and not with dread. This is the way to be, to reclaim our spaces and giving each one of us a better life to lead.
