How can Build Build Build be better? Improve pedestrian access, architect says

In an episode of The Howie Severino Podcast, the popular urban planner and landscape architect Paulo Alcazaren pointed out one very important truth that the government seems to have forgotten: We are all pedestrians.

"We are all pedestrians and yet pedestrians are the number one not serviced by our Build Build Build infrastructure," he said.

Talking about the MRT7 and the LRT extension plans under the Build Build Build initiative, Alcazaren said "LRT and MRT systems are wonderful, but problema natin, yung transition from the LRT/MRT to the ground and the pedestrians to cross the street."

"It's still the same mistake of not integrating pedestrian access," he continued.

Alcazaren narrated how, at a stakeholders meeting for the MRT7 Station in Quezon Elliptical Circle, the engineers pointed to two small access points when he asked how commuters could get to a station that's buried in the middle of the park.

"They didn't understand that when you build such infrastructures, you need to know where people come from and where people need to go," he said.

"They really need to understand that people [will have] to cross the elliptical road, which is a death sentence for most people, to get to the terminal. There's a small tunnel but it's so small."

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Connectivity in our streets and public transportations — or lack thereof — is a big concern, not just for safety but also for business.

"In Ortigas, we found out that it took someone once they get down in MRT sa EDSA anywhere from 15-30 minutes to get to their offices because of lack of connectivity. That's man hour loss and that equates to loss for businesses. And once it rains, again, there's so many losses," Alcazaren said. 

According to the landscape architect, it's important to remember and understand "that everything is connected and everything starts from the person walking as a commuter to understand that we are all commuters. At the end of the day, we walk. Even to our cars, we need to walk. We need to walk when we get to our destinations."

In the podcast, the city planner mentioned how private enclaves like Makati, BGC, and Rockwell are some of the best examples of good urban design because "they have been designed to function well, and based now on principles that are people-centered and function-centered rather than car-centered."

According to Paulo, the law requires pedestrian sidewalks to be 1.2 meters or 4 feet, no matter what the situation is. "That's usually the only standard that you follow, which is compromised na, by where the utility posts are placed. That shouldn't be."

He recommends that "the standard be rewritten for the context of urban development."

"So if it's a district with taller buildings, with several thousand people in each of the buildings, then your sidewalks have to be 5-6 meters, as in Ayala Avenue or Emerald Avenue in Ortigas, or the main streets or avenues in BGC."

For Alcazaren, the width of the sidewalks must be commensurate to the volume of pedestrians, "which should be computed, which they don't," he said.

"Most of our transport planning is computing cars and vehicles. It's still car center rather than human-centric." — LA, GMA News