PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: According to statistics, about one million cars are registered in Kyiv. That is, there are almost 1 cars per 000 citizens, which is not the limit. Is this already a disaster?
Vadym Denisenko: I would not say that the situation with the number of cars is critical. But there are reliable data that testify to the catastrophic mortality on the roads. In 2019, 48 people were killed in Ukraine, and 100 pedestrians were hit to death in Kyiv alone. This is a disaster. In my opinion, we have a reserve of capacity and patience of citizens for two years. That's when the disaster will come — when the difference between the travel time on an empty street network and during rush hour will be plus 26% of the time. In Kyiv, the average delay during rush hour is now plus XNUMX minutes. When this indicator reaches one hour, then something will explode, the transport Maidan will happen.
Vadym Denysenko, program director of CANactions School. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
PM: Why, in your opinion, is it so important for Ukrainians to have their own car? Jeff Speck attributes this to the desire to be free. But what are our motivations? Is it a matter of different mentality?
V. D.: I have a master's degree in psychology, so I can explain something: there is no concept of mentality. This is a myth created by lovers of the collective unconscious as an explanation for why people act in a certain way. Buying a car for a Ukrainian, as well as for a resident of, for example, an African country, is a reaction to external circumstances, to a very uncomfortable external environment. If you choose where to spend your time — in a minibus or in the interior of your own car, the answer is clear. For many, life becomes better if not in contact with reality.
The city of Kyiv does not offer its residents a real, high-quality alternative to private cars. We are faced with an absolute failure of pedestrian infrastructure, which is uncomfortable and dangerous. We are faced with the inefficiency of public transport infrastructure, and a service like UberShuttle is proof of this. No self-respecting city will allow illegal minibuses, even with Uber written on them, to determine their own routes without a license.
It's magic! Our mayor and the minister of infrastructure opened an illegal minibus in Kyiv! What proves the failure of the urban transport planners of the department of transport infrastructure and the department of urban planning and architecture in Kyiv, who, having the current transport model of the city, could not develop public transport routes based on the existing demand. By studying where people travel by taxi, UberShuttle determines the routes with higher cash flow and allows themselves to put a minibus on them and earn a good amount of money. These funds should be collected by the city.
In the realities of Kyiv, we face an absolute failure of pedestrian infrastructure, which is uncomfortable and dangerous
The number of fatal traffic accidents demonstrates the city's loss in the war for quality infrastructure for private cars. We have paralysis of the mobility management system in the city. What shall I do? Transport planning includes the concept of transport demand management. It is based on a simple principle: a person wants to plan everything, including his trips. Every evening, everyone plans their morning trip in their thoughts: what type of transport to choose, which street to go down, what the approximate delays in traffic jams will be. The task of the transport planner is to win the evening "planning war" and force the citizen to choose one of the alternatives to a private car. Undoubtedly, such "alternatives" should be of high quality and very attractive. It is about high-quality public transport, high-class pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
PM: Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa said that the hallmark of a modern city is not the poor driving, but the rich using public transport. Can Kyiv ever count on something similar?
V. D.: This phrase was reinforced by investments in the city of Bogotá in the system of comfortable high-speed buses Bus Rapid Transit and in the development of quality bicycle infrastructure. These are two successful things that the mayor did. The task was to make alternative modes of transportation so attractive that a person would choose public transport regardless of their income level.
We also have a wonderful project of high-speed rail transport from Troeshchyna to the city center, the feasibility study of which is currently being developed. There is a chance, if the KMDA agrees, to get a loan from the World Bank for one of the types — either it will be a large modern tram (light metro), or buses that will move in dedicated lanes with full priority at intersections. This will help residents of Troeshchyna to get to the center very quickly.
A sign of a modern city is not the poor driving, but the rich in public transport
PM: Let's imagine that we are at a meeting of the KSDA and we need to develop specific actions and motivations to implement the model of a better pedestrian city in Ukraine, based on the experience of Jeff Speck. Any ideas?
V. D.: Yes, there are ideas and a specific plan. Kyiv has a fairly developed public transport network, but it currently suffers from long delays. To begin with, it is necessary to diagnose the problem and understand how long delays occur in the general flow. This can be done thanks to measurements of GPS sensors in ambulances and fire engines. Expressway delays are the same public transport delays that we have, only in conditions where they should be allowed. Such measurements can be considered benchmarking.
In this way, we understand the "zero situation" and take the first step - we physically separate public transport from the general flow and give it priority. Trolleybuses, buses, minibuses must drive in separate lanes, and at intersections for them, the green traffic light signal must be turned on. This is a critical issue because public transport carries the most.
Second. We make sure that people choose public transport consciously, because it is convenient, comfortable, modern and fast. In Kyiv, the situation with rolling stock is not bad, it has been updated by almost 70%. But you have to get to the stops, and this is not always comfortable. A design standard of normal high-quality pavement should appear.
The third. I would work with the issue of parking, it is complex. In the fight to reduce the use of private cars, high-quality public transport is a "gingerbread" and parking policy is a "whip". Using a car in the city center, where the public transport service is the best, must be expensive. Strict parking rules and its high cost contribute to this. I will give an example of American cities where the practice of so-called congestion charges is gaining ground. There is a belief that if you drive a private car onto the street road network, you are already generating a traffic jam. And you have to pay for it. If you don't want to pay, go with a quality alternative.
Bogota's high-speed bus transportation system is the largest in the world, carrying 2,4 million passengers every day. Photo: Jason Margolis. Photo source: www.wvxu.org
An important step is the development of bicycle infrastructure. The possibilities of the bicycle are greatly underestimated by mobility planners of Ukrainian cities. This is an excellent mode of movement at a distance of up to 5-7 km, which does not require the city to purchase rolling stock. We really need to look at the situation through the study of Jeff Speck, under whose leadership 75 plans for effective urbanization of cities were developed. Then you can see another very important component of solving the critical situation in the city of Kyiv - urban planning, which should be discussed separately.
PM: Let's talk more specifically about urban planning based on the Spek model.
V. D.: Point one. For Jeff Speck, it is important to develop compact, vibrant cities. To invite people from the suburbs to settle in the city centers, in order to have all the necessary services and workplaces within walking distance.
Point two. Cities must develop intensively, that is, inward. If a city is aimed at population growth, like Kyiv, it is important to define a perimeter beyond which it will not grow, and line up areas for development within this perimeter. Consolidation within the limits of the existing transport and engineering infrastructure saves the city significant funds for the construction of new infrastructure and makes it possible to build a system of compact centers and sub-centers with pedestrian accessibility to basic needs. Joining the city of surrounding villages is a way to spread the territory and the dependence of residents on private cars.
Point three. It is important to plan functionally mixed areas of the city. The modernist approach to the planning of urban functional zones did not justify itself. The creation of separate sleeping areas and separate work areas leads to a large number of daily movements and an additional load on the street and road network. Jeff Speck, in contrast to the outdated approach to urban planning, cites New York as an example, where flexible zoning allows for the creation of a fine-grained mix of functions, including vertical mixed-use buildings. Area functions in the New York City General Plan are detailed down to the quarter. Everything should be within walking distance — work, school, park, commerce. Now almost 80% of people go somewhere to work from their home.
Traffic jam on the street Volodymyrskaya in the center of Kyiv. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
Pedestrian access, according to Spec, is ensured through the decentralization of schools, parks, and sports grounds. One large sports complex in the city will generate car trips. Five small sports fields, evenly distributed among the districts, will attract local residents, who will most likely walk. The same story with schools. If you want parents to send their children to school on foot, instead of taking them by car, creating a morning traffic jam, build more smaller schools.
It is easy to plan a small city compactly. But what to do with such a scale as in Kyiv? Jeff Speck believes that the city should consist of a number of sub-centers connected to each other by a system of mass rapid transportation. The distances to the necessary infrastructure within the sub-centres should remain pedestrian and bicycleable.
PM: Are there urban problems that unite Ukraine and America?
V. D.: Kyiv is developing according to the American system, constantly adding villages instead of being more compact. The city creates separate functional zones in its planning — residential areas, working cores that are far from each other. This automatically generates the traffic load.
We have different approaches to solving these problems. In other words, we have a combination of two important things that are related to each other: movement and city planning. The transportation function is divided between two departments — urban planning and transport infrastructure. They can't agree among themselves, so we have a global problem with planning and transportation.
Operating your own car in the city, according to the current world trend, should become uncomfortable
PM: What is the value of Jeff Speck's idea of pedestrianization? We know that walking is useful, but the comfort of a big city is minimal distances between objects.
V. D.: As for the comfortable walking distance, it is 500 m, and the comfortable radius of accessibility to public transport is 300 m, this is according to the norms of DBN. But the value of the pedestrian city idea lies in many things, not only in accessibility. In addition to the impact on health and the reduction of state costs for the health care system, there is another very important value — the pedestrian often buys something. Because this is a person who can spontaneously, passing by a store, go into it and buy something. The driver does not do this. Shopping streets are created for pedestrians, and pedestrians are the basis of the city's economy.
Pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Volodymyrsky Uzviz in Kyiv. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
PM: You said that Jeff Speck's book "Pedestrian City Rules" made a strong impression on you. What was new for you?
V. D.: The magic of this book is that it references a wealth of research - transport, economic and social - and makes it possible to convert it all into money. In general, the author did not say anything new, but he has a very strong argumentative base. And this is the most important thing for me. Currently, similar research is not being conducted in Ukraine, but the book can inspire. For example, KNUBA students can conduct qualitative research to support their decisions, and I would like Spec's book to be an incentive for them.
Walking more is not a new trend. But every time we approach a crisis, we rethink the importance of this topic
I can give as an example several economic pieces that impressed me. For example, urban planning: Spec has a section called "Calculate". One calculation is how many jobs and taxes will be generated by one hectare of urban land that we give away for development. He cites research that shows that one hectare under an office center generates 13 times more taxes and 12 times more jobs than the same hectare under a shopping center.
Speck writes about how American cities are changing. Over the past 6-8 years, their crazy car-centricity has changed fantastically in favor of public transport, bicycles, and walking. People really began to return to the cities from their suburbs. Simply because cities purposefully pursue policies to change the behavior of their residents. They build housing of different classes, and it is not necessary to be very rich to live in the center. They again attract creative industries to cities, where young people are involved. Yes, there must be urban policies and certain infrastructural solutions that lead to behavior change.
Rules of the pedestrian city. Author: Jeff Speck
In addition, I want to say that the educational platform CANactions School translated this book for many reasons. We believe that it will inspire the younger generation of people involved in the development of cities. Because tomorrow they will go to work in municipalities, become mayors, plan transport. It will depend on their worldview whether Ukrainian cities will experience dramatic qualitative changes.
