Friends Indians Citizens…

Context: The Covid-19 outbreak provides a natural transition for us to rethink our urban design to be more convenient, comfortable, safe — and inclusive.

 Problems in Urban Cities/ Design

• Absence of planned structure: to guide urbanisation mechanisms/processes.
• Urban transportation policy: is significantly skewed towards enabling private transport, hence results in high congestion.
• Low Floor Space Index (FSI) norms and Lack of economic security and limited opportunities.

Way Forward

• Increase FSI: to enable a greater volume of housing and commercial real estate. 

• Push for work from home culture: may offer opportunities to retool our cities around localised services. 

• Decongesting cities: will require a focus on three key strategic levers: 
• Questioning the need for travel during peak hours: integrate existing land planning with the transport infrastructure to reduce travel distance and time.
• Discouraging private car ownership and usage: by dynamic electronic pricing for tolls and parking, private car ownership tax, or restriction on the number of licences.
• Streamlining traffic flows: through an intelligent traffic management system (ITMS) as used in Singapore.
• The change in the definition of public transport: for ensuring on-demand availability, offering door-to-door connectivity, while providing the highest standards in safety and comfort. 
• Multimodal transportation: that can offer aggregation while providing quasi-public transport service. E.g. e-rickshaws.
• Remodelling Urban Architecture:
• Encourage a pavement café culture: with more citizens active in running, bicycling, or swimming by designing pedestrian-friendly corridors.
• Climate change resilient cities: reshape existing streets, squares, and parks to receive the maximum amount of water.

Conclusion: Indian cities need to be more convenient, comfortable, and safe with a focus on the social inclusion of the poor and vulnerable.