Federico Parolotto is an Engineer, Transport Infrastructure Specialist, Member of the Expert Council for the Sustainable Master Plan of Milan's Transport System, Senior Partner at Mobility in chain, collaborating with architecture companies such as Foster + Partners, OMA, FOA, West8, UN Studio. Pablo Forti is a bureau employee, architect, specialist in transport planning and pedestrian behavior analysis. Federico Parolotto and Pablo Forti came to Moscow to conduct a workshop on organizing pedestrian zones as part of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Summer Program. The results of the workshop were presented to the staff of the Moscow Department of Transport. At the request of Archi.ru, Italian experts spoke about their vision of the transport situation in Russian megacities and the possibilities for changing it.
Archi.ru: You have been working in Moscow for six years. How do you assess the transport situation in the Russian capital?
Federico Parolotto: Moscow adheres to the old way of thinking, endlessly proposing the expansion of roads and the construction of new overpasses. That is why, despite the attempts of the Department of Transport to create new pedestrian spaces and introduce bicycles, the transport situation in Moscow remains appalling. The Russian capital tops the list of the busiest cities in the world (according to TomTom's Annual Congestion Index 2012), although I do see certain changes for the better. The question is the readiness for a qualitatively different approach to solving this problem. The fact is that Europe is already professing a new view of the city: giant transport infrastructures are no longer dominating, and the priority is the desire to reduce the number of vehicles within the city. An example is a recent innovative project in Paris: a highway ran along the Seine, which completely cut off the city from the river. And it was decided to close this highway, and in its place to organize a linear park for pedestrians and cyclists. They didn't even build a tunnel, they just got rid of the highway. And I think the future belongs to such decisions.
Archi.ru: The main solution to the problem of traffic congestion in Moscow today is associated with the reconstruction of departure avenues: the addition of lanes, the construction of overpasses with traffic-free traffic, and an increase in traffic speed. Will this improve the road situation?
Federico Parolotto: It is impossible to improve traffic by widening roads, this has been proven in many cities. This decision worsens the quality of the urban environment and increases the number of vehicles. I repeat, in the world today, on the contrary, they are trying to reduce the area of roads, redistribute the space between cars, cyclists and pedestrians and reduce the speed of movement.
Pablo Forti: In many ways, such decisions are a legacy of the old planning system and commonplace prejudices. For example, it is believed that giving pedestrians more time to cross the road will increase congestion. But actually it is not! If more traffic lights are made on the road and some lanes are given to public transport and cyclists, the capacity will remain at the same level.
Or, for example, the Moscow Ring Road - a road that plays a crucial role in the distribution of traffic flows in Moscow and is incredibly loaded with freight transport, also because there is no other way to bypass Moscow. In order to solve this problem, it is not enough to build another ring road - it is necessary to consider traffic in Moscow on different scales. Delivery of goods is one thing, but creating comfortable conditions for the movement of citizens within the city is quite another.
Archi.ru: What is common between the transport problems of Milan and Moscow?
F. P. Moscow is similar in structure to Milan, there is also a radial-ring road system, only Moscow is much larger. The new Milan master plan that I am working on strategically aims to halt the construction of new roads and develop public transport for the next 15 years. And this is also an indicator of the shift in consciousness that I talked about. Also, Milan has already introduced a fee for entering the city center (5 euros), which has reduced the number of car trips by a third.
The problem of congestion arose in Europe in the 1960s due to mass motorization, in the 1970s and 80s, a strategy of expanding infrastructure appeared in order to adapt the city to the car and provide high-speed traffic to new areas. This solution is now deprecated. In Moscow, it all started much later - until 1989 there were very few cars, and then there was a too sharp jump in the number of car owners. However, instead of repeating the mistakes of Western countries, Moscow can take into account modern trends such as redistribution of space on the roads and a balanced presence of cars in the city. Cities are like children: they make the same mistakes, but they can be avoided.
P. F … From Milan's experience, it can be said that request control is easier to implement than collateral control. More than half of the parking spaces in Milan are served by city residents, while the rest is paid. If you start to control parking lots and the entrance to the center, this will have an effect much faster and more noticeable than widening roads. Then you can start taking up walking routes and returning public space to the city.
Archi.ru: How to determine the need to organize dedicated public transport lanes on a particular city highway? How is it decided which type of public transport should be developed?
F. P. This is always the result of complex calculations and detailed analysis of a specific area of the city. But some things, as they say, lie on the surface. One lane of motor transport carries at best one and a half thousand passengers per hour, while for a dedicated lane with a high bus frequency, this figure will be 10 times more - 15 thousand people per hour. If we talk about the metro, then its throughput is even higher, but construction is also much more expensive. Working in Moscow, we came to the conclusion that the local metro transports a huge number of people, while ground transport functions only at 30% of its true capacity. The main reason for this imbalance is, of course, congestion, which makes ground public transport extremely ineffective. That is why we are confident that Moscow should not rely on the construction of the metro - the city has a huge potential for surface public transport, the development of which should be given priority.
Archi.ru: It is no secret that one of the main "cork-forming" elements in modern Moscow is the numerous shopping centers that have emerged on almost all major highways of the city. How do you feel about this kind of construction?
P. F. Large shopping centers are a magnet for a huge number of people and cars, so it is necessary to very carefully calculate the traffic flow that will be attracted as a result of such construction. There are tools for such calculations - an assessment of flows depending on the typology of a building, on the basis of which a simulation of movement is made, which shows what effect the construction will have.
F. P. I think building shopping malls on expressways is not a good idea, because a large shopping center has a lot of parking spaces, which in turn creates traffic. There is a tendency in London to locate shopping centers in such a way that they have alternative access from the underground, and at the same time reduce the number of parking spaces as much as possible - then people use public transport. That is, the shopping center itself is not necessarily evil, but the huge free parking lots associated with it attract large flows. The situation in Moscow is already difficult, and the construction of such centers can only worsen it.
Archi.ru: Cycle paths began to appear in Moscow, but there is also criticism of these projects related to their location and the issue of functioning in winter conditions.
F. P. In Europe and even in the United States, there is now a systemic shift towards the development of cycling. London is developing a “bike highway” strategy that will link the outskirts of East and West London to the city center. Bicycle Highway is being laid parallel to metro lines to partially relieve the subway and will be adjacent to existing stations. Changes are also noticeable in Moscow. Six years ago there were very few cyclists, and this summer I was amazed at the number. The same applies to other cities in the world - Milan was extremely motorized, in London in the 1990s, too, almost no one used a bicycle. Now the picture is different. It makes sense to arrange bike lanes so that they can serve as an alternative to driving. Cycling is also possible in difficult climates. The main difficulty of skiing in winter is the danger of slipping, but if the icing of the tracks is prevented, then people will ride even in cold weather, as, for example, it happens in Norway or Copenhagen. Weather conditions are not an excuse not to develop cycling.
Archi.ru: How do the changes in the urban environment begin? By whom should they be initiated?
P. F. Change is possible when people begin to understand that there are alternatives. It is impossible to forcibly transfer anyone to public transport until a more convenient and attractive system is introduced as an alternative to standing in traffic jams.
F. P. Andrea Branzi once said: "Cities do not consist of buildings, but of people who move around the city." So if you want to change the city, you need to change the way people think. Even in car-focused regions like northern Italy, people are beginning to realize that if you want to achieve a certain quality of the environment, you need to change the way the city functions. I cannot say that the changes were initiated by anyone in particular - they occurred as a result of the realization of the harm from decades of car dominance. Moscow, in my opinion, is also ready for this - the success of Gorky Park confirms the need for changes. I think Muscovites want change, and young people are already expecting a new quality of public spaces. I hope the city will not miss the moment and will convince politicians of the need for such changes.
