Mobility Issues around Mixed Land Uses

-Vishesh Bhardwaj, BP/725/2016

1. Need of Study
It is estimated that in the following few decades the urban population of India would break the fifty
percent barrier. The increasing influx of people in urban areas has made them enormous. Since most of
the Indian cities do not go for high rise development, the city expands on the ground. Many municipalities
and urban development authorities are forced to increase their area of jurisdiction in each iteration of
their spatial plans, in order to incorporate the whole population. This highly unsustainable process of
growth has to be slowed down. This led us to shift our urban growth process on to a compact city model.
Jane Jacobs also preached about compact urban development. Her ideas of walkable neighbourhoods,
diversity and mixed land use development are also consistent with current planning principles of compact
urban development.(Kotharkar, Bahadure, & Vyas, 2012) lists down the aspect of compact city in which
they talk about higher urban densities, sustainable transport, mixed land uses and diversity. Hence the
idea of compact city, propagated the idea of mixed land use in order to reduce the number of trip and
intensely using the land.

However, in Indian context mixed land use is not required to be propagated, it already existed. Most of
the Indian Cities have developed organically and the spaces are not consciously organized, which led to
haphazard and unplanned mixed land use. Shops on the ground floor and residence on the floors above
is very common scenario in a city like Delhi. While the Delhi Master Plan 2001 had strict restricts
commercial use zones in residential areas, the MPD 2021 has propagated the idea of mixed land use. TOD
is also closely related to the idea of mixed land use. Moreover, the poor implementation and development
of markets after the residents started moving in, in the planned neighbourhoods also forced people to
open shops in their own residence. MPD 2021 accepts the shortfall of commercial areas and to
compensate that notifies around 2000 streets for mixed use. The problem arises here.

The mixed-use streets are often congested, poor road infrastructure with the biggest problem of parking.
The impact of this is felt the most when you move inside a single locality. Some major sub arterial streets
with lower capacity also face the same issue. The parking provisions are almost none. While some markets
do have a charging system for on street parking, the rates might not confirm with the time lost due to
congestion due to on street parking. Also, recently the order from supreme court to a civil petition
no.13029/1985 by MC Mehta has asked the authorities to look into parking issue in Delhi. It marks that
there is a failure on the part of authorities and Govt. to look parking as an issue. Court has directed the
MCD to clear all encroachment on rad to make way for pedestrian and enhance walkability. Also, it direct
to draft rules of the Delhi maintenance and management of Parking Places rules 2019 to be notified by
30/09/2019.

Hence this study becomes important to study the demands and need of parking infrastructure around
mixed land uses. The residential and commercial land uses have standard norms for parking, same for the
mixed use is still unclear. It is to some extent established that mixed use is a growing trend, also a part of
smart city mission. Finding out the possible reasons and amount and kind of traffic attracted by different
kinds of mixed land uses needs to be studied. Also, by the end of the study it also important to see the
actual delay caused by on street parking and whether the efficient parking around mixed land use could
reduce the trip time substantially.
2.Mixed land use
The first part of the study will be focussed on mixed land use. It is essential to understand the theory of
mixed land use and why there is a need to study mobility issues around mixed land uses. This part is
concerned with propagation of mixed uses and how mixed land use is a crucial part in sustainable urban
development. Then we will try to establish that mobility around mixed use is an area which requires
attention.

According to Delhi Master Plan, 2021 Mixed land use is the provision of any non-residential activity in a
residential premise. In Indian context, its true as it is observed over time residential land use have been
replaced by commercial due to economic market pressures (Sita, et al., 1988). If we look the current
scenario of ever-expanding cities, land has become a scarce resource. Hence in order to have a
sustainable approach Jane Jacobs in her book mentions the term “compact urban development.” It
propagates the idea of mixed use, walkable neighbourhoods and increased densities. We see the origins
of the mixed use from compact city approach and various authors preach about the idea of mixed use.
Robert Cervero mentions advantages of mixed-use developments and provides four ways in which it
reduces local traffic congestion. Those four ways are reduction in motorized traffic, spreading out trips
evenly through out the day, encouraging more workers to carpool and finally shared use parking
arrangements. (Cervero, 1988).The mixed land use approach has been further linked to greater good of
reducing pollution as it reduces travel demand and promotes walking or cycling which eventually leads
to reduction of vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. (Spears & Boarnet, 2014). Apart from environmental
and transportation benefits, there are variety of social benefits. Dwellers in neighbourhoods with mixed
land-use are more likely to use public spaces (Saville, 2010). A neighbourhood with mixed land-use
promotes a high level of activity on the street, keeping it safe. Children feel safe to play or cycle, elderly
meet and talk, and strangers feel they are intruding (Bahadure & Kortharkar, 2015). Community
cohesion, interaction, and sense of belonging are strong in a mixed land-use community. People
perform diverse activities (live, shop, play, and work) in the same environs. The frequencies of their
meeting, greeting, smiling, and talking increase. Neighbourhoods with mixed land-use provide
convenient access to people and places and so residents and workers prefer such neighbourhoods for a
balanced life (Tombari, 2005). Hence it is quite evident many authors preach the idea of mixed land use.
Most of the authors quoted above state their findings and results from the studies carried out in the
west. Very few authors address the issues linked to mixed use in Indian Context.
(Bahadure & Kortharkar, 2015) mention the externalities linked to mixed use, namely traffic congestion,
air and noise pollution. In their study they discuss about the land-use mix index. They aim to access
sustainability of mixed use neighbourhoods based on some indicators. We will discuss these details in
the next section.

3.Objectives
1. To understand the infrastructure needs for mixed land use.
2. To understand and compare the types of mobility issues created around different mixed uses.
3. To estimate the demand of parking and traffic attracted by a major mixed- use market.
4. To estimate the delay caused by mixed land use for a given trip.
5. To develop a parking demand management system around the chosen areas.

4.Research questions
1. Why mixed land use attracts motorized traffic?
 2. What are the major mobility issues around different types of mixed land uses?
3. How much delay is caused due to congestion caused by mixed land use?
4. Will an efficient on parking demand management system help in reducing the congestion?

Running Bibliography
Cervero, R., 1988. Land Use Mixing and Suburban Mobility. Transportation Quarterly, 42(3), pp. 429-446.

Saville, S., 2010. the value of Neighbourhood Intensification. Istanbul, s.n.

Sita, K., Phadke, V. & Guha, S., 1988. The declining city core of an Indian Metropolis: a case study of
Bombay. Concept Publishing Company.

Spears, S. & Boarnet, M., 2014. Draft Policy brief on the impacts of Land use mix based on a review of
Empirical Literature.

Tombari, E., 2005. Smart growth, Smart Choice Series: Mixed Use Developments.

Loehr, S., 2013. Mixed Use, Mixed Impacts: Re Examining the Relationship between Non Residential land
Values and Residential Property Values.

Tian, G. & Zhang, M., 2011. Traffic Generated by Mixed Use Developments. Journal of Urban Planning
and Development.

Bahadure, S., & Kotharkar, R. (2015). Accessing Sustainability of Mixed Use Neighbourhoods through
residents travel behavior. Sustainability .

Biswaas, S., Ghosh, I., & Chandra. (2017). Effects of On Street Parking in Urban Context. Transportation
and Developing economics .

Hirt, S. (2007). The Mixed Use Trend. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research.

Hoppenbrouwer, E. (n.d.). Mixed use Development: Theory and Practice in Amsterdam.

Kotharkar, R., Bahadure, P. N., & Vyas, A. (2012). Compact City Concept: Its Relevance and Applicability
for Planning of Indian Cities.

Prajapati, R. (2017). ON Street Parking: Biggest Problem Of Urban Streets.

Wardner, P. (2014). Explaining Mixed Use Developments: Realists Perspective.

Wen, L., Kenworthy, J., & Guo, X. (2019). Solving Traffic Congestion through Street Renaissance. Urban
Science .

Delhi Master Plan 2021

National Transit Oriented Development Policy 2017

Ghosh, Poulomee(2017). Mixed Land use Practices and Implications