Urban Transformation

People Places Possibilities

People-Places-Possibilities provides a 3-step framework to redesign our streets into safe, vibrant, and accessible public spaces. The project was one of the winning proposals in ‘The Streets For People’ challenge initiated by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and organized by ITDP India and Trichy City Corporation inviting proposals to make the city's streets into lively public places safe for walking and cycling.

Trichy, situated in the centre of Tamilnadu is the fourth-largest urban agglomeration in the state and is fast growing. Like every other tier-II city in India, rapid urbanization creates enormous stress on the mobility systems reducing the quality of life in urban areas due to urban sprawl and congestion.

A critical area of intervention is urban roads and streets. For so long, we’ve made streets predominantly for vehicles and not as places for public life. In our proposal, we focus on the movement of people and not just vehicles by streamlining and improving the throughput of the arterial streets through a combination of public transport, bicycles, pedestrians, and private motor vehicles. The streamlining is made more prominent through the formulation of a superblock.

A superblock is an area of urban land bounded by arterial roads that is the size of multiple typically-sized city blocks. The local road network within the superblock is designed to serve local needs only. This proven model of organising mobility leads to a modal shift to bicycles and walking and increased commercial activity within and along the superblock, creating economically thriving cities.

Our framework for the redesign of the designated streets involves three steps. First, ensure safe streets by providing uniform width for carriageways, making large intersections compact and safe for crossings, and designing on-street metered parking. Second, develop green spaces, pedestrian, and cycling corridors in the space recovered by making the road widths uniform and intersections compact. These ensure active transportation not only for commuters but for leisurely use as well. Third, identify pockets of space along the streets to introduce new activities to promote vibrancy on the streets.

Trichy is in dire need of green and recreational spaces for the growing population. Green and healthy corridors are formed by identifying and integrating existing parks and open spaces as part of streets. They double as recreational spaces in early mornings, late evenings, and on weekends. By providing a toolkit of possible additions, these spaces can be made active and hence making it vibrant. The toolkit offers the flexibility to adapt based on individual existing situations. Furthermore, making parking organised and paid will generate revenue for the city.