UNPHU: Problematic Urban Mobility must be addressed in a multisectoral manner

Urban Planner and Architect Mizooky Mota, coordinator of the School of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU), raised during her participation in the Urban Mobility Forum organized by Listín Diario, that the mobility problem in the Greater Santo Domingo should not be seen for its approach in a factorial way but in a multisectoral way.

Within the challenges identified by UNPHU in terms of mobility from academic mechanisms, identify the need to address the mobility system in a comprehensive, multiscale, transdisciplinary way from management, territorial planning, urban infrastructure projects, the financial and operational aspect.

“We at the university believe this is territorial. If we do not approach this issue from the integrality of the different systems that interact from the moment of planning the territorial order; then there will be some scattered elements that may have short-term solutions but that, in its global connectivity and from a metropolitan area, the city has become a great metropolis,” the architect said.

She explained that this is an aspect that somehow moves and nurtures all the other issues in terms of challenges. Since management there are many institutions, there is a system that is coordinated by the switch; however, there are many actors still scattered in decision-making. There is a point of improvement so that it can be brought together. 

She said that the more capillary vision of the territory can improve the mobility system, not only the design of roads or the design of projects revolving around the motor vehicle. There has been no mention of the pedestrian, for example, the vision of the pedestrian. We’ve all been pedestrians at some point in our lives, even just getting out of the car and into our workplace.

Integral Approach Contributions from the Academy

The university has been working on finding solutions to the problem within which some work and research carried out by students and teachers can be listed such as:

1. Thesis of Degree that addresses the General and Specific Problems of Mobility and the Relationship with the City in Various Scales.

2. Scientific research projects and dissemination of knowledge. Determination of the potential of green infrastructure as a tool for adaptation to climate change in the National District. The research proposes methodological strategies that evaluate the urban tree, determine measures of adaptation to climate change through green infrastructure, and evaluate strategies for the regulation of the urban tree of the National District and the economic valuation of it.

3. Discussion spaces and concrete proposals such as: the Metropolitan Table of Architecture and Urbanism of UNPHU: In this space of discussion and generation of proposals with experts (graduates, professors and specialists of the area) from the contextualization of the current scenario that affects the metropolis of Santo Domingo, the following proposals were proposed: 

– Implement the planning and management of the Circunvalacion Ave. to decongest the pressure of the city center, with emphasis on freight transport.

– Strengthen the management of the mobility system at all levels of governance and actors of the metropolitan ecosystem oriented towards the implementation and execution of planning.

– Through the School of Architecture of UNPHU, to propose a Plan of interventions from a holistic, not only infrastructural, of neuralgic points as the entrances to the city.

– Reorienting the impact of the vehicle in the city towards urban design for the benefit of pedestrians. Start with pilot plans in areas near universities, where large concentrations of people are evident.

– Subsidies for regular users of public transport to encourage the use and participation of more users, to cushion the economic weight represented by the movement through public transport networks in the family basket.

– Decentralize essential services such as education, health, recreation, as well as sources of employment by creating new urban centralities to discourage travel to the center of the metropolis.

– Creation of the regulations of Law 63-17. At present, more emphasis has been placed on auditing than on the education and training of citizens as well as transit agents.

– Increase North-South and East-West connections for an alternative commuting service to existing large connections. 

– Creation of a technical body coordinated by the academy, which provides professional service to the state to generate proposals in short time.

– Prioritize citizen safety, equity, and accessibility to encourage the use of public transport and walkability in the city.

 4. A Monitoring System that would include a Metropolitan Observatory. 

Short-term solutions

High-impact, low-cost and fast execution actions 

● These solutions must begin with the application of Law No. 63-17 on Mobility, Land Transport, Transit and Road Safety to all modes of transit, with a strict consequence regime. We emphasize the control and sanction of violations by offenders of any type of motor vehicle, public or private officials, such as motorcyclists, buses and minibuses and cargo transport vehicles.

● Immediately implement citizen education programs with emphasis on the use of public roads and spaces and the knowledge of signage by users.

● Ensure proper road signaling of both horizontal devices on the roads and vertical elements that guide, regulate, and direct the citizen (both the driver and pedestrian). 

● Gradually train and reduce the presence of traffic agents who come into contradiction and present a duality with traffic light systems, so that road flows are coordinated. 

Medium-term solutions

Implementation initiatives 

● Initiate a process of deconcentrating services in the metropolis on an urban scale, by neighborhoods or by areas, considering, in addition, the creation of new urban service centralities, as well as intermediate cities in the metropolitan context.

● Control the access of interurban passenger transport and cargo to the urban area, establishing transfer stations in urban limits.

● Initiate a program to implement an integrated public transport system that allows the user to use the different modes of transport with a single fare. 

● Regarding the vehicle fleet, establish a review system (Driving tax) that determines the condition of vehicles, especially public vehicles, buses, and trucks, and also ensure the exit of the system of units in poor or obsolete condition.

● Regulate the import of new vehicle units, in coordination with importers. 

● Integrally improve streets, crossings, and sidewalks so that they are worthy for the proper use of pedestrians; that encourages their use and the enjoyment of the city. 

Long-term solutions

Continuous planning processes

Understanding that planning is a continuous process and that it must begin immediately, it is necessary to assume the formulation of a Metropolitan Plan of Territorial and Urban Planning of Greater Santo Domingo, which reconciles sectoral planning, in aspects such as mobility, transit and transport. This must be addressed in a multiscale, transdisciplinary and pooled way between the sectors that affect the planning and management of the metropolitan territory. This process must be understood as a political and social consensus that leads us towards the integral sustainability of the most important metropolis in the Caribbean. 

In these regards, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, through its Metropolitan Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism, and in collaboration with business groups, has designed a series of specific projects that provide solutions in specific areas of the city such as the projects developed in the Metropolitan Workshop of Santo Domingo, and La Carta de Santo Domingo, among others.