![]() ![]() Why “walkability”? It is cheap, it is low technology and it combines flexibly with other modes. He clarified that these are his own subjective views of how cities work and the index only includes cities that he has extensively walked through in the last five years. These include pedestrian infrastructure, such as pavements, over-bridges, streetlights and signage connectivity to other forms of transport urban form, which is the ecosystem of shops, offices, the mixed use of cafes and street life distance air quality safety crime policing legal system emergency services, and so on. Mr Sanyal introduced his Global Walkability Index project, which uses a number of criteria to determine walkability across different cities. For Singapore, walkability has also improved over the years as well as for cycling due to the many new park connectors around the island. In comparison, he raised the examples of central Seoul and the High Line in New York City as ingenious planning that have increased walkability. Mr Sanyal also presented examples of fairly new but “unwalkable” cities, such as the area surrounding the highway in Gurgaon and certain parts of New Delhi. While no one is suggesting allowing only walking in a city, it can become a backbone system that allows people to mix and match transportation. While the city may have witnessed ethnic and religious skirmishes, not once has there been class conflicts, and he attributes this to the train system that is used by all members of society, which allow the rich and poor to interact at close proximity. In terms of social inclusion, he raised the example of Mumbai. Mr Sanyal suggests that the street cafes of Paris, New York’s Central Park and the pubs of London have generated more ideas than the libraries and labs in the world. Walking is an important ingredient in creating “urban buzz” that generates much economic value, making successful cities what they are today. It also simultaneously resolves issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It is scalable in that it can be introduced in big cities as well as small ones. Therefore, designing for public transport, at some level, is essentially about designing for walking. He explained that every form of public transport is ultimately based on walking because the last and first mile has to be walked. It also means connecting through to other modes of transportation. ![]() This is more than creating nice sidewalks it includes air quality, shade, parks, public toilets, lighting, security and safety, accessibility for the disabled and the aged, etc. Mr Sanyal defines planning “walkability” as allowing an average citizen to use walking as an important, if not dominant mode of transport for work and leisure. Therefore, today’s urban landscape is defined by multiplicity and within that, the use of different modes of transportation by all kinds of people. In addition to this is the “multiplicity” of the social unit, where nuclear families are less mainstream, single households are becoming more common and multi-generational households are making a comeback. For instance, a typical work day no longer exists in the 21st century where one would leave home in the morning, commute to work, spend a certain number of hours working before returning home and pursing one’s own leisure, etc. ![]() These to him are perennial considerations in planning, but what is distinct today is the “multiplicity of life in the 21st century”, whereby the “regular cycles of 20th century life” have broken down. Mr Sanyal began by outlining three broad areas any urban planner would have to address when planning a new city: environment sustainability, economic viability and social sustainability. Paul Barter of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Mr Sanjeev Sanyal, president of the Sustainable Planet Institute and Global Strategist at Deutsche Bank, presented his ideas on using walking as a design paradigm for cities.įollowing his talk was a moderated panel discussion with Mr Andrew Fassam, senior director, Conservation and Urban Design Group at Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Mr Steven Goh, executive director of Orchard Road Business Association and Mrs Ong-Koh Wee Nah, director for the architecture & commuter infrastructure development at Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA). ![]()
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