CARACAS CASE: Transit Oriented Social Development The case study of Metro Cable of San Agustﾃｭn
Introduction Caracas, capital of Venezuela was founded During its first 300 years, in 1567 by Spanish settlers under the name Caracas developed slowly of Santiago de Leon de Caracas. The city between the river Guaire lies in a valley in the Andes, at an average and the mountains; formaltitude of 900 meters above the sea level ing linear city running and it is separated from the Caribbean Sea east-west on the north by the mountain of el ﾃ」ila. This impressive side of the river. By the mountain of 2700 meters height kept Caracas second half of the 19th relatively isolated during its first centu- century, the first modes ries of existence.
of public transport were developed. In 1883 the
As a typical Spanish colonial city, it was communication to the founded according to the Charter of Indies; ocean was opened with following a reticular pattern of 25 blocks of the first steam rail road 100x100m, with 4 streets in each direction running between La Guaiand a main plaza in the center surrounded by ra and Caracas, allowing the city to develop. the council house and the church. Horse
driven
trams
were running on Caracas streets by 1891 connecting the different Train stations. The first elecFirst plan of Caracas by Governor Juan de Pimentel 1578.
trical trams were developed by electrifying the horse tram-lines, unlike
Aerial views of Caracas and The Avila mountain.
most cities that did the transition by electrifying the streamlines. In the beginning of the XX century, the different transport systems were unified and the network was extended to reach the neighboring communities. In the 1940’s the country experienced an economic boom with the discovery of oil. It brought prosperity and richness to the population. Gasoline buses that had appeared in 1920, gradually gain control of the city’s streets. By 1948, electric trams were
Regina Orvañanos M. Regina is a Mexican architect and a Master student of International Cooperation and Urban Development. She collaborated with U-TT in the Metro Cable project and was in charge of the el Manguito Station conceptual design. She’s also a founder member of South to South cooperation network.
finally replaced by buses and over the next decades extensive motorways were built across the city to give the hegemony to the car. Public transportation would be completely neglected until 1983.
The construction of Caracas Metro System started in 1983.
Petare Barrio view from above
Informal urban growth Oil-based prosperity in the 40’s and 50’s at- only the 30% of the city’s tracted a massive migration, mainly rural surface. The living conand but also international. The rapid urban- dition and poverty in the ization process was not able to be absorbed barrios may vary from by the formal city and led to the appear- infrahuman condition to ance of slum areas inside the city and on a nearly consolidated neighborhood. the eastern and western peripheries. This urban new population found settlement in the in- Nevertheless, the social ner hilly areas of the capital particularly, and physical integration in the abandoned greenfields of all colonial with the formal city is haciendas.
affected by their inaccessible
topographic
Today, 60% of Caracas’ inhabitants (close to condition, poor infrafive million) live in informal spontaneous structure and their ilneighborhoods locally called “Barrios” in legal character.•
Transit oriented social development in San Agustin Transit Oriented Development refers to the Despite the broad investurban steering strategy of linking public ment in public transportransportation to new urban development. tation,
informal
areas
The concept has traditionally been inter- are still unreached by preted as an approach to combat traffic civil services and public congestion and to create livable car-free infrastructure.
Broader
communities that will enhance a richer strategies beyond transeconomic development. In Caracas, efforts to ameliorate the traffic conditions started to materialize in 1983; when the first line of its Metro system was inaugurated with 8 operating stations, initiating a new phase of the city’s urban development. The systems’ expansion hasn’t stopped ever since, reaching today an extension of 66km, 47 stations and 1’800,000 daily users. Along the metro axis, the city has densified
portation are required to integrate barrios city.
the
into
The
informal the
legal
development
need by the barrios exceeds physical accessibility that may be provided by transportation. Development is a culturally-relative concept and must be contextualized to the necessities
of each area. In Caracas’ case, the barrios already have the conditions of high density, car free environments and a compact city promoted by Transit Oriented Development. A vital factor for their integration lies in the social legitimacy of being recognized as an integral part of the city.
The aerial view of San Agustin north and south, after the construction of the MetroCable.
San Agustin urban development strategies. In 2006, the socialist government of President Chavez embraced the project of a cable car system to link the Barrio of San Agustin with the public transport system. San Agustin would become a pilot project of a broader strategy for urban integration using innovative transport infrastructure, along the installation of a variety of civil services and the creation of new public spaces.
The selected district of San Agustin was founded in 1876 and experienced a continuous development until 1936. Today, it has View of the housing block of Parque Central built in 1972 with 2,536 housing units in 8 buildings, next to the Francisco Fajardo highway.
a population of 50,000 inhabitants and it’s cross-cut by the highway Francisco Fajardo dividing it into north and south San Agustin. In the northern part lies the housing complex of Parque Central, built in 1972 with 2536 housing units within 8 buildings. The southern part is an informal barrio settled on a 200m high hill where the project would take place.
It has the particularity of being in the boundary of the city center, and yet, of being isolated by its geographical condition. The average inclination is 45째, in which the inhabitants would have to climb 400 steps to reach their dwelling. The
The plan of 2003 to introduce roads into the informal settlement of San Agustin.
inhabitants of Southern San Agustin, suffer form lack of sanitary infra- A previous project of 2003, considered the structure,
unsanitary creation of a street network that would af-
living conditions, poor fect close to the 30% of the existing dwellers public
spaces
and
are in an already car-free area. After 3 years
in need of livelihoods, of negotiations, discussions and community all these conditions are workshops, the strategy of a Cable Car sysenhanced by the reduced tem was finally adopted by the federal govconnectivity to the for- ernment. It was finally inaugurated at the mal city.
beginning of 2010.
The Metrocable project consists of a 1.8km cable car system, integrated to the metro of Caracas. It comprehends 3 stations on top of the hill and 2 terminal stations. Each station
has
additional
cultural or recreational program attached to it, as well as the creation of public space and re-
Schema of the Metrocable System conected to Caracas Subway
development of the surrounding area.
The project suffered several modifications during its implementation, and what was originally conceived as an integral project had left some areas of the program for further phases. San Agustin cable car was conceived as a pilot project; the neighbourhood was selected because its manageable scale compared to other barrios and its location allowed a greater political visibility. Nevertheless, its implementation was highly politicized and the increased costs were controversial. However, the main ideas for community development were maintained, and the lessons learnt- both technical and social will be replicated with increased success. At this moment, an evaluation is being done to study the social impact on the benefited population. It is important to keep in mind that the final results of a project of this scale may take some years to mature.
References http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_ Central_%28Caracas%29
Conclusions. The lessons regarding TOD that can be distilled for further replication are: -The concept of development should be localized and adapted to each context. -Transportation is a mean and not an objective for development. -Transport should be adapted to the cities we have, not the other way around. -Integral urban strategies are the main factor for success for social change.
http://www.history.com/topics/caracas http://www.moma.org/interactives/ exhibitions/2010/smallscalebigchange/projects/metro_cable http://www.tramz.com/ve/cs/cs.html http://www.transitorienteddevelopment.org/tod.html http://www.u-tt.com