Issue 03/11 - Siemens Mobility

Focus
Look at today’s Brasilia:
The roots of the drawingboard
capital reach back
into the 19 th century
one of the BMBF projects during his studies
at the Technical University of Berlin. Also
when selecting the suitable means of
transport, guidelines from Europe for
example provide help. “Buses are the preferred
option on less frequented routes,
while from about 5,000 passenger journeys
per day a tram would be more efficient
in handling the traffic flow.” And
for routes daily serving 30,000 or more
passengers, a subway or light-rail line
becomes profitable.
Step by step, a suitably
sized transport
network is created
As Karger knows from experience, the
mobility planning process for New Towns
starts with the collection of maximally comprehensive
data on the physical structure
and the population, mainly from local government
bodies. For transport planning in
developing and emerging countries, information
on transport-related mobility behavior,
the level of motorization as well as
accident statistics are also of considerable
relevance. Land-use data is usually available
in the form of a master plan. Based on these
findings, future patterns of mobility can be
Daily traffic in Ho Chi Minh City: The traffic plan for this city on the Mekong River is going to
cover also the needs of pedestrians and cyclists, two previously neglected types of transport
described, predicting the likely source-target
relationships for journeys and trip chains.
These form the basis for the planning
teams to develop scenarios for transport
links to the nearest city, and for the design
of overall and local transport structures in
the New Town itself – both for motorized
private traffic and public transport. The
various scenarios are then evaluated and
optimized using computer simulation.
Thus, step by step, a suitably sized transport
network is created, defining main
roads that have a connecting function,
collector roads that act as feeders from
residential areas, and bus lines for main
routes and local districts.
Overall, the transfer of knowledge from
the old industrial countries to the countries
of the Middle and Far East or South has
gone fairly smoothly – with one exception:
Modern concepts for sustainable transport
design based on an intermodal network
linking together the different mobility
options, is often initially greeted with incomprehension
at the local level. “The
local decision makers have mostly studied
in industrialized countries in the 1960s or
1970s, and are often locked into an oldfashioned
way of thinking,” says Dr. Wulf-
Holger Arndt of Technical University of
Berlin and coordinator of the “Megacities
Mobility” cross-link for the entire BMBF program.
“That’s why they still rely on a one-
sided approach, expanding capacity for private
vehicles – which has of course turned
out to be anything but the right solution to
traffic problems, but rather one that creates
even more traffic and environmental damage
while leading to higher accident rates.“
In the end, New Town projects are excellent
opportunities of encouraging newly
arrived road users to adopt alternative mobility
routines. That is why, despite regular
conflict situations, Dr. Arndt’s planning
team places great importance on integrating
the different modes of transport with
urban and traffic planning in emerging
countries and at least tries to make a start
in implementing efficient mobility management:
“On the road to sustainability, it
is important to use consulting services that
help establish mobility styles focused on
the local environment, and correspond
with a type of urban development that
keeps traveling distances under control.“
These objectives are particularly evident
in the example of Hashtgerd New Town in
the urban hinterland of Tehran with its 12
million inhabitants. In a conventional traffic
simulation model that had been extended by
researchers, the land use in the New Town
has been designed to require a minimal level
of traffic – for example through increased
building density and mixed-use areas. A
model adapted to local conditions serves
to estimate the CO2 emissions of the various
alternative plans. The environmentally
sustainable choice of transport in this New
Town is going to be promoted by a highquality
public transport system, among other
measures. This involves a main transport network
consisting of a Bus Rapid Transit system
(BRT) and tram lines, complemented by city
buses as well as neighborhood buses operating
on a demand basis. The type of transport
that is typical in this country, such as a multilevel
paratransit system consisting of a variety
of taxi and car-sharing arrangements,
can be integrated into this traffic concept.
The projects in India and Vietnam funded
by the BMBF do not only cover the construction
of new settlements to take the
pressure off megacities, but also involve
the optimization of the transportation systems
in the cities themselves. For example,
PTV AG is working with local partners on
tools for designing and implementing an
energy-efficient and sustainable transport
system in Hyderabad. One of the main issues
is planning how to minimize network
downtime caused by climatic factors, such
as floods or extreme heat waves.
Traffic researchers from the Technical
University of Vienna are creating an integrated,
multi-modal land-use and transport
model for Ho Chi Minh City that predicts
the choice of transport mode, traffic
accidents, emissions, traffic congestion,
land-use evolution and other indicators.
In developing the traffic plan for this city
on the Mekong River, it was vital to include
pedestrians and cyclists – modes of transport
that had previously been neglected.
The most important recommendation
of the Western researchers for overcom-
ing the daily traffic jams is to replace the
planned expensive expansion of the metro
system into the flood-prone area of the
Mekong Delta with an extension of the
BRT system as an alternative that would
be both faster and cheaper to implement.
A successful mobility plan can counteract
at least one of the fundamental problems
in the construction of New Towns,
as demonstrated by the example of Anting,
a new district designed by the renowned
architects and planners, Albert Speer &
Partners (AS & P) of Frankfurt am Main
with the goal to relieve the pressure on
the megacity of Shanghai. The acceptability
of New Towns designed on the drawing
board naturally suffers from deficits in
terms of tradition, history, culture, and
therefore identification. “That was one
of the reasons why,” says AS & P partner
Johannes Dell, “we initially wanted to wait
until the Light Railway link to the center
of Shanghai was completed before actually
starting construction. But our Chinese
clients were of the opinion that our architectural
concept was coherent enough to
attract people into the area.” The result was
that the settlement of Anting was rather
slow at first, until the transport links to
Shanghai were completed just before Expo
2010. Now, demand for apartments in
Anting is much greater than supply – and
the expansion of Anting East has been in
the planning stage for some time.
The opportunities arising from efficient
mobility planning on greenfield sites are,
of course, not only of benefit in emerging
countries but also in conurbations in old
industrial countries. The city of Dortmund,
The New Town of Anting: Since an efficient transport connection to Shanghai is in place,
demand for apartments in Anting by far exceeds supply
Airrail Center in Frankfurt: Sometimes, accessibility
is not only a condition but rather a trigger
for the emergence of a new urban center
Future-oriented PHOENIX site in Dortmund:
An intelligent mix of transport modes for
modern transport handling
for example, has set itself ambitious goals
for PHOENIX West, a future-oriented district
built on the site of a former blast furnace
and steel plant. “PHOENIX West,” says Winfried
Sagolla, head of the Mobility business,
“represents a modern and contemporary
way of dealing with traffic – for example by
using an intelligent mix of transport modes,
creating offers and incentives to reduce
traffic, and constructing space-saving parking
lots.“
And sometimes, the perfect transport
network is not just a condition that must be
achieved, but rather a trigger for the emergence
of a new urban center, such as Airport
City in Frankfurt am Main, which, like
Anting, was designed by town planning
specialists Albert Speer & Partner. “Here,”
says Stefan Kornmann, a partner at AS & P,
“accessibility is the driving force for planners
and users alike.“ «
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