The Goshree Road Link, Kochi, India: A Design Approach towards Creating a Legible Streetscape

Abstract

Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala, is one of the busiest seaports in India, and is believed to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country. To connect the islands—Bolghatty and Vallarpodam—and Vypeen peninsula in the backwaters to mainland Kochi, a road link is proposed. Since the road will weave through diverse landscapes—urban, suburban, rural and waterfront—the challenge lies in designing such that it blends with the surrounding landscape, accommodates existing patterns of behaviour and inhibits dangerous encounters between people, animals and vehicles, common in Indian streets. Monumental streets stretching between visually prominent foci of power—historic and modern—in temple cities, Shahjahanabad and boulevards of New Delhi and Chandigarh, form precedents for environmental legibility and a vivid sense of place. The tensions between the public and the private realm and between high speed and slow moving traffic can be resolved in a multiway boulevard.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank David Hays for his many useful suggestions on the draft.

Notes

 1. Estuaries are submerged river mouths where sea and river waters mix. The Kochi backwaters attained their present configuration as a result of a catastrophic deluge in 1341 CE. Many environmentalists believe that this occurred as a result of silts deposited due to the overflow of the Periyar River in the north and the discharge from the Vembanad Lake from the south, combined with the groundswell of the Arabian Sea. Later, as the streams widened and deepened as a result of the combination of high tide and heavy rains, masses of land were deposited, creating Kochi and nearby islands.

 2. On average 40% of the road fatalities occur among pedestrians, the percentage being higher in cities such as Mumbai (75%) and Kolkata (89%) according to Sarin (1998b).

 3. Other boulevards of New Delhi have, in addition to the central lanes, side access roads with planted medians. Because they are mostly lined with bungalows in huge compounds with boundary walls, street life is not very rich except in the commercial district.

 4. Kochi has recorded an almost 100% growth in vehicular traffic over the last 5-year period. Of the 2 million vehicles, over half are two-wheelers and 30% are cars and jeeps according to Consulting Engineering Services (1994).

 5. Jacobs et al. (2002) describe their design for such a boulevard in Ahmedabad, India, called the CG Road, west of Sabarmati River in a relatively new section of the city. Lined with office buildings, upscale shopping, entertainment and restaurants, it has a total right of way of 100 feet. The high volume central roadway has two 10 foot wide lanes in each direction paved with asphalt, separated by a low, 3 foot median. On either side are 20.5 foot access roads paved with bricks, divided into a moving lane 8 feet wide with 12.5 feet for angled parking. Trees are planted on medians in the triangular spaces created in front of angled parking and on 8 foot wide sidewalks. See Jacobs et al. (2002).

 6. Access lanes can function as ‘shared streets’ where several functions—movement, socialization, play, vending—occur in the same space. The pedestrian has priority, automobile speed and movement are restricted by physical barriers and deviations and there are street furnishings and landscape treatment. Studies in Denmark, Japan, Germany and Israel show that there are over 20% fewer accidents in shared streets and over 50% fewer severe accidents compared with standard residential streets. See Southworth & Ben-Joseph (1997).

 7. As Jacobs (1993) points out, the scale of street and block patterns becomes larger with time, most likely because of increasing use of automobiles. There are 1400 intersections within a mile in the traditional streets of Ahmedabad. A comparison of a square mile of Shahjanabad and New Delhi is extremely revealing of the tremendous jump in scale.

 8. For a full set of design guidelines for the project, see George (2001).