Urban planning accessibility

Introduction

• Universal accessibility and design for all people are principles that act across social, political, economic, and urban areas.
• Integrating human diversity into urban planning allows learning, implementing, improving, and developing spaces and services.
• This integration guarantees a better quality of life and equal opportunities for all.

Legislation

• The Planning Regulations, Royal Decree 2159/1978, Article 51, regulates the obligation to guarantee accessibility to facilities of public and social interest.
• Ensuring accessibility involves studying the specific situation for the location of facilities.
• Accessibility also includes studying the relationship with road and pedestrian networks.
• The goal is to achieve integration with the urban structure of the Plan.

Public Responsibility

• Public administrations are responsible for ensuring that the transformation of the territory generates an accessible urban environment for all people.

Objectives for Accessibility in Planning

• The city should have good design of the environments and public and private spaces.
• High standards the quality and access to housing, the recovery of public spaces for pedestrians, and adapts to the new mobility needs.
• Focus on people by guaranteeing the equality of rights, personal autonomy, and respect for human diversity of all.

Premises

To achieve accessibility, the city requires the following:

• Balance between public and private spaces.
• Spaces designated for production, leisure, and consumption
• Coexistence with the past and future towards sustainable development.

Strategies to Incorporate in Existing or Consolidated Cities

• Encourage citizen participation to understand citizens' needs and meet them through precise planning instruments.
• Conduct studies to determine the degree of accessibility by neighborhood.
• Define an urban indicator for Universal accessibility to enable decision-making, investment, and prioritization of actions.
• Promote the availability and quality of public spaces by promoting open spaces.
• Encourage socialization while reinforcing the value of pedestrians and implement standards for the design and normalization of public space elements.
• Improve universal accessibility to buildings and their immediate environment.
• Encourage construction initiatives for accessible housing
• Guarantee accessible mobility and urban transport.
• Facilitate orientation, understanding, and communication in the city, organizing it to promote its use by all people.

Case Study: "Neighborhood Plans" Virgen de Begoña

• In 2011, actions in the VdB neighborhood began with work by the urban planners of Estudio "Paisaje Transversal."
• The team promoted and developed a participatory program with the Neighborhood Association to detect the needs of the neighborhood.
• This process was based on a "bottom-up" approach.
• The neighborhood, one of the open-block Madrid polygons, is surrounded by major infrastructure like the A-1 highway, M-30, and railroad tracks isolate the neighborhood.
• The area faces obsolescence of buildings, poor building quality, and vacant public spaces.

Analysis & Solutions for Virgen de Begoña

• Solutions involve analyzing the initial state of use and ownership of these spaces.
• The solutions propose a series of interventions for rehabilitation and activation and it’s based on collaborative design workshops.
• The workshops engage residents in analyzing and developing various proposals.
• One conclusion was the need to provide content to the inter-block spaces.
• There is a lack of intentionality in the design, generating unused spaces or deficiencies in accessibility that prevent established pedestrian routes.

PIER Virgen de Begoña (2015)

• In 2015, the Comprehensive Regeneration Strategy Plan (PIER) for the Virgen de Begoña neighborhood was drafted.
• This plan includes the methodology to develop participatory urban regeneration processes.

Indicators in Urban Regeneration Projects in Madrid

• The City Council is conducting studies to collect and analyze geodata for URBAN REGENERATION.
• The goal is to define indicators for the quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of the current state, opportunities, and needs of Madrid.

Strategies for New Cities or Residential Developments

• The starting point consists of acting from the origin in the design of the city.
• Incorporate guiding principles of universal accessibility and design for all people in urban planning.
• Apply a cross-cutting approach that directly improves the quality of urban life.
• Create the necessary structure to guarantee the autonomy, and access to, and utilization of facilities, commerce, open spaces, and local economic activities.
• Promote a fluid relationship between the environment and people by locating leisure areas, commercial spaces, and gardens near residential areas.
• Facilitate and promote social relationships in public spaces
• Prioritize roads and categorize open spaces, giving character to elements and indicating standards for design.
• Promote public transport adapted to real needs
• Provide for a reserve of accessible parking spaces.

Valdebebas: Accessibility Focus for Urban Framework

• Layout based on a grid pattern, with streets at right angles, creating regular blocks with diagonals to generate cross-functionality.
• The grid parcels mostly create blocks of 116 m.
• The mixed uses allow the combination of uses, avoiding low-activity zones, and the implantation of local commerce.
• The 116 m blocks are accompanied by green connectors at their extremes to provide pedestrian transport, ensuring that each home is at least 150 m from green space connected to the parks.

Valdebebas Street Hierarchy

The neighborhood included the following:

• Structuring, perimeter, primary, and secondary routes, and green connectors, marked by sidewalks.
• Paving follows criteria of use, textures, colors, differentiated patterns, creating paving codes.
• Paving codes and color contrast improve orientation and identification for the pedestrian.
• Paths, walkways, and roadways create pathways for people with reduced vision.
• Primary streets act as priority axes for pedestrians
• Pedestrian crossings maintain the same elevation between the sidewalk and road to ensure accessibility.

Valdebebas - Other Considerations

• All road surfaces used sound-absorbing pavements and exhibit durability, slip resistance, superficial drainage, and a slope of between 6% and 8%.
• Urban furniture includes benches and seating 50 to 100 m apart.
• The objective is to enhance pedestrian mobility with a 27km bike path, the integration of pedestrian areas, and an interchanger that connect the commuter rail.

Valdebebas

• Focuses on pedestrian-vehicle intersection zones, where walkways descend along the street and elevated roads are used to maintain an even elevation for pedestrians.
• Reserved spaces are designated for people with reduced mobility (PRM).
• Urban trees provide a landscape and sustainable function, and is a place that promote accessibility, well-being, and provide a welcoming shady respite.
• The city uses a code of plantations, in the green route where trees are planted in double alignment.
• The Green route in the Autumn feature red fruit, offering recognizable traits with it being the only tree in the lane.

Valdebebas - Walking Itineraries

• Longitudinal pedestrian itineraries contain an active and passive zone where the static zone contains urban elements and the active zone allows space.
• Transverse pedestrian itineraries includes designated slopes, street access based on the Community of Madrid's Accessibility Regulations.