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Planning for Accessibility: Proximity is More Important than Mobility
Here is a quick share of another very informative article that discusses the importance of proximity and more dense development in order to reduce car dependence.
Source: Planning for Accessibility: Proximity is More Important than Mobility
Here are some excerpts from the article:
“This shows that proximity is much more important than mobility in providing accessibility: location, location, location. For the last century, our transportation planning practices have contradicted this principle. Transportation agencies built urban highways that destroyed and degraded accessible and multimodal neighborhoods to benefit suburban motorists. This was racist and classist, but the mechanism was the way that transportation planners valued increased traffic speeds, measured as travel time savings, while ignoring the loss of accessibility imposed on urban neighborhood residents.
Of course, many other factors affect people’s transportation and neighborhood preferences. Some people need their cars for work or after-work activities, and not everybody can bicycle or use transit even if it is available. However, surveys such as the National Association of Realtor’s National Community Preference Survey indicate that many people would prefer living in more compact, walkable neighborhoods than they currently do but cannot due to a lack of supply.”
Such articles are a must read for those who want to understand why government needs to invest in land at or near the CBDs, and develop that land so people will not need to reside far from their workplaces and schools. Truly, there are many other factors affecting transport preferences or mode choice. Housing is one such factor that we continue to treat separately from transport. It is very (prohibitively) expensive to buy or rent in the city particularly in or near the CBDs. The result is people opting to purchase or rent homes in the suburbs. It doesn’t help that developers are also actively promoting subdivisions there and therefore are contributing to sprawl that puts so much pressure on transportation systems.
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Why College Campuses Make Ideal Models for Cities
I recently read this article on college campuses being models for cities. Of course, this refers to campuses or perhaps university towns that have developed in the US. These appear to be microcosms of cities or what cities should be. I can imagine this for the UP Diliman and UP Los Banos campuses. There are others that are similarly structured but most universities and colleges in the Philippines may not even have full campuses like UP including those in the University Belt in Manila. Many are practically just buildings. Others that have land like UST and Ateneo do not have the residential areas like UP’s that would make the campus a town in itself.
To quote from the article:
“Universities and other educational institutions make the lives of their students easier by placing amenities close to student housing so they can travel on foot or by bicycle to reach their destinations. This design encourages human interaction and improves quality of life.
The same can be done for cities and towns. Urban planners can look to college campuses for inspiration, borrow the features that enable this lifestyle, and incorporate them into city design. Such a holistic approach will make it preferable to travel on foot, make sustainable transport more accessible, and create thriving local economies.”
A real battle of Katipunan – the search for a transportation solution
Is it obvious that I was alluding to the classic match-ups of the two major universities – Ateneo De Manila University and the University of the Philippines Diliman – that are located along Katipunan Avenue for the title of this article? That is deliberate on my part as there is a ‘real’ battle along Katipunan Avenue, and it does not involve sports.
Following is a recent article from the Philippine Collegian that reports on the current state of traffic along the corridor:
https://phkule.org/article/971/private-cars-mainly-to-blame-for-katipunan-traffic-transport-experts
I have written before and many times about transport and traffic along Katipunan Avenue. This road has been part of my daily commute since 1988 when I was admitted to UP Diliman as a B.S. Civil Engineering major. Back then Katipunan was not as wide as it is now, especially along the section between UP Diliman and the MWSS complex. That section only had 2 lanes then. What is not a wide center island with large, old acacia trees used to be the frontage of MWSS. So now you can probably imagine how much land was ceded by MWSS for road widening.
I also wanted to write about Katipunan in part as a sort of farewell to the former MMDA Chair and Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando (BF), who recently passed away. Much of how Katipunan looks like and the traffic situation today can be traced to what transpired during his time at MMDA. I will refrain from writing about this and him for now. I am actually thinking of writing a series about BF and his time as Mayor in Marikina, as MMDA Chair, and his brief stint as DPWH Secretary. This short article will do for now.
Traffic and the changing Katipunan cityscape
The traffic situation along Katipunan Avenue has worsened over the years. While there was some respite from the usual congestion experienced along the stretch of interest that has 3 major schools and a mall during the pandemic, ‘traffic’ is back with a vengeance and the new normal seems worse than the old. That Katipunan has changed a lot over the decades is an understatement. The photo below shows high rise buildings completed and under construction. All of these are residential condominiums along Katipunan and Xavierville. Many students now reside there and walk, cycle or take public transport to school. Enrollment though at Ateneo, Miriam and UP has also increased over the years. That means more trips generated by the schools. And with many still dependent on cars for their commutes, it is no wonder that the traffic situation is usually hellish especially during the peak hours.
I took this photo while stopped in traffic at the SM Marikina service road one morning. I have been commuting along this route since the late 1980s and at that time, there were no tall buildings along Katipunan. However, traffic was already bad especially along the stretch from Aurora Boulevard to C.P. Garcia. Its worse now from what I have observed and experienced these 35 years.
There will likely be more condos to be built in that area. The question is if these will lead to more people walking, cycling or using public transport, and becoming less car-dependent. What are the travel characteristics of people there? How much is through traffic?
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Another look at home location choices
I recently shared an article showing the results of a survey conducted in the US. That survey appears to show that Americans prefer sprawl. But that may be due to many factors including political leanings that are actually mentioned in the article. I share another article that appears to be a reaction to the first one.
Lewyn, M. (August 14, 2023) “Do Americans Really Prefer Sprawl?” Planetizen, https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/125112-do-americans-really-prefer-sprawl?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news-08142023&mc_cid=cd3b2e2ba5&mc_eid=9ccfe464b1 [Last accessed: 8/16/2023]
To quote from the article:
“Why do these surveys yield such drastically different results? The Pew survey notes that 3/4 of rural respondents favor the less walkable alternative; thus, that survey was apparently designed to include a representative sample of Americans, including rural Americans who typically do live in very spread-out environments. It seems to me quite natural that rural Americans would prefer rural lifestyles.
But once rural respondents are excluded, the balance between sprawl and walkable communities in the Pew survey becomes almost a toss-up. 57 percent of urban respondents refer houses with smaller yards and more walkability, and an almost-equal percentage of suburban respondents prefer the opposite.”
Again, I wonder what would be the outcomes if a similar survey were done in the Philippines. Will it reveal preferences for single detached homes rather than condos? Who will prefer the latter or the former? What could be the factors affecting home location choices in the Philippines? Cost is definitely a major factor. Commuting times perhaps and even commuting costs? But how do people weigh these factors? And what other influences are there to the decisions to purchase homes?
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On home location preferences
There’s an interesting article on the preference of Americans for big houses even if these
(August 2, 2023) “Majority of Americans prefer a community with big houses, even if local amenities are far away,” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/02/majority-of-americans-prefer-a-community-with-big-houses-even-if-local-amenities-are-farther-away/ [Last accessed: 8/12/2023]
Quoting from the article:
“A majority of Americans (57%) say they would prefer to live in a community where “houses are larger and farther apart, but schools, stores and restaurants are several miles away,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 27-April 2, 2023. About four-in-ten (42%) would prefer a community where “houses are smaller and closer to each other, but schools, stores and restaurants are within walking distance.”
As general as that statement appears to be, as they say, “the devil is in the details.” The article goes to qualify the statistics according to partisanship, age, education, race and ethnicity, ideology, community type, and community type & partisanship. The resulting stats are quite revealing and helps one understand the survey results.
I wonder what would be the result of a similar survey if one were conduced in the Philippines. There is no partisanship factor here that is similar to the characteristics of Republicans and Democrats in the US. What will it reveal about our preferences? Do Filipinos prefer to have their own houses even if these are located far from workplaces and schools? Or do Filipinos prefer living closer to their workplaces and schools even if it means living in smaller homes? Certainly affordability, which was not mentioned in the article, is a major factor considering the cost of homes in cities compared to prices in the suburbs.
There is a link in the article for the methodology and questions used in the study. That means it would be possible to replicate or adapt these for the Philippine setting.
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Article on “Fair Share Transportation Planning”
I am sharing this new article from Todd Litman on fair share transportation planning. The content is relevant and very timely in the Philippines considering many people including and especially transport officials are struggling with the thought of allocating resources to provide or improve facilities geared towards more equitable transport systems (e.g., more facilities for active transport).
Here’s the summary as quoted from the article:
“To be efficient and equitable, a transportation system must serve diverse demands. A diverse transportation system allows travelers to use the most efficient option for each trip—safe walking and bicycling for local errands, efficient public transit when traveling on busy travel corridors, and automobiles when they are truly the most cost-effective mode considering all impact—and it ensures that people who cannot, should not, or prefer not to drive receive their fair share of public investments.
Current transportation planning practices are biased in various ways that overinvest in automobile infrastructure and underinvest in more affordable, inclusive, and efficient modes. It is time for planners to reconsider our analysis methods and funding practices to ensure that non-auto modes, and therefore non-drivers, receive their fair share of transportation resources.
This is not anti-car. Motorists have good reasons to support more investments in non-auto modes that reduce their traffic and parking congestion, reduce their chauffeuring burdens and crash risk, and provide better options when their vehicles are unavailable. Everybody wins from a more diverse and efficient transportation system.”
New reclamations at Manila Bay
As our plane approached to land at NAIA yesterday, I saw the current extent of the reclamation projects underway at the Manila Bay.
These projects are expensive to implement and will surely lead to even higher real estate prices. This will translate to expensive office, commercial and residential units. So one wonders who will ultimately benefit from these developments. Will government come in and require low cost housing here or will future workers have to commute to these places from the suburbs? The latter will definitely put more pressure on an already deficient transport system.
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Push and Pull: The Link Between Walkability and Affordability
Here is a quick share of an article about the link between walkability and affordable housing.
To quote:
“While early pandemic pundits predicted the ‘death’ of urban areas, recent trends show that people—perhaps more than ever—value the benefits of compact development and easily accessible amenities and services. But “Demand drives up costs and can reduce low- and moderate-income households’ opportunity to live in highly walkable areas,” the report warns.”
Source: Push and Pull: The Link Between Walkability and Affordability
Some people seem to be baffled why people choose to purchase homes and reside in the suburbs or away from the city centers. It is actually simpler than what many tend to overthink and attribute purely to the condition of our transportation system. It takes two (or more apparently) to tango and housing affordability is critical for the Philippines’ case.
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Why do we keep widening roads?
I’m just going to share this article here. The article from The NY Times asks a question that has been bugging planners and engineers, particularly those who are in government and perhaps under the agencies like the DPWH, DOTr and NEDA. This also applies to planners, engineers and those from other disciplines involved in transportation infrastructure development and particularly roads or highways.
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Caught (up) in traffic