Competition Winner
Client: Tiruchirappalli City Corporation
Collaborators: Kapilan Chandranesan, Ganesh Babu, Raghuram Kaliamoorthy
A scalable framework for designing people-centered streets is proposed for secondary cities, with a focus on Trichy, the fourth-largest urban agglomeration in Tamil Nadu. Significant challenges are posed by the rapid urbanization of Trichy to the mobility systems and quality of life due to congestion and urban sprawl. To address these challenges and enhance the quality of life and vibrancy of city life, three goals for streets are proposed: safety, healthy, and vibrancy. These goals are based on smart strategies and design approaches that are financially sustainable for the municipality.
A proposal is made to streamline the movement of people instead of vehicles to improve the throughput of arterial streets. This involves a combination of public transport, cycles, pedestrians, and private motor vehicles, culminating in the creation of a superblock. The superblock is a bounded urban area the size of multiple typically-sized city blocks. Within the superblock, the local road network serves local needs only. This proven model leads to a modal shift towards cycling and walking, increasing commercial activity and making cities more economically thriving. Green and recreational spaces are deemed crucial to the growing population of Trichy. As part of the integrated approach, green and healthy corridors are designed along streets, which double as recreational spaces in early mornings, late evenings, and weekends. The framework for designing streets involves three steps: ensuring the basics of safe streets by providing uniform width for carriageways, compacting large intersections for safe crossings, and designing on-street metered parking; recovering space to create healthy corridors for walking, cycling, and green spaces; and identifying pockets of space along the streets to introduce new activities based on the context, promoting vibrancy on the streets.
