Presentation of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Transportation and Land Use Group on June 7, 2007 at the Bicol Science and Technology Centrum, Naga City, in conjunction with their Naga Planning Studio Course.

1. Forward Thinking:
A Study in Transportation, Land Use and Urban Design in Naga
City
Professor Nora Angeles
Jeff Deby
Holly Foxcroft
R.J. McCulloch
Cathy Pasion

2. Overview
Research Question and Methodology
Key findings
Case studies and Principles
Recommendations

3. Research Question
How can the vitality of Naga’s city centre
be sustained through transportation, land
use and urban design?
Methodology: interviews, lectures, policy and
visioning documents, public hearing minutes

4. Stakeholders
Citizens of Naga
•
Urban poor
•
Naga City Government
•
(Planning and Land Use, PSO, CENR)
•
Developers
•
Drivers of jeepneys/tricycles/padyaks
•
Jeepney/tricycle associations and cooperatives
•
( eg. PISTTON)

5. Project Goals
Sustain the vitality of CBDI
•
Decrease congestion
•
Foster accessibility/equity and affordability
•
Sustain the livelihoods of drivers
•
Limit encroachment of development on Mt. Isarog and
•
agricultural lands
Plan for future mass transportation needs
•
Create livable communities
•

6. Policy and Visioning
Existing Policies:
• Comprehensive Land Use Plan 2000
• Transit Study 2001
• City of Naga Transportation
Ordinances
• Clean Air Act

7. Policy and Visioning
Visioning Framework:
Millennium Development Goals
•
2007 State of the City Report
•
The Executive Legislative
•
Agenda 2007-2010 Road Map to 2015

8. Key Findings
Existing Assets:
Rapid growth
•
Strong culture of citizen participation
•
Long term planning for growth is recognized as a need
•
2001 Traffic Study
•
Drivers represented on the NCPC council
•

9. Key Findings (cont.)
Constraints:
• Transportation planning is not performed by one
dedicated department.
• The objectives of the 2001 Traffic Study are yet to be
implemented.
• New subdivisions and the incoming SM mall are directing
the growth of the city.

10. Key Findings (cont.)
Major Citizen Concerns:
• Traffic congestion.
• Driver’s livelihoods and
wages.
• Transportation is very
costly for the urban poor.

11. Guiding Principles:
Smart Growth and
Transportation Demand Management

12. Smart Growth and
Transportation Demand Management
Topics
• Urban sprawl
• Smart Growth
• Sustainability
• Traffic congestion
• Transportation
Demand Management

13. Urban sprawl
What is Urban Sprawl?
• Unlimited outward expansion
• Low density residential areas
• Single-use zoning
– residential, commercial, industrial
• No centralized planning of development
• Transportation mainly by private vehicle
• Car-oriented development along major roadways

14. What’s wrong with sprawl?

16. Smart Growth
What is Smart Growth?
• Develop for mixed use
• Keep the city compact
• Preserve green space
• Prioritize sustainable
transportation
• Plan in participatory
ways

17. Sustainability
Social Environmental Economic

18. Sustainability
“Sustainable
development is
What
development that
is meets the needs of the
Sustainable present without
compromising the
development
ability of future
generations to meet
their own needs”
UN World Commission on
Environment and Development, 1987

19. Transportation planning:
Supply and demand
Traditional method:
Manage supply
• Increase road capacity
to meet demand
• Increase parking
availability to meet
demand

20. Congestion and demand
Congestion encourages So…
people to change:
The demand for space
• Routes on a congested road is
greater than just the
• Modes
number of vehicles on it
• Time of travel
when congested

21. Induced demand
When capacity is
expanded, those users
start driving their own
cars again, on the
expanded route, at the
busiest times…
…so the route is
congested again, but
even more so

22. You can’t build your way
out of congestion

23. Costs typically Costs typically
reduced increased
by increased by increased
road capacity road capacity
• Congestion • Vehicle costs • Parking
• User travel time • Road facilities • Accidents
• Municipal • Equity and
services option barrier
effect
• Air pollution
• Noise
• Waste generation
• Water
• Land use impacts
pollution
• Resource
• Roadway land
consumption
use

24. Transportation planning:
Supply and demand
Supply management Demand management
• Increase road • Use road capacity
capacity more efficiently
• Increase parking • Promote
availability transportation that
doesn’t require
increased road
capacity

25. Transportation Demand
Management (TDM) strategies
Education, promotion Sustainable travel
and outreach options
Travel incentives and Supportive land use
disincentives practices

26. Smart Growth and TDM: Concerns
• It’s an experiment
• Evidence is promising but mixed
• Practice doesn’t always meet theory
o Too much planning for built form only
Economic > Environmental
o > Social

27. Case Studies

28. Case Study: Curitiba, Brazil
Growth Pre Growth Post
1968 Master 1968 Master
Plan Plan

29. Case Study: Curitiba, Brazil
Results:
– Reduced congestion
– Concentrated growth corridors
– High public transportation use
– Affordability of transit fare
– Revitalization of downtown core through
pedestrianization and promotion of non-motorized
transportation
“Cities that are growing… need to start identifying
and preparing corridors for such public transit
systems even if they cannot yet afford them.” –
Sustran network

30. Case Study: Surabaya, Indonesia
• Rapid expansion of the transportation system
focused on vehicular movement resulted in:
– Congestion, pollution, out migration and the
marginalization of portions of the population
• Lessons Learned:
– Incorporate and plan for non-motorized
transportation into transportation management
systems
– To support the vitality of communities and business
facilities that support walking and cycling need to be
created

31. Greenways
• Are “linear public corridors for
pedestrians and cyclists that
connect parks, nature reserves,
cultural features, historic sites,
neighbourhoods and retail areas”
[City of Vancouver].
Hong Kong
Ann Arbor, Michigan

32. Case Study: Vancouver
• Vancouver’s Greenway Network
– City Greenways designed to:
• make walking more interesting
• make cycling safer and more convenient
• reduce the impact of the car
• provide space for public art

33. Case Study: Vancouver

34. Case Study: Vancouver
• Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Greenways are:
– Initiated by local residents
– Connect local community amenities
– Reflect local character and identity by providing
opportunities to express the unique character of the
area by adding details and activities to the public
landscape
– Are maintained by community residents once
completed
– A way to explicitly involve the public in the planning
process

35. Case Study: Vancouver
• Example: Arbutus Walk Neighbourhood
– Connects important public spaces in community
– Greenway uses existing 11th Avenue corridor

36. Urban Design
• Paints a picture of what Naga can aspire and plan to
become after successfully implementing:
– Promising planning strategies (Smart Growth, TDM)
appropriate for Naga
– Lessons learned from case studies
– Visions from Comprehensive Land Use Plan
• Is a synthesis of planning practices as it physically
plans these strategies, lessons and visions
• The application of the aforementioned principles and
lessons is perhaps best illustrated in the case of CBD I

37. Assets in CBD I

38. The Status of CBD I
• Many cultural, civic, historic and
commercial assets
• Full of people throughout day and night
• Healthy and vibrant, but not most
comfortable for pedestrians and cyclists
• Sidewalks and roads very congested
• CBD II threatens its vitality

39. Planning Interventions in CBD I
• Greenways
– Network should originate in heart of CBD I,
around plazas
– More comfortable way for pedestrians and
cyclists to move to, from and within CBD I
• Sidewalk Vendor Organization
– Helps reduce sidewalk and street congestion
– Two new locations to organize vendors

40. Greenway Planning Process
• Visioning
– Seek public input by establishing committees to
identify desires of which community and city assets
and facilities should be linked and where to link them
– Potential user groups need to be consulted
• Pedestrians, cyclists, padyak operators, displaced motorized
vehicle operators
• Overlay Method
– Inventory social, historic, cultural and natural features
and determine available land for most suitable
connections

41. Planning Naga
City’s Greenway
Network
• Origin: Plazas in CBD I
– Proposed hierarchy of
open/green space
around plazas:
• Greenway: Ojeda IV
Street leading to river
• Marketplace:
surrounding Plaza Rizal;
home of vendors
• Green Walk: P. Burgos
Street, Gen. Luna to
Public Market

42. Continuing from
CBD I…
• Green Connections
to/from CBD I
– Encourage pedestrians
and cyclists to access
the district in a more
pleasant and safer
manner
– Supports benefits of a
greener centre
• Reduced congestion not
only within, but to and
from CBD I
• Reduced levels of
pollution

43. …to a Citywide
Network
• Visioning process
will yield public
input on what,
where and how to
connect important
city and community
assets and facilities

44. Proposed Ojeda IV Greenway
• Benefits of dedicating Ojeda IV as first city greenway
– Already a corridor: city right-of-way
– Natural connection between plazas and river
• Considerations
– Anchors
• Greenways should always connect anchors that give pedestrians and
cyclists a reason to travel between them on the greenway
– Variety
• There should be unique features along the greenway so that the
interest of pedestrians and cyclists is kept as they travel along the
corridor
• Phasing: from plazas to river to PNR to CBD II
– Connect anchors at every phase and add interesting
pedestrian and cycling features to stir excitement and
encourage more users

45. Visions of the Ojeda IV Greenway

46. Proposed Sidewalk Vendor Aggregation
• Aggregation will help reduce congestion on the
sidewalks and keep pedestrians off the streets
• Proposed sites for organization
– Naga City Marketplace
• Surrounds Plaza Rizal and connects P. Burgos and Gen.
Luna Green Walks to Ojeda IV Greenway
– Ojeda IV Greenway
• Connects plazas to river and eventually to CBD II

47. A Vision of
Naga City
Marketplace

48. Recommendations

49. Recommendations:
Overarching Principles
• Engage in holistic, equitable, sustainable
long term planning to create a city that
promotes economic vitality, limits
congestion, enlivens the downtown core,
and supports the health of its residents
• Create complete, compact, and highly
livable communities

50. Recommendations:
Land Use and Transportation
• Create an agency or inter-departmental task
force that engages in transportation and land
use planning
• Promote coordinated and dedicated
transportation and land use planning in
collaboration with the Centre of Environment
and Natural Resources and the Office of
Agriculture

51. Recommendations:
Land Use and Transportation
• Manage transportation demand, not just
supply

52. Recommendations:
Land Use and Transportation
• Undertake participatory transportation and land
use visioning and planning
• Reserve land for future public transportation
corridors
• Plan for the whole community, recognizing that
marginalized groups have different needs
(women, poor)

53. Recommendations:
Transportation and Land Use
• Create a long term plan for land use that
incorporates the needs of Naguenos and is
not solely driven by market growth

54. Recommendations for CBD I
• Recognize that the vitality of CBD I depends not
only on the structure and occupants of CBD I,
but of [Metro] Naga City as a whole.
• Design a greenway network originating in the
heart of CBD I that connects the centre to
surrounding areas of Naga City.
• Aggregate the sidewalk vendors in CBD I into
two primary locations: Naga City Marketplace
and the Ojeda IV Greenway.

55. Questions?
Dios Mabalos Po!