TOD and Mumbai
Last year in March, I was asked about resources on how to develop a TOD policy for Mumbai by a local planner via Linkedin. The following was my response on how Mumbai could approach developing a TOD policy.
Fellow Planner,
TOD is a primarily a North American urban development strategy, to try and shift travel away from cars to mass transit through changing land use policy and urban design. This was necessitated because of the huge dependence on cars by North Americans brought on by low density sprawl. There are places here that one has drive to buy a small pouch of milk.
Mumbai clearly doesn't has that problem. Mumbai is probably the most transit rich cities of India, with a geography clearly suited for efficient transit networks (being a narrow peninsula similar to Manhattan). What Mumbai has is a problem of
Access to transit and multi-modal mobility is where land use, urban design and public participation come in. From a land use policy perspective, increasing housing and jobs within walking distance of a major transit system is often the simplification of a TOD strategy. That works where one has extremely low densities and low transit ridership. Both of which are not the case in Mumbai. If Mumbai want to encourage greater use of transit, it has to focus on making sure it balances the number of jobs and housing within the station influence area, so that theoretically, every worker whose place of employment is within walking distance of a transit station, also has his/her residence within walking distance of a transit station. See my previous post on TOD in Indian cities.
The other way Mumbai can develop a TOD strategy is to identify areas that are transit rich, ie have one or two HCMT stations and numerous local and regional bus line converging within zone. One can calculate how many commuters can be accommodated by all the transit lines, and see if the underlying residential population of commuters allow for more capacity for housing. Jobs within the area would negate equal number of locally residing commuters, as they could mostly likely walk or take para/NMT transit to work. Another key component that is often overlook is parking. One has to make sure that the TOD policy clearly defines the parking policy within the TOD zone. If one limits parking within the zone, one will get greater transit ridership.
Once such areas - station influence areas and transit rich areas - are identified, one needs a mobility assessment - both for coming in and out of the area, as well as, within the area - of the identified area. Here public participation and urban design standards have to make sure key pedestrian/bike, transit, and auto routes are prioritized. Hard choices will have to be made specially where right-of-ways are constrained. This is where have a robust public participation process where in the community is involved in making those difficult choices. It is best to have the format and role of public participation process be clearly defined and explained to the participants so that they know how their concerns and suggestions are being listen to, and applied in the design development for their neighborhoods. The process should provide the participants opportunities to review alternatives, be given pros and cons of each alternative, and their feedback taken on their preference. This will help in creating ownership for any improvements that happen within the area. Please see my paper on Local Area Planning for Delhi (attached) for some ways to codify public participation within the overall master-planning process.
In addition, any TOD policy (or any policy) there should be a process to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy to make sure that is delivering the expected benefit. ITDP came out with a TOD standard that identifies 8 key principles, relevant metrics to measure effectiveness of policies and design standards.
Lastly, all of this is meaningless if the master-plan doesn't provide a common vision to guide all the different components towards a common goal. TOD policy is meaningless, if the design standards for roads, quality of pedestrian environment aren't in place; parking policy; implementation strategies aren't in place, then just having higher densities will cause further problems for the city.
If you want further assistance, you can get in touch with one of the several non-for profits working in India in the realm of sustainable cities and transportation. I can connect you to the professionals in these groups.
Regards,
Fellow Planner,
TOD is a primarily a North American urban development strategy, to try and shift travel away from cars to mass transit through changing land use policy and urban design. This was necessitated because of the huge dependence on cars by North Americans brought on by low density sprawl. There are places here that one has drive to buy a small pouch of milk.
Mumbai clearly doesn't has that problem. Mumbai is probably the most transit rich cities of India, with a geography clearly suited for efficient transit networks (being a narrow peninsula similar to Manhattan). What Mumbai has is a problem of
- Transit capacity;
- Access to Transit; and
- A lack of multi-modal mobility.
Access to transit and multi-modal mobility is where land use, urban design and public participation come in. From a land use policy perspective, increasing housing and jobs within walking distance of a major transit system is often the simplification of a TOD strategy. That works where one has extremely low densities and low transit ridership. Both of which are not the case in Mumbai. If Mumbai want to encourage greater use of transit, it has to focus on making sure it balances the number of jobs and housing within the station influence area, so that theoretically, every worker whose place of employment is within walking distance of a transit station, also has his/her residence within walking distance of a transit station. See my previous post on TOD in Indian cities.
The other way Mumbai can develop a TOD strategy is to identify areas that are transit rich, ie have one or two HCMT stations and numerous local and regional bus line converging within zone. One can calculate how many commuters can be accommodated by all the transit lines, and see if the underlying residential population of commuters allow for more capacity for housing. Jobs within the area would negate equal number of locally residing commuters, as they could mostly likely walk or take para/NMT transit to work. Another key component that is often overlook is parking. One has to make sure that the TOD policy clearly defines the parking policy within the TOD zone. If one limits parking within the zone, one will get greater transit ridership.
Once such areas - station influence areas and transit rich areas - are identified, one needs a mobility assessment - both for coming in and out of the area, as well as, within the area - of the identified area. Here public participation and urban design standards have to make sure key pedestrian/bike, transit, and auto routes are prioritized. Hard choices will have to be made specially where right-of-ways are constrained. This is where have a robust public participation process where in the community is involved in making those difficult choices. It is best to have the format and role of public participation process be clearly defined and explained to the participants so that they know how their concerns and suggestions are being listen to, and applied in the design development for their neighborhoods. The process should provide the participants opportunities to review alternatives, be given pros and cons of each alternative, and their feedback taken on their preference. This will help in creating ownership for any improvements that happen within the area. Please see my paper on Local Area Planning for Delhi (attached) for some ways to codify public participation within the overall master-planning process.
In addition, any TOD policy (or any policy) there should be a process to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy to make sure that is delivering the expected benefit. ITDP came out with a TOD standard that identifies 8 key principles, relevant metrics to measure effectiveness of policies and design standards.
Lastly, all of this is meaningless if the master-plan doesn't provide a common vision to guide all the different components towards a common goal. TOD policy is meaningless, if the design standards for roads, quality of pedestrian environment aren't in place; parking policy; implementation strategies aren't in place, then just having higher densities will cause further problems for the city.
If you want further assistance, you can get in touch with one of the several non-for profits working in India in the realm of sustainable cities and transportation. I can connect you to the professionals in these groups.
Regards,
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