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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Here is the third article that argues for walkability in order to generate human connections. To quote from the article:
“The goal isn’t to design cities for dating specifically, it’s to create places where human connection can flourish. The places we often think of as the most romantic weren’t planned with dating as their primary objective. Instead, their priority was creating vibrant public life, walkability and shared spaces. “
Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Source: Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Article share – Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
I shared the first part of a series relating the built environment with love (or dating). The second part is also very interesting as it focuses on the impacts of car-centricity. To quote from the article:
“Everyone across both groups said they’d ideally like to meet their partner in person, organically, putting spontaneous public interactions and friends at the top of the list while dating apps and social media fell to the bottom.
In practice, however, drivers were getting far fewer spontaneous public encounters than they wanted, turning to social media for dating far more than they’d like.
For non-drivers, their actual dating life and dating ideals were much more in sync: public encounters and social media use both happened at nearly the rate they preferred. One exception was meeting through friends and family, which happened less often than they would’ve liked.”
Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
Source: Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
There’s this interesting series on the relationship between urban form and dating. To quote from Part 1:
“Even though dating is considered a lesser concern than other social issues, it’s one of the many ways humans seek love and connection. Love, in whatever form it takes, remains one of the most fundamental parts of being human.
So, if the design of cities shapes just about every form of social life, it seems worth finding out whether cities shape this one too.”
Here is the article:
A brief exploration of dating through history highlights how the spaces in which we live and move shape our social lives and relationships.
Source: Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
On desire paths
I found this article on desire paths. These are paths made by people based on their preferred ways to get from one place to another. Often, the paths or ways that are constructed and paved are not the shortest or most desirable ones and appear to force people into following them. Perhaps the built pathways are planned or designed to follow a certain aesthetic in as far as infrastructure is concerned. Desire paths often are the most direct routes from one place to another. These shortcuts are defined over time by the wear along the path. In some cases, they eventually become formalized when they are paved or maintained one way or another including trimming of foliage along the paths.
https://www.boredpanda.com/desire-paths-pictures/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=top&utm_campaign=user
Here’s an example at the National Science Complex grounds of the University of the Philippines Diliman:
Desire path created by students and staff as a shortcut from the complex core to one of the outlier buildings.
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Trip purpose, Antipolo City
In the same workshop with Antipolo LGU staff, the following graph was presented showing the purposes of trips made by residents of the city. The data was gathered with the assistance of barangays, which deployed personnel to do a version of the household information surveys (HIS) usually conducted to collect data on transportation and trip making among residents.
It is important to note that most if not all trips eventually end up at home (i.e., coming home from the workplace, school, market, etc.). Thus we can interpret the graph in a way where we can derive the trip purpose other than “to home”. For example, perhaps the real % of work trips is not 21% but 41.0% of trips made other than “going home.” School trips come in second with 29.9% of trips. Third would be shopping trips at 18.8%. These three combine for 89.7% of all trips made by Antipolo City residents. Work and school trips are most likely the most regular or frequent trips. These are the purposes associated with daily commutes whether by public or private transportation. In the next post, I will share data on mode share and try to relate the latter to the trip purpose.
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On the rise of large vehicles as preference of car-owners
Here is a quick share of an article I found about the rise of large vehicles including SUVs:
These vehicles have become quite popular and the preference of many vehicle owners in the Philippines as well. Owners will probably cite safety as their primary reason for purchasing these vehicles but other reasons would likely include passenger capacity (e.g., having many members of the household), and practicality (e.g., living in or regularly traveling along flood prone areas, etc.). The concern though is that the increasing numbers of these large private vehicles that includes SUVs and AUVs have probably led to a rise in the number of fatal road crashes involving them and pedestrians. I say probably here because there are no formal studies locally like the one in the article above.
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New wide roads lead to more crashes?
I was in Tagaytay several times the past year and recently and couldn’t help but notice all the wide and widened roads in Cavite Province. Driving our vehicle, I also noticed how many were speeding along these roads and that many refuse to give way at intersections unless it’s signalized. We caught the terrifying images of a fresh crash this morning as we traveled home from Tagaytay. There were three wrecks at the intersection of the Crisanto Delos Reyes Road and the East West Road. It took quite some time for the rescue people to get there based on how long we got stuck in traffic just a few hundred meters from the crash site.
Wide roads and aggressive driving are just two major factors or contributors towards road crashes. I wonder what are the crash rates along these roads in Cavite Province. I also wonder how fast first responders, especially medical staff, could arrive on site for these crashes. The police were there first but looked helpless and couldn’t attend to those involved in the wrecked cars. Are they even trained for first aid? Or was this part of their training to just wait for competent medical staff to arrive?
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Is the pre-crisis traffic back?
The energy crisis resulting from the US war vs. Iran has led to a reduction in travel attributed to people reducing unnecessary trips. This was basically to save money that would otherwise be spent to cover increasing fuel prices. Reduced travel or trips mean less traffic along our roads and so has led to reduced travel times. People were sharing that it took them less than an hour from Quezon City to Antipolo Simbahan during a typical afternoon. Fortunately, too, the increasing prices coincided with the end of school for most school across the country and so students were already going on their breaks – further reducing trips.
The past days though, it seems traffic is back as the usual traffic congestion has been observed along major roads. While there have been reductions in fuel prices the past weeks, the prices are still higher compared to pre-crisis prices. So the question now is whether people have already adjusted to the expensive fuel prices one way or another? Not everyone can purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle. Not so many would have shifted from private vehicles to public transport. And not so many will be limited in their desire to travel for whatever purpose including recreational trips.
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On the reduced traffic due to the energy crisis
The past weeks have seen traffic reduced along my usual routes for my commute between my home and workplace. This could be attributed to the energy crisis as, apparently, many have chosen to plan their trips and use other options other than private/personal transportation for their travels. The reduction in traffic is probably due to reduced numbers of private cars and motorcycles as people cut down on unnecessary trips. Of course, most schools are off at this time of the year so that means a significant number of trips are off the roads (and rails in the case of Metro Manila).
My travel time is only about 60 to 70% of the usual during peak hours. And about half during off-peak. That is a significant reduction in travel time and perhaps translates to not just reduced fuel consumption in general but also reduced emissions as well. On weekends, I also observed that there are less motorcycle traffic to and from Antipolo where I reside. I am referring to the groups who usually have their recreational rides during weekends. Did bicycle traffic increase? My observation is that there seems to be an increase for the weekdays but it’s about the same on weekends. Bicycles, after all, are not affected by the fuel price hikes. Perhaps people who can bike opt for the mode instead of their motorized vehicles? The only way to determine if indeed there were significant mode shift is to do surveys. But for now, careful observation not of traffic but travel times will suffice as proof of the easing of traffic due to the crisis.
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On reducing deaths due to road crashes
Following is a link to an article on the increase in road crash-related deaths in Singapore. The city state prides itself as one of the safest places in terms of transportation yet road crash deaths recently hit a 10-year high.
From the article:
“Cellphone-related driving violations surged 39.1% to 4,193 cases, the report showed. Motorcyclists, who make up just 15% of Singapore’s vehicle population, accounted for 54.8% of all traffic accidents and 53% of fatalities.
Speeding violations jumped 25.9% to 253,550 cases, equivalent to roughly 695 motorists caught daily. While speeding-related fatal accidents dipped from 46 to 41, red-light running accidents surged 27.1% to 122, resulting in seven deaths. Drink-driving accidents fell from 166 to 156, but the number of fatal drink-driving accidents held steady at 12 in both years…
…”Road safety requires a culture of mutual respect and graciousness among all road users,” the police force said. “Simple acts of courtesy, such as maintaining a safe following distance of at least three seconds, giving way to pedestrians, reducing speed near junctions and being patient during peak hours, can create a better road culture.” “
What can we learn from Singapore’s experience? Are we capable and equipped to improve road safety in the Philippines? Can we be more courteous, respectful and gracious in the way we drive or behave as road users?
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Caught (up) in traffic 