Esmeralda shameti

Urban Mobility Esmeralda Shameti

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

6 August 2013

Introduction: This report reflects on the results of a short research study, which focused on Urban Mobility and was part of the BUDS project. Mainly, this paper concentrates on furthering my undergraduate research on car parking types for residential neighbourhoods and focus on understanding issues related to street hierarchy considering (1) pedestrians and cyclists, (2) public transport and (3) vehicles in Brazil (Figure1). The workshops delivered in the universities in the cities of Florianopolis, Pelotas and Porto Alegre were very helpful in collecting information regarding mobility and helped me to better understand the issue in comparison to my undergraduate experience in the UK. One of the key concepts investigated was the use of the street as a shared space in order to reflect the hierarchy suggested by Ghel and make housing areas safer and walkable for the community.

Another topic of interest for me was car parking and how they can help developing livable streets. This paper will summerise some of the UK best practices on urban mobility that have been collected from a short analysis during the trip in Brazil and current practice found in contexts of development pressure where urban environments are designed still with the use of the individual car as a priority.

Framework for Analysis: This site is going to discus analysis of each site we worked on in three different cities and it will be focused in street hierarchy and parking.

1. Street hierarchy: it will cover the street elements, what we provided in each site and how street hierarchy is structured.

Figure 1. Street Hierarchy (Tumblr - Gehl Architects http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gehl%20architects)

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Making travel safer by allocating dedicated space and enforcing standards by creating cycle paths, pavements and street furniture to reduce vehicle speed.

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Figure.2. – Street Furniture

Figure.2.1 – Street Furniture

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A high quality of public transport and giving public transport priority such as provision of new buses to university for students that does not have cars, which will bring easing access to the institutes and the other way around.

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There are several best UK mobility practices that stimulate public transport and could be applied easily in other place like Brazil. One of the best practices is cycling, which is used and works in UK.

Best practises used in Brazil

Worst practises used in Brazil

Private transport (vehicles)

Public transport (buses)

Cycling

High speed

Private parking gate

Limited access to

Table.1.

2. Parking: Parking is a key element in any redeveloping area; nevertheless, it will identify several parking types and how it is used in the sites that we worked on in three different places.

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Case studies This part will cover three case studies that BUDS worked in Brazil in three different universities. The analysis of case studies will be focused in the framework above.

Mobility in Ponta do Leal: BUDS visited different communities in Brazil and I had a different perception for each area that we visited. The first visit was in Forianopolis in Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and in our workshops we decided to work with the site called Ponta de Leal (Fig.3). Ponta de Leal (Figure 3.4.5) was a site near to the sea facing the bridge in Florianopolis. It could be called ‘favella’ as was populated from poor that live in slum. Their business was located in the same place as their houses and the main job was fishing. The community is going to be relocated to a nearby site designed with flats and community party centers, cafes and shops. The new design aims to provide residents with a better place to live and work. Streets and parking were both a key point in this project. 

Street hierarchy: A key benefit of it is shared street for neighborhood that will give them an opportunity to get together and create a better social life as well as work together by opening small shops, where they could sell their hand made products.

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Parking: Our design group incorporated proposals to provide enough space for parking for each flat because being in better houses for them is having a better life and finding a better job, which will have the need of car parking for each flat.

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Figure. 3. Ponta de Leal, Florianopolis

Figure. 4. Ponta de Leal, Florianopolis

Figure. 5. Ponta de Leal, Florianopolis (http://www.flickr.com/photos/felipemirando/5144599353/in/photostream/ )

During an interview with people from this community I found out that the people living happily there, as they are used to the life close to the beach and active with different types of jobs, like fishing as it is mentioned above. The government had a project for redeveloping this area by building a condominium with many flats and one entrance, however they are not happy with it as the changes on the site will separate them from the connection with the sea and they will lose their jobs. BUDS got engaged in a workshop based on this site, where everyone had different ideas, but not a condominium and the key point for us was to keep them close to the sea.

Regarding car parking, it was not well structured as it was a slump area and most of the people there did not own a car. After the workshop for this site, the group suggested that it was a good idea to locate the parking in the entrance of the area but slightly small and with cycle and car parking. Moreover, from my experience visiting 5

this site I saw that they had an amazing sea view that they would not change with any condominium in the world and they were going to be happy and comfortable living in this site but in better flats.

Away from the site, Florianopolis seemed that most mobility relied on the use of the individual car. Most of the people had their own cars driving to university or work.

Another point is that people from middle class have chosen cars and motorcycles as a transport type and there are more vehicles than public transport. This mostly happens in huge cities in Brazil, such as in Rio, nevertheless in Florianopolis there were very few buses and most of the people were using cars, as they use to live very far away from the island where their universities and jobs are located. Mobility is very important in a city and parking is a key function of many streets, even though in few areas that I saw parking was not well provided like parking from both sides of the streets increase the traffic jam. Results from my undergraduate research indicated that a well-designed car parking on the street gives vitality to the area and street as well as it provides a convenient access to frontages (Shameti, 2013).

Chocolatão – Porto Alegre Porto Alegre was the last city that we visited; the University of Pontifica Universidade Catolica Do Rio Grande do Sul.

Figure.6 – Chcolatao, Porto Alegre

This community had already been relocated from the city centre as the land’s that inhabited it belonged to the council and they wanted to use this land for Civic buildings. The format of the workshop was to visit the new site and produce design coding suitable for similar relocations projects. 

Street hierarchy: This site provided a shared street that it was considered as a wasted space because it was used as a shared space. During the workshop on this site it was called ‘waste of street’ as it was not used from the community, 6

although it was projected as a shared space (Fig.7). This space of street did not have an end and people in this place did not have many cars to use it properly that are why it was called waste of street. As it is showing in the pictures below, the street had houses from both sides and it was used from cars, bicycles and pedestrians but in a shared way.

Figure.7 – Chcolatao, Porto Alegre

Figure.7.1 – Chcolatao, Porto Alegre

There were several parts of the houses that did not follow the key principles of urban design for urban quality, for example backs facing backs and fronts facing fronts (Fig.7) this fact is important as each house has to face the street in a way of having better social life. 

Parking: Parking was an important element for this site; although, it did not have any particular parking but parking on street. The street was used as a shared space, in the same time was used also for parking.

Pelotas Pelotas was the second visit we made. We used the case study of a walled perimeter block forming a gated community. We used design codes in the broader sense and looked at the impacts of bringing down the wall on permeability, perception of crime, and whether we could code a place that did not have these case studies traits and could be successful. It was difficult trying to code an area where the people inside feel comfortable and safe, but urban design principles encourage active edges and natural surveillance, rather than walls and gates. During the workshop, our group members tried to create a street that passes from inside the area, which will help the community to keep contact with each other and to use its car parking and cycle line as well (Fig 8,9).  Street hierarchy: As it is showing below (Fig.8) the street was used from bicycles, cars and pedestrians. It looks a quite area and not very safe; hence,

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with the use of design code principles we tried to make it more livable with a mixed used houses, accessible from everyone and much more divers. 

Parking: Parking is important in all the residential areas, this site provides parking as it is showing in the picture below (fig.9) but with a better project for the site it would change by locating it pull parking outside the residential area.

Figure.8 – Pelotas (Workshop site)

Figure.9 – Pelotas (Workshop site)

Conclusion

In growing cities, many neighbourhoods are becoming less and less connected and integrated to the rest of the city such as the gated ‘condominiums’ we visited in Brazil which has an impact on peoples social integration and access to other parts of the city.

Too many people die or are injured in traffic Inappropriate infrastructure and poor regulation promote a serious conflicts between pedestrians, bicycles, public transport and individual (Jones and Novo de Azevedo, 2013).

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Street hierarchy and parking was quite similar in Florianopolis, Porto Alegre and Pelotas, which made me create a particular view for mobility in Brazil. The three sites we worked on had several similarities and differences such as:

Similarities

Differences

Increase the quality of public transport

The need for public transport

The need of cycling

Cycle line

Create and parking

plan

Provide more pedestrians

proper

car

pavement

for

Increase street furniture Reduce high vehicle speed Table.2.

The street hierarchy is a good example to be used in Brazil, as it will help in reducing vehicle speed and providing easy access to different par of the city. Urban mobility is different form UK mobility as in the UK everything regarding urban mobility is well structured and planned, public transport is provided everywhere as well as cycle line.

Pedestrians have enough space to move easily and to be safe from the vehicles. The seed is quite controlled from different street furniture that makes the road safe and walkable. Urban mobility makes a place accessible and liveable that why it is very important in providing a good one.

This study trip was a good challenge for BUDS and me as we challenged ourselves in language barriers, different approach to planning and design, economic challenges, social issues, legal complications and lack of government support. The result of this challenge was learning and improving our skills in design coding by working with other student, in the same time we exchanged different ideas, which was very helpful.

Analysing different sites and practicing design codding was a great challenge for me.

It made me understand the principles of design codding very well by working with other students and putting all the ideas together.

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References Shameti.E., 2013. How can car parking design deliver positive urban design qualities in residential areas? Department of Planning, Oxford Brookes University

Jones, T., de Azevedo, L.N. 2013. Economic, social and cultural transformation and the role of the bicycle in Brazil. J. Transp. Geogr. [Online]. Available at: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography. [Accessed 1 August 2013].

Gehl.J. 2010. Cities for people. Washington: Island Press. 2012] McCluskey. 1987. Parking: A Handbook of Environmental Design. London: E. & F. N. Spon Ltd. Bently.I., Alcock.A., Murrain.P., McGlynn.S., and Smith.G., 1985. Responsive Environments. Routledge: USA http://www.flickr.com/photos/felipemirando/5144599353/in/photostream/ http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gehl%20architects

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