 Hi, welcome once again to this on newsletters. We are running a series on the Delhi master plan 2021 and we have tried to traverse the history of the master plan right from 1961 and we've spoken about the exclusivity of the plan. We also spoken about how I mean what does it speak about urban housing, what are the gaps, the blanks and what actually needs to be done. But one aspect which was very pivotal in all these discussions was that actually there's hardly been any people's engagement actually. People have been completely mined and they're already alienated from the process of urban planning, urban design but you know I mean I mean in this process also we've had just four webinars that were held by the GTA and the NIUA. So the whole point of running the series is also that to kind of work as a catalyst you know and we are very happy that we have Sonal Shah who runs an organization called Urban Catalysts. Yeah so welcome Sonal and Sonal who is an urban planner, designer but works on mobility here so we can understand how and what we are witnessing. So welcome Sonal and as you know I mean you've gone through the master plan of the draft in fact because it will be finalized soon. So what is it that is there in store for urban mobility though it speaks lots of TODs and all and where are the gaps and that's what we've been asking everyone what should have been the concern of that should have been addressed. Yeah so what do you want? Thank you Vikendra and very happy to be here today. So what I do is I will go through if you will the mode hierarchy starting from our most vulnerable users which are pedestrians and cyclists then go on to understanding the master plan through the lens of public transport that is bus space public transport metro rail system and paratransit. Paratransit is your auto rickshaws, shared auto rickshaws, e rickshaws, Grameen savers so on and so forth then we will come to transitory end development. What I do also while we talk about each of these I will use two things that will cut across them one is data and the second is gender because this is something that we also work on. So let's start with walking and cycling or as we understand non motorized transport. So what is the data saying? First you know 42 percent of residents of all trips in Delhi are on by walking and cycling, cycling is unfortunately only 7 percent but 35 percent are pedestrians. There is some good progress or if I may some provisions in the master plan they are talking about creating active travel schemes for all roads 24 meter I think 30 meters and about that's a good thing. They have also in annexure 7 provided street design guidelines. They're good they focus on road safety, on thinking about foot parts that accommodate walking space and multi utility zones which is good because it provides space for your bus stops for street vending and another informal activity so those are the good things. However let's take a step back and also see what are the other things that need to be improved. One is that they say concerned agencies will prepare these active travel schemes. Now this is this is concerning why? There are more than 12 road only agencies in Delhi so who will make these schemes right and therefore given that we have Jitipet within DDA they should be meeting first a city-level plan right we need a city-level cycle network plan for all roads 18 meters and above because and this should be published as part of one of the maps of the master plan. We can you know we very clearly see we have only one map in the proposals which is the land use plan but if you look at the master plan for example of Bombay they have so many maps that give you some idea of what is the city-level infrastructure that the city wants to create so DDA should be creating a city-level active network plan focusing on cycle tracks and non-cycle lanes and distinguishing between the two. The second piece is that we also need to think about given the the serious issue of road safety in the city that all nodes within 500 meters of high pedestrian footfalls what are those your mass transit stations metro rail stations your ISV teams your bus terminals and also around universities colleges and schools should be traffic count so that they're safe and traffic safe for pedestrians and vulnerable road users and how do you pick them how do you traffic count them not through a board right because we know that unfortunately these are not enforced but by design and these speeds should not exceed more than 20 kilometers per hour these need to be published by DD as part of the current master plan. The third piece I'm going to say is we have annexure 7 we have UtipX redesign guidelines please update I mean UtipX redesign guidelines are good please update new guidelines that have been created as annexure 7 as part of UtipX redesign guidelines and we need a dedicated section on women's safety and security. Here I did my fellowship on urban mobility from live sea so yeah and it's one of the highly pedestrianized and you know very cycle-friendly city where I think almost 28% commute on bicycle and of course I think they definitely cross our the point is actually there the city government does all this why are you saying so much for the DD to do it I mean why don't you bring in you know because there are multiple layers of governance in Delhi so why are you not saying the Delhi government I mean for me the Chief Minister of Delhi is like a metropolitan mayor okay so yeah or why not the municipal corporations so you know actually they are the ones who should do who should be doing this work okay DDLA is a larger framework that look so I mean the the the executive part and the execution why don't you why don't you just come to that yeah yeah so let me distinguish the framework I'm talking about the planning so that it becomes part of the master plan which is a statutory document which means that PWD which owns mostly all roads 80 meters and above right I think that's about 13 hundred square kilometers of their birth then PWD implements I'm not saying they don't but the planning at the city level needs to be done by DDA so that you have a network right the execution and the detailed design needs to be done by PWD which in any case will have to be approved by UTIPAC I hope I clarify that so now I'm going to integrate your public transport and unfortunately a lot is left desired in both the baseline studies and in master plan one and a little I was unfortunately is the serious lack of data right I think DDA needs to get data on public transport from the Delhi transport department I mean you have access to this data they are referring to secondary research in in their baseline studies which is okay but you can supplement it with the the actual user data that you can get from other government agents so I think this is this is a little unfortunate now what are we seeing what are they saying in the baseline studies they are saying that the cost of traveling in the AC bus and the metro is is is comparable and over a period of time we will see people using shift to the metro because it's more comfortable and it's more convenient the the second thing is they also say that the predominant modes of access to buses in Delhi is by rickshaws different modes e rickshaws auto rickshaws shared auto rickshaws and so on we have numbers now I think this is absolutely incorrect there's enough data to show that first majority of the first and last mine trips to buses are by walking so one study says 87% right so because there are 3200 bus stops in Delhi compared to 500 metro rail stations I mean both existing and proposed right a bus network has better connectivity right and therefore we see that most of the first and last mine trips are by walking and this is critical why so this is what we did we looked at non AC bus AC bus phase one metro stations phase two metro stations and we began to calculate the cost of the average trip in Delhi which the baseline study says is 10.9 kilometers okay so we said okay let me test the this this argument made in the master plan the baseline study also says that the average income the per capita income in Delhi is about three lakhs annually which comes to roughly 25,260 rupees okay so we have cost of one trip per day the cost of that trip in a month and we use different income ranges someone who earns 5,000 someone who earns 10,000 someone who earns 20 someone who earns 25,000 which is the average income that they claim and someone who earns 30,000 okay let's see what we found I mean I'm happy to share this table with you as well what we found is is that even for a person who is earning 25,260 a day per month the metro rail system is is unaffordable if you consider first and last mine by the transit now how do you assess affordability there are one metric is that you do not spend more than 10 percent of your income right on transport I what did we find that if someone had to use phase one metro rail stations and and phase two metro rail stations they would end up spending anywhere between 15 to 17 percent of their income on travel and this is the average quote-unquote income person if I am earning let's say 10,000 rupees per month okay if I had to use the the metro rail system and I'm just going to refer to my data so let's say if I'm earning 10,000 I will end up spending 26 to 42 percent of my income if I have to use the metro rail system right so so let's like take a step back and and really a sense that are we going to see the shift that we are that that is being proposed in the master plan the what we have seen is over in 2007 the average trip length by buses increased from 10 kilometers to 14 kilometers right in I think 2018 or so why is that right what does that have to do with for example the fair hikes in the metro system 2017 so I think we'll have to be very very mindful when we are comparing right bus-based transport and metro rail transport right because this is not going to be affordable to a large section of workers in the informal economy if I may we did our research and I'm just going to present this argument and happy to hear your thoughts we did research just on the impact of COVID-19 on women informal workers the average and we partnered with the self-employed women's association for some part of our study so it includes quantitative 800 surveys in Delhi along with qualitative surveys the average monthly income of informal women workers was 6,000 rupees a month they are not going to be able to use the metro rail system at all right so so let's just kind of you know just assess not only the fair of the minimum but the first and last mile together should I just move into water recommendations up before we have this conversation yes I know I think so it's very interesting that you're pointing out and actually this also leads to a very simple statement that the master plan is missing this very important essential aspect of of mobility and you know I'm then for whom is this master plan and that's the argument what Katie and all have been pushing forward it's more for capital needs of technologies and these are not sustainable so I think the end point when we find up the discussion I mean so I mean we must bring in this whole concept of sustainability you know and these I mean these recommendations I mean this what you have brought in through your quantitative and qualitative data I mean very amply suggest that actually what is happening is something that that doesn't help a larger section of yeah I think yeah the third point that you want to make yeah sure let me just clarify the gender I'm not saying that the metro rail system is back by no means yeah I'm just saying that recognize the importance of bus based transport in our cities and I'm also going to draw a little bit from international example cities like Hong Kong very rail based the rail based system no I'll share share the Leipzig example also you know because they have the metro in the rail but you know the kind of subsidy it's free can you believe that it's but then they tax your large guzzlers on the road you know that's the kind of cross subsidization I mean are we prepared to do that or not that's another question so in amply go ahead yeah yeah I mean and I think that's a good point because I often I've been to Leipzig as well and I really enjoyed being part of the city and I also sometimes come to our Asian counterparts sometimes just to kind of say that this is our neighborhood you know it can be learned from our neighborhood as well and so rail based cities if you will like Hong Kong like Singapore have extensive bus based systems right and and I think if we have to take I think if I'm not mistaken the master the baseline study said that we are roughly around between 25 to 30 buses per million population whereas the whereas global norms would say 60 to 70 that means we need anywhere between 18,000 to 21,000 buses by 24 to 1 right so what we at the present fleet is I think it's further reduced I mean not more than 5000 earlier but I think it's further reduced yeah yes and I think the entire fleet is more than 10 years forward so I think this is unfortunate I would I will say that the transport department is trying to improve the bus fleet I will not say that they are not but the master plan document needs to have this vision right for improving bus based travel and so some of our big recommendations around this was that which at an overall mobility scenario was that 90% and I'll also come to the share of 80 to 20 I don't know where these come from it was there in the previous master plan as well not implemented but we said that at least 90% of all trips in Delhi should be by walk cycle integrated public transport we need bold action there can be nothing else right and we also said that 90% of residents in Delhi should be able to access frequent bus based transport system within five minutes walking distance because because we are not going to be able to get that kind of connectivity with the metro rail system the just the the third piece that we were also talking about is that all new housing especially affordable and EWS housing should again be within five minutes of frequent bus based transport and why and because of you know I mentioned this the issue of income and affordability it's insufficient to say frequent public transport because even if they live close to a metro station will they be able to afford it and that's why we said within five months walking distance of bus based transport I think we also recommended that the corridors right that have high frequency of service if you I can give you some numbers but high they get called super trunk corridors as per the transfer department in a ring road out of ring road some of the some of the the existing metro rail corridors as well we need to improve travel times for for buses along these corridors what how do how we do it is up to us increase parking fee significantly right so that the people on these frequent service corridors are decentralized to to visit these destinations along these I forgot to mention one thing because we went when we actually compared so I only spoke about bus and metro and I forgot and paratransit have got two wheels right because a majority majority of the personal motor vehicles are two wheels if I have to use my two wheeler in in Delhi and if I account for fuel cost if I account for parking costs currently it's actually more affordable for me to use my two wheeler than to travel by the face to metro stations with first and last market so it's like just pause right it is cheaper for me to use a personal motor transport however we ever going to achieve this 8020 mode split and therefore we will have to very we have to think about parking parking management and political will for that in a very serious the master plan does have some good provisions we just have to see how it gets implemented on those lines as well just yeah any the third piece that I wanted to talk about was paratransit it's not sufficiently addressed and there were two big things that we wanted to speak about here we need to organize our paratransit systems so that one we can achieve fair integration between bus metro and our share auto rickshaws and other other vehicles as well this is difficult it's not easy but but it will require that so currently let me give you an example if we have a gram in seba each operator will be assigned to do it but they compete with each other and so there are different ways that we will need to think about in terms of organizing paratransit operators and thinking about either corridor based franchises or someone based franchises and all that so that so that we are also able to think about fair integration what I wanted to say is that the master plan talks about public transport accessibility levels and sets that aliens that have poor public transport connectivity can have higher parking laws this is this is I think inappropriate because areas that have poor public transport connectivity in general but are also overlap with many lower-income neighborhoods when we are looking at emails of Varvana, areas of Sangar Bihar, we are looking at Najakkar and John, we are talking about Jahangir Puri and Mir Nagar so to me I think that this cannot apply and I think that we're putting the burden of travel on lower-income populations on them and their costs without providing public goods. I think I'm going to take that and then come to TOD if you would like. UD happens to be one of the most propounded word in the master plan. It was there in 2021 also and there is a fair amount of criticism also to what to whom does the TOD cater, what about the profile of the town so you know the Delhi doesn't just exist amongst the middle classes, there are a lot of working people here. I think there are multiple things to be said about TOD but let me summarize just for everybody's benefit on what does transit-oriented development mean. It means that we want to encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport particularly when we concentrate higher densities around mass rapid transit systems. Now let's look at our juky droppings. Let's look at urban villages and let's look at the principles of TOD. What are the principles? First, speak connectivity. Smaller urban block sizes so that you can walk. So it's nice to walk, your trip distances can be shorter. Pedestrian or cycling infrastructure so that again you know you're encouraged to walk or cycle. Three, density of residents okay not only density of built-up area and I think this is this is that balance of density between residents and built-up area. Amenities. So having TOD doesn't mean you don't have amenities. It means that we have high quality compact neighbourhoods. So your social amenities, your public open spaces etc are part of such neighbourhoods. Find reduced reliance on personal motor vehicles so you do that to your parking noise right. So of course if I had high parking norms then I would use my personal motor vehicle bike you know because that will happen and so this is very critical critically called a travel demand management. So therefore you have to disincentivise personally. Look at an urban village for example we can take multiple examples but you know I go to Kotla fairly often, Mothmasjad etc. It actually meets all the criteria that we have outlined here perhaps except perhaps public open spaces or amenities and maybe good street design. I mean we'd have to think about I mean there are ways to think about how the design shades to use but and this is important. So therefore for all settlements that lie within the TOD influence zones, don't need to do anything except operate with better amenities. I see you as DTA. I mean what do you think I mean and where do you exactly apply the TOD in Delhi? So this as for the master plan this would happen around your metro rail stations I think within about five to eight hundred meters of your metro rail stations and for existing areas I have already suggested some ways and how we can think about affordability. The second thing which I think is also interesting and should be explored is that TOD currently indicates that for every hundred square meters of middle area you'll have one parking space. We also kind of indirectly address different affordability groups right because I think there is a need also to think about the the low middle and the middle class as well because there is a shortage of housing for this segment too and what we need to do is have very bold action on parking lots. So let me give an example from other cities. Cities like Paris don't require developers to provide any parking motorized parking within 500 meters of public transport. Here we need to provide at least one car park for 100 square meters and I think we need to reduce that and make it optional to provide parking. This what this will do is one that this will avoid transit adjacent development which means that people who will buy apartments close to transit who will want to use their personal cars but then they will not be able to do that anymore. I'm not a Gandhian at all but I think there's something which I really like about Gandhian that is what you preach you must practice and that's what I used to do when I was the director of Simla. I used to bike I mean I used to bicycle and you know there was an elevation of 500 meters in the distance of around 9 kilometers. That is kind of an environment that has to be built it's not just about raising those issues but it has to come collectively from and especially greater the power and greater the responsibility. So I think we must create may perhaps some days or some kind of I'm just imagining your chief minister, your Lyftman governor going to the offices on bicycles or kind of environment that it brings and it's not that it's not happening it's across the world it's happening. I can quote maybe half a dozen or maybe dozen mayors and who are far larger than Delhi who use public transport actually who commute on the bicycles. Else it's completely un-systemed. This is something that this is something that we've been edited and this if we pass on to our children it's a disaster it's a catastrophic. So I think thank you so much but how does the 241 plan and maybe some I mean it's just all anecdotal experiences because I remember the then chief minister and we were in office is saying you just prepare a plan because you know you have to create some innovative ideas. Why do you incentivize people to buy cars? Why can't you dis incentivize people to buy cars and incentivize them to buy bicycles apart from creating those lanes or maybe just pass on an increment to them and this is what the chief minister just used he said you prepare a plan and if the plan suggests that okay the person is buying a bicycle moving to the office and of course you require a commensurate infrastructure to that that's that's a separate thing. So is it we will create a provision in the budget to provide some increment you know so increment is a big thing in India you know so I mean just imagine I mean getting an increment to ride on a bicycle to your office what does it mean small small things I think but I think we and then the last part what again it comes from I think we require some dedicated bicycle officers who prepare plans who run the city and who just bring in that and that's what this deli government has to think about not just the DD they really can't do it I think maybe some bicycle or just a point some 500 bicycle officers and just see the change that yeah so your last yeah if I may and I completely agree with you you know they're a very interesting expert not expert interesting things to learn from and if I may if you look at London and if you look at what was it you know what he has done under the main they have now created a special position at the needed level of an empty uh an empty commissioner or an empty champion what does this person do I mean and and many cities in in in the UK have done that right this person's job is precisely this is to become a role model for walking and cycling in their cities you know because often we need coordination with so many people traffic police utilities and I think that's what we need right if for example PW had appoint appoints a bicycle leader who then becomes their face and the advocate at the leadership level because once you have the leadership then a lot of other things fall into place you know may I if you know I just want to kind of end this with an interesting story of my own so uh my partner and I we both work in sustainable transport and uh we we have between ourselves we we have one bicycle we're planning to buy another but we don't and do not want to own a personal motorway so when we're looking for a new apartment two years ago you know how we got a present department because we didn't want parking spaces I think our land owners our landowners said that you know I think they were struggling to find tenants but we said no we don't want a parking space interesting I think back to so much for really bringing in that qualitative and quantitative aspect of ability and actually what is missing in