City for people or city for cars?

What has to be done for the movement around the city to become comfortable, quick and safe for the citizens? Deputy Head of Administration of Ekaterinburg on the accomplishment, Transport and Environment Eugene Lipovich speaks.

- The traffic jam (congestion), fumes, parking problems - is that a universal payment for the right to live in a big city, or all of this can be avoided?
- The most of the developed countries have faced the traffic jam problems in the big cities yet in 60th of the former century. And all the attempts to solve the problem with the expansion of the street network, construction of major road junctions in the city, large parking lots in the center, taken at the time, ended in failure. Because the wider the road, the more it encourages people to use private transport.
So our Western colleagues took thought about what would happen if this technology will go on. They came to the conclusion: adjustment for motor vehicles will lead a city to a standstill. �The tragedy of the commons� is that the more popular free resource is the more demanded it is and more limited at the same time. Which means in relation to transport - no matter how extended the road is, sooner or later it will be slaughtered.
Realizing this, metropolitan governments began to change the ideology, putting the human at the forefront. The person must have the possibility to move around the city as quickly as possible, without problems with maximum convenience and without damage to health. According to that all was prioritized.
What is the street? It�s a collection of sidewalks, green space, roadways, including those intended for public transport� How this space might be divided between all the participants of the movement?
The pedestrian has been put in first place, he must move around the city comfortably. The presence of various cafes in the first floors of buildings contributes to this. The second place is occupied by the public transport�s passenger, which a pedestrian becomes, if it is more convenient to get to the designated point by the bus.
The cyclist is in the third position. It�s a person who takes care of his health, who may move quickly enough in urban areas and, in contrast to the bus or tram passenger - for free. The driver and passenger of the moving car are at the forth place, and the parked car is at the fifth.
On the basis of these priorities they started to construct the cities and neighborhoods. The entry of private vehicles in built-up areas was limited, so that pedestrians have the ability to move quietly. The public transport began to develop actively, and predominantly electric, does not polluting the atmosphere of cities.

 

For example there is a fee for entering (entry) the center of the city in London. There were more then 320 kilometers of bicycle paths laid in New York for the last 3 years. The vehicular traffic of Broadway was closed in several places, the roadway is not being expended here, vise versa, it�s being narrowed. They create islands of security, the new pedestrian space. Paris also consistently displaces private cars from its territory, compensating it by development of the public transport. Hundreds of kilometers of new bicycle paths emerged in the city in recent years. The automated system of running Bicycles has started; it has 1450 stations and 20,000 bicycles. But the freeway (highway) along the Seine will be eliminated. In Copenhagen about 37 percent of residents� cycle to work, and this number continues to grow. The �green way� is used here in droves for cyclists�
The examples of that kind might be continued. There is a clear trend in the world, many of Russian experts have estimated it, and Moscow turns around to face the problems of the public transport development. We can�t avoid having to move in the same vein, recognizing that car ownership would further encourage deterioration in the quality of life and increased mortality on roads.
Resistance to this global trend, unfortunately, exists, and it comes from ignorance, and misunderstanding that, by insisting on the expansion of the roadway of streets, we are now trying to go through the way, which has long ago passed abroad, and discarded as a dead-end.

- So, we don�t have to be engaged in the road network development at all?

- No we should. And we do that, including the interests of motorists. We talk about the Middle ring (Sredinnoe koltso). (Ob�ezndnaya, Serafimi Deryabinoy, Tokarey, Bebelya, Donbasskaya, Bakinskih komissarov, Shefskaya, Egorshinsky proezd, Bazoviy lane), and it it should providethe most rapidmovement of cars � both freight and passengers. And interchanges at the intersections with the Ob�ezdnaya, Moskovskaya and Amundsen, Tokarey with Crauwlya and Tatishchev street and, of course, the interchange at the �Kalina� concern are necessary for the city. We say that Moscovskaya Street, prospect of Astronauts and some others high way exits also must provide unimpeded entry and exit. And we will take all necessary measures, including those associated with the construction of capital facilities. But as for places of mass building and mass human habitation, we will strive to ensure that personal car is not at its place here. Priorities will be given to public transport, pedestrians and cyclists.
I�m not sure if this idea will cause a general approval. People are used to situation when the car is always somewhere near by and you can use it anytime�
Yes the mentality has changed. Many of our fellow citizens have appreciated the charm of the car. But they can�t see behind short-term convenience the damage, which road transport does to them and to future generations. We shouldn�t go with them on a leash as the nation's health should be central to any authority.

- Should we close the city for cars for this?
- We need to limit their presence in the city. The entry fee is not the best measure in my opinion.
But we must clearly define the possible places of parking lots, the price for the use of which will be high enough. Leaving the cars outside of the legal parking must be expensive, and we know that from July under the federal law, the evacuation of the car and stay in the penalty area parking lot will be paid by the owner. So and when a man feels in his pocket, how much does a trip to the center cast, he will begin to think more.
Now till there is no reason to think much, he will drive from the Botanichesky district to the center by car habitually. Although huge budget money was (were) spent to ensure that he did not do that. The talking is about the new metro line as you understand.
And we need a good count, whether we want to continue to build in the city center parking lots. And huge parking lots are half-empty, and the cars are crowded near on road sidewalks.
When it will be too expensive so then we�ll calculate, how many parking places we need really. Maybe there are too many of them already.

The car in motion uses 50 square meters of outdoor space, the cyclist - 7.2, the passenger of ground public transport - 3.4, pedestrian - 2 square meters.

In the good old days the vehicle couldn�t be registered in the state inspection without presence of the storage from the owner side. I myself remember registering a motorcycle, presented with a certificate of right of garage space. Today we forgot about it. I'm not talking about our yards and roadside pockets, clogged with the cars. They are out there at night that prevents a street cleaning. We�ll have to put up signs here and fine for parking at night.

- All these measures are so to say repressive. Introducing them, probably, you have to offer people an adequate alternative, not excruciating shaking in a crowded stinking bus�
- Those who use the public transport today, and not only underground, could evaluate the changes of the last time deservedly. The travel on the modern trams �Spectrum�, buses �Nafaz� of our municipal enterprise are quite comfortable. But it is just the beginning of the way (path).
We�re facing the task of mass replacement of rolling stock of electro transport. The municipal budget can�t do it, but we look forward to assistance from the region, and � in case of the positive decision about holding here the World Cup � from the side of the Federation. And we should not change for anything, but on low-floor carriages, which are easy, for example, to roll a baby carriage or wheelchair. Salon must have air conditioning, normal heating. All tram lines now being repaired by the modern method, which reduces the noise level, to achieve smoothness.
Plus to that the work on the tariff system will be continued: those citizens who travel by public transport on a regular basis must have the significant discounts.

- For those who travel to work by bike too, obviously, it is necessary to create conditions. Man in the car is being protected from road dirt, but a cyclist has to carry pants and shoes to replace�
- This problem does exist, but it is being solved. Today the sidewalks are being cleaned much better. The monitoring conducted by cyclists for my blog, proves that. The situation is changing: if earlier during the time of the inevitable spring thaw the problematic period was about 1,5-2 months, now it is about 1,5-2 weeks. And while we actively use private cars, we won�t get rid of this period at all. Because the main pollutants are cars - exhaust, and studded tires, breaking asphalt, form the basis of the urban road dirt.

- How the tendencies which you�re talking about relate to the Strategic Development Plan of Ekaterinburg?
- Strategic plan originally included a number of programs and projects that anticipated the current situation, laid the foundation for movement in the actual today direction. Now they, and the project �The city for pedestrians� in particular got the additional impulse. Everybody can feel it on himself. Say, three years ago we repaired the street from curb to curb, now the concept of "street repairs" expanded. It consists of lowering of the mandatory curbs at crossings and repair of sidewalks also. The special program of sidewalks construction has appeared. Designing new roads, we provide a mandatory presence of a good sidewalk, pedestrian zones, bicycle paths and convenient to public transportation.

- Cycle paths are good if they permeate the entire city, but not are as short segments in different neighborhoods�
- If the person has opted for the bicycle already, he will ride in the present conditions, and when the individual segments appear on some areas of his route, it just makes his movement easier. Now citywide network of bicycle paths is being developed. We also envisage an adequate parking, but we will build it, certainly, not for one year.

- As for lanes dedicated for public transport, separation of tram tracks� What plans are there, given that the restrictions, imposed by only one road markings, do not affect our motorists?
- The mechanism of bringing to justice for violations must be improved, primarily by means of auto-commit traffic violations. In addition to speed control, parking in the zone of prohibition signs and violation of traffic rules of the bands will be fixed. Besides we will continue to work on a physical fence of public transport routes, first of all the trams.
�In this regard what remains to be done is not so much, and we have to look at where most problems occur. For example, in some cases it�s more important to leave for the cars the opportunity of the left turn from the tramway. Hence, there is need to provide breaks. Or another example, we have to count what would happen if we � from one side would fence the tram lines, and from another side would live the possibility to park the cars along the sidewalk.
Or another example: we need to calculate what happens if we, on the one hand, rail off� tramways, on the other hand, we can leave the possibility to park the car along the sidewalk. What if we�ll shut the roadway by this? All these aspects are analyzed in preparing the draft scheme of traffic on the March, 8 Street.
The physical separation of the bands for pneumatic public transport is not planned. Maybe we'll do it for new construction, providing the opportunity for special vehicles to call in on these bands.

- Well the aims are clear. How real is to reach them?
- It�s necessary to understand the main. Or we make our city clean, green, convenient for life, or we will continue to indulge our ego, to defend our right to move around the city by private car and� pant in the smoky jam, sink in the mud, suffer from allergies, neurosis and other diseases.
The time to make an informed choice has come.

Yuriy Glazkov talked.
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