“PARKING OUTSIDE”
Our children have forgotten that playing is not only virtual because of lack of play space. We have forgotten that bonding is possible not only through social networking due to absence of communal gathering spaces. Eating out is currently our major means of social entertainment. We reach home from work every day after a seemingly endless wait in the traffic of Dhaka only to be greeted by the dark and haunted looking and spooky parking spaces with rows of vehicles standing like ominous mythical creature hiding in the shadows at the ground level of our multi-storied apartment buildings.
We so frantically choose to overlook the parking space running as quickly as possible to take the elevator or stairs to our "sweet home." With minor variations in the previous description, this is mostly the routine story of the privileged inhabitants of "planned residential areas" in Dhaka such as Dhanmondi, Banani, Uttara etc. Apart from the decent address line and stacks of residential units with utility services these areas are currently riddled with loads of problems and in many cases fail to provide basic urban and social requirements of the inhabitants.
Lack of play space, unbearable traffic congestion due to roadside parking, absence of uninterrupted walking facility, lack of community gathering or informal activity space etc are currently some of the major urban problems for the residents of these areas. Time has come to assess how the introduction of community parking facility in the existing planned neighbourhoods with few revised policies can positively contribute not only to reduce the parking problem but also to the improvement of current urban environment.
The rise in parking demand is due to the change in land use pattern of the areas both legally and illegally. The width of these roads in no way can accommodate increased roadside parking in working days due to the moving traffic load. This results in traffic stagnation. The need for providing adequate parking cannot be denied. The scarcity of parking space is so acute that a notice declaring "Guest Parking Outside" is very often hung on entry gates of many buildings. This goes against the spirit of a hospitable nation like ours! Well, how about all of us parking outside?
An alternative
Now, if we have secured, well-maintained common parking provision for whole neighbourhoods in designated areas, then there will be no need to park the cars beneath every building or on the roadside. Each parking block would have a capacity of 200-400 vehicles so that multiple numbers of these structures in the whole area would fully serve the residential parking need. But where can we find an area large enough to inject the proposed parking facility in an existing planned neighbourhood which is already saturated?
Adding multi-storeyed community parking facilities beneath buildings for mass social use like the community mosques or municipal market buildings can be one of the solutions. But in Dhaka designated municipal market buildings are very inadequate in number and sporadic in placement. Whereas these residential areas planned and implemented by the government have multiple community mosques. These mosques are already placed strategically within 5-10 minutes walking distance of the community residents. Usually, these mosques are located on a larger plot with typically two to three storeys in height. These are commonly constructed phase by phase as per requirement and availability of fund over years. These large spaces are very often left under-utilised for years because of slow and gradual expansion process of the mosques.
Most of the community mosques that were constructed earlier were given a foundation of maximum 2-3 storey. Since their capacity cannot accommodate the current users' number, many existing 2/3 storey mosques in planned residential areas (like Banani Jam-e-Mosque, Taqwa Mosque in Dhanmondi etc) are already in the process of redesigning, retrofitting or rebuilding their structures.
If designed multi-storied mosques replacing or retrofitting the current mosque buildings are constructed with community parking facilities at the basement and lower levels then the vehicles can be easily parked and there will be no need for ground floor parking spaces in multi-storeyed apartment buildings. Those liberated areas can then be easily used for community gathering, social activities and children's play as well. The maintenance and security expenses of community parking will be borne by the users. Depending on availability and user preference, the vacant parking spaces during working hours might as well be rented on an hourly basis for guest parking.
Moreover, if the cars do not need to go to every residential building for parking then some of the many parallel tertiary roads of this grid-iron pattern layout after critical design exercise might as well be transformed into pedestrian only roads or "plazas" with street furniture, vegetation and resting alcoves integrated. Designed multiple connected plazas like this will create an uninterrupted pedestrian link for the whole community.
Also, provision for moving of emergency vehicles like ambulance, fire service, utility services etc can be designed keeping the integrity of the safe pedestrian link intact.
A short walk of 5-10 minutes from the community parking is good enough to take the residents to their own homes. The benefits of community space on ground floor and pedestrian link, if properly demonstrated to the residents of these planned areas, are most likely to be accepted with much enthusiasm.
This will also enhance community bonding and proper physical-mental growth of our future generation. The vacated ground floors of apartment buildings can then be used as play space for small children and for community activities as well.
A city lives on for hundreds of years. But it is the policies and their implementation that ensures healthy growth and sustainability of each city. Failure to foresee the needs and reluctance to take major decisions timely for betterment of the urban environment leads to gradual decay of the cities. Long-term policy and their implementation have become crucial for future of Dhaka.
This interesting concept of community parking can be explored for existing planned residential areas of Dhaka and future planned areas (like Purbachal) too. Community bonding, sense of belongingness, healthy environment, safe movement and utilisation of resources are some of the benefits that is expected from implementing this concept. At the end, it's us –the people of Dhaka who will make it rise or fall. And surely, we together will strive to leave a better Dhaka for our next generation.
By Arefeen Ibrahim, Saimum Kabir,
Azizul Mohith
Arefeen Ibrahim is Head of the Department of Architecture at American International University- Bangladesh (AIUB); Saimum Kabir, is an Assistant Professor, AIUB; and Azizul Mohith, is an Assistant Professor, AIUB
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