Yet numerous studies and real-world examples show that quiet or inactive streets are not the pinnacle of safety that we would otherwise expect them to be. Instead, it’s busy streets that signify not only safe neighbourhoods, but socially, mentally and economically positive ones.

Phnom Penh already has many active streets and public spaces, but the right formula can ensure that every street and public space is as safe as possible.

“Eyes on the street”

The renowned urbanist and writer Jane Jacobs was one of the first thinkers to popularise the concept of the lively street as an instrument of public safety.

According to Jacobs, a safe street has several main characteristics. Among these characteristics is the idea of “eyes on the street,” a phrase Jacobs coined in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities as a way to visualise the idea that a lively street is one that has people who watch over it.

Her solution for a safe street was to have streets watched over by residents, pedestrians, and street vendors using the street. In order for occupants to see the street, Jacobs suggested that buildings must face the streets with plenty of “permeable” surfaces, such as windows and doors. This system of street watching deters crime while assuring street users that it is safe for walking.

It should be noted that crime is still possible on a busy street or in a busy place such as a market. Pickpockets and purse-grabbers may still find a chance to hit their marks but with only one shout from the victims, everyone within the vicinity is alerted and ready to help the victims. Compare that to a deserted street where chances of getting help are slim.

In the​ recent case of a street robbery in the capital’s Por Senchey district, the thieves preyed on a victim leaving their home but were soon intercepted by bystanders and handed over to the police. And in another case in the city’s Sen Sok district, a purse snatcher was similarly nabbed by people in the vicinity. For both of these examples, simply having these “eyes on the street” helped create the means to stop crime immediately as it happened.

Reducing violent crime by livening up a desolate street

A case study from the city of Dallas, Texas, can illustrate the public security impact that transforming a desolate stretch of street into a bustling public space can have.

Malcolm X plaza was once an area surrounded by vacant lots and bad sidewalks.

These desolate streets were one of the most dangerous areas in the city. Before an initiative revamped the plaza in 2019, violent gun crime was 564 times more likely to happen there than anywhere else in southeastern Dallas.

In 2021 and 2022, a local non-profit, Child Poverty Action Lab, teamed up with the nonprofit Better Block Foundation to target and “activate” an empty lot in the neighbourhood. The lot went from being empty and vacant to hosting events ranging from Friday movie nights to Saturday basketball tournaments. By turning this empty stretch of property into a lively gathering space, the initiative produced real results in terms of public safety without any increase in traditional policing.

Data gathered by Better Block following these interventions found that keeping streets lively with neighbours engaged led to reductions in crime. Violent crime fell by 59% compared with 2019, with a 20% decrease in arrests. In total, this area, which had been the highest-risk neighbourhood in the police department’s patrol division, dropped to 463rd on that same ranked list.

Malcolm X Plaza shows how the space of lives and activities can be the key to a safer street. As in the words of Jacobs: “A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street”.

These efforts to improve street safety through busier and livelier streets can be similarly explored in Southeast Asia.

In Cambodia, a culture of bustling streets

Phnom Penh has several factors in its favour when it comes to street liveliness.

Lively streets are already the norm in many parts of the city. On the streets that run alongside the bustling Orussey Market, people come and go throughout the day to shop at the fish and vegetable vendors which border the roads. Amidst the alleyways nearby, outdoor eateries attract regular customers and passers-by to come for breakfast, lunch, afternoon coffee and more.

The spontaneous and vibrant nature of this type of Phnom Penh street is often overlooked or even regarded as a negative characteristic. This has bubbled up in instances when officials sweep street vendors from their locations for public order reasons, or label such vendors as the reason for traffic congestion. While some Phnom Penh residents may see these kinds of streets as too loud or too bustling, these lively areas are key commercial areas, where the bustle of daily life attracts even more people.

The use of these streets for commerce is one factor in making them lively, but another lies in the buildings that run beside them. Of these, perhaps none are more conducive to life than the shophouse. These ubiquitous structures are row-homes with the ground floor being often a shop or business while the upper level is mainly used as a residence.

Shophouses have long been the most common building typology in Phnom Penh and are an ideal configuration for the “eyes on the street” dynamic while ensuring the vibrancy of mixed-use neighbourhoods.

The capital already has these built-in features keeping streets lively. But there are also several factors Phnom Penh leaders should prioritise for improvement, to better ensure more active and therefore more secure streets.

Room for improvement

The first impediment standing in the way of livelier Phnom Penh streets is the lack of usable sidewalks.

This is because they’re often occupied by businesses extending their storefront, or otherwise for parking for motorbikes and cars. The most misunderstood aspect of Cambodian streets is that sidewalks are a private space – in reality, they are within the public realm.

This leads to the privatisation of these pavements that would lead to an inactive street.

Viewed from this perspective, our lack of sidewalks isn’t just a mobility problem, it’s also a public safety problem. Streets that only experience fast-moving vehicles through traffic and no slower-moving foot traffic are bound to feel less safe.

If Phnom Penh is to incentivise foot traffic, however, another critical point would need to be addressed. In a city where, for parts of the year, the temperatures soar into the high 30s or even low 40s Celsius, more shade coverage is necessary to keep people in the streets.

Phnom Penh must also be intentional about avoiding some of the most worrisome causes of street inactivity. One of these factors is the proliferation of empty lots and abandoned, half-completed construction projects. For a cautionary tale that spells out the negative impacts of this urban issue, look no further than the city of Sihanoukville, where hundreds of half-finished buildings have contributed to criminality and other public safety and public health issues.

Sihanoukville was popular in its casino and hospitality industry by Chinese investors. But after the ban on online gambling and the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic, many of the buildings became abandoned, leading to a deteriorating and unsafe look of the city.

For Phnom Penh’s existing empty lots, it would be wise to take inspiration from a place like Odom Garden, which repurposed a large lot which otherwise would have sat vacant for several months until construction on the land began. Instead, the lot was converted into a temporary public green space or “pop-up” with a liveliness augmented by commercial activities.

Pop-up gardens such as this one, which make use of an empty or unused space even just temporarily, should be an experimental ground for planners and designers to see what works and what doesn’t.

Healthy arteries for a healthy public

While safety is an obvious byproduct of lively streets, it’s also important to note the less tangible impacts.

When residents feel a strong social bond with one another, they are better able to create lively streets and lively neighbourhoods. But the causal relationship also runs in the opposite direction.

In one research paper on the “Busy Street Theory”, the authors note: “Neighbourhoods where residents feel safe and comfortable being outside are typically characterised by socially active streets. Furthermore, positive street activity promotes socialising between neighbours, enhances monitoring of neighbourhood activity, promotes patronage to local businesses, and helps to maintain the existing infrastructure.”

If activities within the neighbourhood foster informal interaction, residents are more likely to be able to connect with one another. For example, parents accompanying their children to a playground within a pop-up garden in their neighbourhood may deepen their ties simply through that regular proximity and the ease of conversation that it creates.

The liveliness and messiness of Phnom Penh is not something that we should seek to get rid of. Rather, it is at the heart of what makes our streets and city safe.

Prak Norak is a Future Forum junior research fellow and an architecture student currently studying at Pannasastra University. His interests are art and small-space architecture, where man-made buildings harmonize with nature

The post For urbanists, safe streets are lively streets appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

The reality is spiking gas prices are impacting Cambodians’ ability to earn income, seek education, healthcare and other necessities.

At their lowest point in 2020, gas prices stood at 56 cents (2,300 riel) per litre but increased to $1.41 (5,800 riel) per litre as of July. This is a 152% increase over a period of 24 months. And such a drastic surge has had a disproportionate impact on struggling, lower-income families earning less than $2.66 (10,951 riel) per person per day, according to the National Institute of Statistics. 

Although the Cambodian government has cut fuel taxes to alleviate pressure, the effort may not be enough to stave off further price increases and the resulting impacts on daily life.

Given the precarious global security situation in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s show of force near Taiwan’s coast, prices will likely continue to fluctuate, jeopardising the fragile economic recovery Cambodia has managed after last year’s intensive Covid-19 lockdowns.

But the livelihoods of Cambodians should not be tied to the fickleness of global fossil fuels prices. One way to decouple citizens’ lives from fossil fuel prices is to commit to changing the country’s urban mobility policies.

Immediate alternatives

An obvious first answer to rising gasoline prices is to switch to electric vehicles (EV), but this alone is insufficient. With citizens already financially struggling, asking them to buy a new vehicle is unrealistic and counterproductive. There’s only four EV charging stations installed throughout the country, so in terms of practicality, it’s not feasible. And given the slow rollout of EV infrastructure in Cambodia thus far, an effective solution must be usable by all and be implemented within the span of weeks, not years.

Typically, urban mobility interventions take years to implement and decades to mature. But Cambodian planners seeking a timely intervention can look to Paris as a feasible  model to accelerate this process.

The French capital made use of temporary bike lanes, originally implemented in 2019 to alleviate disruptions caused by striking public transit staff. During Covid lockdowns, Parisian authorities rapidly rolled out 650 additional kilometres (404 miles) of dedicated bike lanes through temporary interventions, using movable planters, paint and bollards to demarcate new road features. 

Paris shifted to alternative mobility solutions rapidly and cheaply, allowing the city to dramatically improve mobility and safety during the pandemic and shield residents from the negative impacts of fuel price shocks that have struck in 2022.

Phnom Penh measures

To ensure equitable mobility, Cambodia’s capital city should consider the formation of a cohesive transit network and reclaim streets for pedestrians and cyclists.

Despite its efforts, the Kingdom is not known for the quality, usability and reliability of its public transportation system. 

Phnom Penh’s public transit network faces issues of disjointed implementation and poor reliability. Public transit issues are compounded by the absence of walking and cycling infrastructure, as sidewalks are occupied by parking and streetside businesses. 

Instead of waiting for funding, the government could adopt temporary and movable measures to offer cheap and quick solutions that could create streets conducive to active commuting and public transit. Once successful, these features can be upgraded by investing in permanent and quality infrastructure improvements.

Smaller thoroughfares can accommodate protected cycling lanes by implementing one-way vehicle traffic and setting up planters, bollards and street furniture as barriers to protect cyclists. 

Quiet residential streets should be converted into shared streets, where vehicles retain access, but are restricted from high speeds and volumes.

On important boulevards carrying bus routes, physical barriers including bollards would allow for the quick installation of separate bus lanes. Additional bus shelters should be prioritised, while existing ones can be cheaply upgraded with movable planters and seating furniture.

Temporary measures would enable quick instalment of curb extensions, protected crosswalks, road medians, and parklets. These features improve safety and convenience by deconflicting traffic, providing better visibility and encouraging slow and careful driving.

These design changes to establish people-centred urban spaces improve safety and accessibility, decrease pollution and enable more active lifestyles, even as gas prices rise. 

Getting it right

Building towns and entire cities around public transit and active commuting creates a transportation model that is relatively immune to fuel price shock. Adopting this model of mobility, can also reduce pollution, improve road safety and create more vibrant and prosperous streetscapes. 

In the long-term, Phnom Penh should seek to disentangle its bus routes by moving them onto boulevards prioritised for transit, while private vehicles are placed on alternative routes. Bus reliability can be reinforced through the inclusion of separate bus lanes, sheltered bus stops and bus bulbs, which are curb extensions allowing easy boarding. 

At the same time, a full-scale cycling network across the city should be carved out, incorporating routes adjacent to popular sites with direct and continuous paths. 

Greenery along routes provides much needed comfort, and planting new trees while allowing existing to grow freely creates a natural canopy over street spaces. 

This can also reduce street surface temperature by up to 12 to 15 degrees Celsius (21 to 27 degrees Fahrenheit) and the felt ambient temperature by 10 to 12 degrees Celsius (18 to 21 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a 2013 study by German researchers. 

These interventions also could provide a cheap, and more importantly, rapid solution to replace fossil fuel dependent transportation with active and transit-enabled mobility.

The degree of mobility of residents determines their access to education, housing, employment, healthcare and other crucial services.

Uncertainty of fuel prices adds to the importance of implementing an affordable system of movement now and over the long-term. Cambodian policy makers must help protect citizens from external economic shocks by discarding the current model. In its place, they must adopt a new approach, one that values people over motor vehicles.

Ses Aronsakda is a junior researcher at Future Forum. Educated as an architect, he conducts research on Phnom Penh’s urban planning with interests in all aspects of cities and urban design.

The post Ensuring Cambodians’ Mobility Amidst Rocketing Fuel Prices appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Yet similar casualty figures on Cambodia’s roads only garner condolences, tired explanations and redundant promises, never real change.

The national police reported 859 traffic accidents with 486 deaths from January through March. The cost of road traffic accidents was estimated to have cost Cambodia $466.8 million in 2019 alone, equivalent to 1.7% of the country’s annual GDP earnings, according to a report by the National Road Safety Committee (NRSC) and the United Nations Development Programme.

NRSC Secretary-General Min Manavy urged road users to respect the traffic laws, noting that 866 people involved in accidents involving motorbikes were helmetless. 

Helmets and seatbelts only mitigate injuries, they do not prevent a vehicle careening down a street and causing injuries. Instead of blaming victims, Cambodia must enact a comprehensive overhaul to examine the true culprits of traffic accidents and make a radical policy shift to solve the issue.

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation reported overspeeding accounted for 33% of the 1,619 accidents recorded nationwide in the first half of 2020. The other factors involved in the accidents included right-of-way (23%), incorrect lane use (14%), overtaking (10%) and incorrect turning (10%). 

While careless drivers accounted for 90% of all traffic accidents in 2020, the reasons drivers speed and overtake on crowded roads, intersections or sharp turns is rarely discussed. 

Asia Injury Prevention Foundation Director Kim Panga highlighted the issue of speed. In a Phnom Penh Post interview, he recommended amending speed limits in previously implemented sub-decrees, arguing that speeds in school areas should be limited to a maximum of 30 kph (18.6 mph) while the speed limit for passenger trucks should be lowered to a maximum of 50 kph (31 mph).

Traffic police throughout Cambodia have set up checkpoints and a new speed camera system in an attempt to correct the issue, but speed limit reform is a limited, top-down approach. Traffic police cannot be expected to set up checkpoints at every street corner, nor do speed cameras address the root causes of many accidents.

Better road design is the primary tool Cambodia should apply to address driver behaviour and road safety.

Road designs

Passive and proactive designs are little-known road engineering philosophies that could significantly change the conversation.

A passive design approach accounts for the worst-case scenarios: crashes and traffic congestion. Using this approach, streets are built to contain multiple oversized driving lanes and generous clear zones to meet high traffic volumes and allow space for potential crashes. 

Evidence shows this design strategy has significant flaws, especially when implemented in urban areas where high speed is undesirable.

Emphasis on wide, simplified, and unobstructed streets causes drivers to lose their inhibitions. Generous and unobstructed driving lanes distorts judgments of speed, causing drivers to subconsciously go faster.

Driving speed increases as the lanes become wider. A 2001 study in the United States found widening lanes by 1 metre (3.2 feet) increased average speeds by 15 kph (9.3 mph). The same study illustrated that within a lane of 3.25 metres (10.6 feet), which is Cambodia’s urban street standard, driving speeds averaged an alarming 55 kph (34 mph). 

As the saying goes, “speed kills.” These passive road design choices encourage higher driving speeds and ironically lead to more and deadlier accidents.

A proactive approach to road design would increase safety in the Kingdom’s urban areas.

This careful road design strategy involves street elements which guide and influence better driving behaviour by enforcing slow and cautious navigation. These measures are crucial in significantly reducing the severity of grave injury and decreasing the chance of an accident occurring in the first place. One supporting example is a 2019 study from Ghana that found “traffic calming devices reduce vehicular speeds and, thus, the incidence and severity of pedestrian injuries in built-up areas.”

Another comprehensive American study in 1997 examined risks associated with traffic speed. A vehicle travelling at 20 kph (12.4 mph) has an accident rate of only 5% and a fatality risk of 2%. Yet doubling the speed to 40 kph (24.8 mph) was shown to triple the rate of accidents to 15% and spike the fatality risk to 5%, the report stated.

As the Kingdom moves to expand and improve its road network, adapting a proactive approach would be more efficient than retroactively modifying streets.

Safe road designs

Using various techniques referred to as ‘traffic calming measures,’ Cambodian towns and cities can reduce traffic speeds. Some interventions alter the physical configurations of roadways, while others change how drivers perceive and respond to streets.

The first alteration local designers can make is reducing lane numbers and their width from the usual 3.25 metres to 3 metres (9.8 feet) or less. Reductions help decrease crossing distance and reduce stoplight cycle time without impacting overall traffic flow. 

The space gained from road space reduction can be better utilised as dedicated bus and protected bicycle lanes and on-street parking buffers to protect pedestrians. This is sorely needed in Cambodia, as illustrated by an accident in which a careening vehicle on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard killed a pedestrian on the sidewalk.

To further reduce motorist speed, streets should be designed with a chicane, or a lane shifting pattern, that slows drivers with shallow turns. This can be done by alternating parking or curb extensions into the desired pattern. Working on a similar principle, a pinch-point design extends sidewalks to narrow roadways, which restricts speeds and expands sidewalk space.

Planners can also utilise roadway centre islands. Combined with raised pedestrian crossings and located in the middle of city blocks, islands reduce speeding and provide safe crossings for pedestrians and cyclists.

Psychological cues also can complement physical restructuring. Trees, street furniture and narrowed building lines create visual indicators, making drivers more speed conscious, alert and aware of their surroundings.

Protected intersections

Intersections are by far the most dangerous road locations because traffic flow converges, visibility is limited and conflict points are plentiful. The danger is heightened by drivers often ignoring stop signs, leading to tragic consequences on a regular basis.

One of Cambodia’s most infamous hit-and-run incidents occurred at a Phnom Penh intersection in 2019. An underage driver barreled through a Toul Kork intersection with an SUV, killing motorcyclist Dum Rida.

A preferred method of improving intersections is to narrow corners using curb extensions. This sharpens the turn radius, which encourages slower turning speeds, decreases the distances pedestrians must cross and ensures good visibility for all users as they approach the intersection.

Another effective intersection safety measure is raising crosswalks to the same level as sidewalks, signalling to drivers that they are intruding on pedestrian space and should be alert. The slight ramp also serves as a speed bump to slow drivers.

Cambodian road engineers also should pay more attention to the largest group of road users: motorcyclists. Slip lanes for motorcycles, which account for four out of five vehicles, would allow riders to line up ahead of other vehicles when stopped at intersections and reduce conflict points.

Despite decades of top-down enforcement policy, traffic accidents continue to soar at alarming rates. Over the same 30-month period, traffic accidents led to 3,599 deaths compared to 3,056 attributed to Covid-19.

Given this grim reality, the Kingdom’s approach to road safety must be reconsidered. Instead of blaming drivers, authorities and city planners must recognise the dangerous environment which the incumbent road design approach has yielded.

As the current design paradigm kills and maims indiscriminately, the time has arrived to reassess our road priorities. We must stop pursuing speed and volume for motorists and instead place greater value on health and safety for everyone.

Ses Aronsakda is a junior researcher at Future Forum. Educated as an architect, he conducts research on Phnom Penh’s urban planning with interests in all aspects of cities and urban design.

The post Cambodia needs safer street designs appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Vuong is the founder and chairman of Vingroup, the country’s largest private company. The Vinpearl Land resort on Hon Tre Island was his first big project. The cable car carrying passengers to the island beginning in 2007 ignited a race among the country’s leading corporations to build aerial lifts. 

But the cable-car craze represents something bigger than the sum of the concrete pillars, steel, cables and glass. The rapid development showcases how giant conglomerates are carving out space on Vietnam’s coasts and mountains for resorts and tourism complexes that some argue negatively impact the environment and have little benefit for local communities. 

Cable cars are often key features of these projects and enable thousands of people daily to visit some of the country’s most environmentally tenuous locales. Land is often cleared for construction and the high-volume of tourists shuttled to now easily accessible destinations leads to waste buildup, putting pressure on the ecosystem. 

Hoang Nguyen, director of Handspan Travel Indochina, used to take tour groups on overnight treks to the top of Fansipan, the tallest mountain in Vietnam and neighbouring Cambodia and Laos. Since 2016, a cable car built by real estate developer Sun Group can reach the peak in about 20 minutes, carrying 2,000 people per hour. Sun Group is a major player in tourism construction and has built six of the country’s cable cars.   

Nguyen claimed there is now a “huge problem with trash” and issues with the mountain’s sewage system. And while a few cable cars could positively impact tourism in Vietnam, he asserted, the current rate of development is unsustainable. 

“All the projects are really big and from my point of view, leave a very strong effect on the environment,” Nguyen said. “The problem with Vietnam is that we have too many… and they are building more.”

Ken Atkinson, vice chairman of Vietnam’s Tourism Advisory Board, said developers saw the success of the Nha Trang cable car and rushed to get a piece of the pie.   

“The first one to Vinpearl Land, that was quite successful. That of course prompted further development,” he said. “Nobody wants to be left behind.” 

In addition to the cable cars in Nha Trang and Fansipan, travellers can take air lifts on Cat Ba Island and look down on karst formations while shuttling across Ha Long Bay in the North. In central Vietnam, tourists can take a ride over tree-covered hills in Dalat and around multiple routes of a resort complex near Danang. Moving southward, there are cable cars running to Ta Cu Mountain in Phan Thiet, Ba Den Mountain near the Cambodian border, a mountaintop amusement park overlooking the sea in Vung Tau and another from Phu Quoc Island to a cable car station and shopping hub modelled after ancient Rome on the small island of Hon Thom. 

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh approved a cable car project this year connecting two pagodas in Hanoi and neighbouring Hoa Binh Province. There also are plans to build a gondola lift to Mau Son Mountain in northern Lang Son Province. Cable cars are likely to be features of large resorts planned for Vietnam’s coast: MerryLand in Binh Dinh Province and NovaWorld in Binh Thuan Province. 

“There can be a tendency to overdo things,” Atkinson said. “There could be more thought given to the environment and the ability of the destination to cope with the volume of people that the cable cars are actually transporting.”

Despite the many gondola lifts in operation, one development project was halted after public outcry. 

Sun Group sought approval to build a cable car in Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park in 2014. The park is home to Hang Son Doong, the world’s largest cave system. The caves have multiple climates, enough space to hold an airplane and a New York-city block and are home to seven eyeless creatures discovered since the system was first scientifically explored in 2009.  

The cable car could have brought 1,000 visitors per hour into the cave’s delicate ecosystem daily. In October 2014, a Facebook page called ‘Save Sơn Đoòng’ became an outlet for thousands of objections to the cable car.

Although Sun Group scrapped the plan, the conglomerate FLC Group received approval in 2017 for construction of a cable car to nearby En Cave in the same park, although development never took off. Unrelated to the project, FLC’s chairman was arrested last month for stock market manipulation. 

Bui Huyen Trang first became concerned about the environment 15 years ago after finding beaches covered in trash near her hometown, the northern port city of Hai Phong. She expressed discontent on the ‘Save Sơn Đoòng’ page about Sun Group’s ongoing construction of a tourism complex in northern Tam Dao National Park. 

“Our voices condemning the construction of the cable car in Son Doong or similar places have not been heard much,” Trang said, noting that although Phong Nha-Ke Bang remains free of cable cars, future tourism development still looms. “The projects will only be temporarily stopped, not cancelled.” 

Sun Group cable cars and surrounding structures have already threatened vulnerable species in Vietnam and are degrading the environment, Trang said. 

She pointed to Sun World Ba Na Hills, a resort and amusement park complex in the Truong Son Mountains west of Vietnam’s third largest city, Danang. The complex features the Golden Bridge, a 150-metre (492-foot) pedestrian footpath built in Nui Chua National Park in 2018 that appears to be held up by two giant hands.

The only way to reach the resort is by cable car.

After trees were removed to accommodate the construction, many animals that once inhabited the forest have disappeared and the area primarily covered in concrete is hot and unpleasant, Trang said. 

“More than 60 hectares [148 acres] of forest were flattened,” she stated. “In the past, Nui Chua was very poetic, stretching forests and diverse birds and animals, especially the famous indigenous langur. But after the forests were tragically cut down, the animals’ habitats were reduced and gradually they no longer appeared.”

Vietnam has 24 species of primates, half of which can’t be found elsewhere on the planet. Many are critically endangered with habitat loss often noted as a primary cause for the decline. 

“What they want is sales and profits, not preservation of the integrity of nature,” Trang said of the real estate firm. 

Vietnam’s cable car projects are “disasters,” according to Miquel Angel of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, who spoke from central Hoi An where he was surveying waste management. “I would say that we don’t need any cable cars anywhere in Vietnam…. It is just negatively affecting the environment and it doesn’t give any benefit to the locals.”

People living near cable car construction often must relocate to accommodate the “huge pillars of concrete and cement,” Angel noted. Once cable cars are built, huge amounts of electricity are needed in areas where power is expensive and limited and clean energy is not used. The electricity powering the lifts pollutes the environment while the generators cause noise pollution, he said. 

What they want is sales and profits, not preservation of the integrity of nature”

Bui Huyen Trang, Hai Phong resident

Additionally, many tourism and resort complexes accessed by cable cars act as all-in-one providers of food, lodging and entertainment. Subsequently, little benefit goes to local businesses outside the new developments, Angel stated. 

Nguyen of Handspan Travel said entire communities may shift to providing tourist services when there is a swift increase in demand. But this is dangerous as the visitor surges can be fleeting. 

“Cat Ba Island, it used to be very rustic, very simple, but then suddenly there were too many tourists and everybody stopped farming to service the tourists,” Nguyen described. “It had a huge effect for the local community because they started depending on tourists, but then suddenly there’s too many tourists and then there’s nobody.”

Watching from his seat on the advisory board, a private entity which consults with the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism, Angel said he suspects cable projects are green lit by taking advantage of “interests behind the scenes.” 

“These lobbies that are behind these cable cars are very powerful…. We give advice to them that it’s not a good idea to have cable cars everywhere. They ignore [it] and keep doing that because there are private interests,” he said. “For us tourism experts it is a disaster.”

Not everyone finds Vietnam’s cable car trend so black and white. 

For Huynh The Du, lecturer at Fulbright University Vietnam, cable car projects are more complex than framing tourism developers as bad guys. Corporations are driven by one imperative: earnings. As such, their lack of environmental concern should not come as a surprise. The weightier topic is the government’s ability to ensure development becomes an overall good, although the cost-benefit analysis is not easy and regulations and policy changes will not happen overnight, he stated.

“[Companies] just build those things that they think can make money,” Du said in a video call. “In terms of public policy, in terms of the government role, it is more challenging to have projects that generate net benefits for the whole society.”

Mark Hampton, a University of Kent professor who has researched tourism’s ability to lead to inclusive growth in Ha Long Bay, agreed there are inherent challenges. 

“There’s a big issue for tourism about who wins and who loses,” Hampton said, taking a break from grading papers. “The challenge for governments is how do you get the benefits of these big developments for the local people.”

An additional conflict arises around how the natural environment, as an asset, is viewed. Some prefer to see “humanity at the top of the pile… with concrete paths and straightened edges” while others believe “pristine wilderness” is paramount. The tension lies in “who gets to decide,” and balancing varying tourist demands, Hampton noted. 

Meanwhile, Angel sees cable-car adjacent portions of Phu Quoc Island and upcoming developments like Merryland and Novaworld offering sterile features and unappealing replications of cultures from outside Vietnam. 

“It’s turning some of these Vietnamese destinations into a kind of circus,” he said. 

“Who will come to Vietnam to see a fake copy of a Mediterranean or Greek village… I wonder if the 100 million Vietnamese will really enjoy visiting these Merrylands, these entertainment zoos and fake parks.”

And for Nguyen, even though cable cars are an easier way for people to tick some of Vietnam’s most memorable destinations off their bucket lists, the country should offer a wide variety of options beyond islands and mountains reached via gondola lift.

“In the long term, having tons of cable cars everywhere is not sustainable,” Nguyen said. “Vietnam should not be a cable car destination.”

The post Vietnam’s cable car craze is driving environmental decline appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move, which was first tipped by President Joko Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea levels and severe congestion on densely populated Java island.

Home to more than 30 million people in its greater metro area, Jakarta has long been plagued by serious infrastructure problems and flooding exacerbated by climate change, with experts predicting up to a third of the city could be underwater by 2050.

The new capital will cover about 56,180 hectares (216 square miles) in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo, which the country shares with Malaysia and Brunei.

In all, 256,142 hectares have been set aside for the project, with the additional land intended for potential future expansion. 

Early plans for the new capital depict a utopian design aimed at creating an environmentally friendly “smart” city, but few details have been confirmed. 

Plans to begin construction in 2020 were hampered by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Environmentalist critics of the capital’s move have warned it could damage ecosystems in the region, where mining and palm oil plantations already threaten rainforests that are home to Borneo’s endangered species.

On Monday, Widodo said the new capital would be one “where the people are close from any destination, where they can bike and walk everywhere because there are zero emissions”.

“This (capital) will not only have government offices, we want to build a new smart metropolis that can be a magnet for global talent and a centre of innovation,” he said in a speech at a local university.

“Nusantara”, which means “archipelago”, was chosen from a list of 80 names because it was widely recognisable by Indonesians and easy to memorise, the nation’s development minister, Suharso Monoarfa, said Monday. 

The new city will be governed by a body dubbed the State Capital Authority, with leadership appointed to five-year terms directly by the president, according to Tuesday’s legislation. 

Budget details have not yet been revealed in a presidential decree, though previous reports have pegged the project’s costs at $33 billion.

Indonesia is not the first country in the region to relocate from an overpopulated capital.

Malaysia moved its government to Putrajaya from Kuala Lumpur in 2003, while Myanmar moved its capital to Naypyidaw from Rangoon in 2006.

© Agence France-Presse

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The unused public transportation system was the city’s status quo long before Covid-19 forced suspensions. And ever since, the city’s 2.1 million residents have been left with few options other than braving the sea of honking tuk tuks, cars, motorcycles and their combined exhaust.

Phnom Penh remains one of the few Southeast Asia capital cities without meaningful public transportation, which is why the Cambodian government has its eyes set on developing a modern light rail network. The ambitious undertaking reached an important milestone in April when  long-awaited feasibility studies and initial proposals for three rail-oriented mass transit solutions were reviewed by the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works, though the government has yet to make a final decision. 

With an estimated cost of between $1 billion and $1.4 billion, the citywide light rail promises a comprehensive transportation upgrade by the latter half of the decade. Yet the project’s success is not guaranteed, while the high profile and cost underline the significance of Phnom Penh achieving sustainable urban mobility.

Phnom Penh’s flagship light rail project should carefully consider the mistakes the city made with past public transportation projects, which were hampered by the failure to appreciate the necessity of a cohesive network, resulting in piecemeal application and eventual neglect.

Phnom Penh is no stranger to rolling out public transit networks and nurturing them with heavy subsidies, only for them to languish. While previous attempts including bus, water taxi, and train were sensible choices, they were envisioned as separate entities rather than part of a connected and coherent whole — a fatal flaw for any transit system.

Since 2018, the water taxi along Phnom Penh’s riverfront has run from north to south, with stops along the way at important destinations. It should have greatly eased pressure on the city’s main boulevards. Even though there was early interest due to its novelty, ridership tanked in the months afterwards. This was because each stop was disconnected from other transit, effectively stranding passengers after they left the station.

Around the same time, the Airport Rail Link was inaugurated for public use. It created a critical connection from the city’s centre to its international airport, alleviating pressure from the congested Russian Boulevard. But Phnom Penh’s old colonial train station proved ill-suited to serve as a hub for a wide variety of transport options. As it currently stands, passengers are required to take another means of transport just to reach the station, while travellers arriving from the airport are left stranded as well. Moreover, the rail was forced to share a route with other vehicles, creating a dangerous environment due to lax traffic enforcement and unseparated tracks. 

The most widely used public transit option — the Phnom Penh City Bus, which started in late 2014 — hasn’t taken off, even after Japan and China donated fleets of new, comfortable buses. The bus system’s 2019 rate of 30,000 daily passengers is marginal when compared to total commute numbers in the city,  while being far too small to alleviate traffic congestion.

In hindsight, the bus network failed to reach more adopters because it suffered from poor traffic management, including a lack of bus priority stop lights and separated lanes. The result led to lowered bus speed and inconsistent service, compounded by a lack of sheltered bus stops and the poor walkability of Phnom Penh’s streets.

All three networks still lack a unified payment system, which makes it inconvenient and expensive to hop between lines, let alone other transit modes. 

The fragmented and disjointed implementation of each public transit network encapsulates Phnom Penh’s failure in realising an effective transit system

The fragmented and disjointed implementation of each public transit network encapsulates Phnom Penh’s failure in realising an effective transit system. Highlighting the city’s neglect to adopt a multi-modal approach to planning its transit system. 

As described by the US Department of Transportation, multi-modal transit is planned from the start to accommodate different forms of transportation by dedicating infrastructure and support services for them. Yet questions remain over the practicality of applying this theory to Phnom Penh’s streets.

Fortunately, other cities have found their way out of this predicament, offering important insights for Phnom Penh. The Dutch once faced a similar challenge in Amsterdam, ultimately developing an innovative strategy to accommodate multi-modal transit.

In the 1970s, cars choked Amsterdam’s narrow streets and the city sought more emphasis on public transit systems and active commute options such as walking and cycling.. 

The Dutch devised an organisational strategy called ‘disentanglement,’ a conscious, carefully planned effort to separate the various modes of transit and place them into different street networks designated specifically for them. Each network then converged at strategic locations to facilitate switching between lines or transit modes.

In general, smaller streets, promenades and alleyways favor active commuters and larger thoroughfares favor buses, private vehicles and trams. Doing so enables each road to better accommodate its respective mode of transit, while reducing conflict points and accidents, making traffic safer for all users.

Phnom Penh can employ a similar strategy to manage its transit networks,  although Phnom Penh’s unique urban context will require adaptation.

Any solution must contend with the city’s well laid out but dense urban core, its heavy reliance on motorcycles and an acknowledgement of the notoriously low traffic obedience of city commuters.

Phnom Penh must establish transit hubs as the nucleus of a future public transit system

To start, Phnom Penh must establish transit hubs as the nucleus of a future public transit system. These are strategic intersections of major thoroughfares located across the city’s center and immediate ring road. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has already identified locations in its  urban transport plan for Phnom Penh.  

Urban planners must then identify and design new routes connecting these transit hubs. In doing so, Cambodian planners should thoughtfully consider which streets best suit a particular mode of transit and apply a focused street design to accommodate the selected option.

In practice, Phnom Penh’s dense but roughly orthogonal street layout makes it easier to carve out these distinct routes, in a manner where no mode of transport would be unfairly forced to take a circuitous route for the sake of another. For instance, north and south travel can utilize the central and expansive Preah Norodom and Preah Monivong boulevards, which are ideal for light rail and city bus service. The more moderately sized Preah Trassak Peam and Pasteur streets can be designated as part of the private car network.

Planners will also have to lean into Phnom Penh’s love of motorcycles, preferably by recognising motorcycles as a separate network from cars. Preah Yukanthor street, a quieter route, can be part of the motorcycle network. 

This leaves Preah Sisowath Quay, a riverside avenue, as the perfect candidate for a pedestrian and cyclist path.

In the latest urban mobility report on Phnom Penh, Cambodian researchers diagnosed inadequate provision for pedestrians and cyclists as a major obstacle holding back public transportation. Encouragingly, the strategy of streamlining streets would retain more space for sidewalks.

Streets that accommodate a mix of pedestrian, cyclist and public transit modes enjoy a number of benefits, including improving public health by encouraging walking and cycling, spurring engagement with local businesses and promoting environmental sustainability. 

Additionally, decreasing driving lanes frees space to employ separated lanes for bikes and pedestrians to keep them safe from faster and heavier motor vehicles. Experts recommend utilizing vegetation, curbs and even parking spaces as buffers for cyclists and pedestrians. At intersections, curbside extensions at corners slow drivers, keep them from cutting into pedestrians or cyclists and retain line of sight and alertness for those crossing the intersection.

A pedestrian-friendly city is integral to a mulit-modal approach, as it will facilitate commuters’ first and last mile of travel to or from the nearest bus or train station. Short trips with private vehicles will be discouraged, further reducing congestion. 

Cambodian planners should go beyond just executing a single system, and focus on developing a multi-layered, integrated and accessible transit system. They can achieve this by building well-designed transit hubs, adopting a unified payment system, disentangling modes of transport into separate networks and using the street space gained to emphasize active commutes. 

This outline is a path for Phnom Penh to avoid the empty carriages and open seats of the present and move toward a future where sustainable urban mobility is a reality for every inhabitant.

Aronsakda Ses is a young research fellow at Future Forum interested in everything related to cities and urban design. He trained as an architect in Thailand and is conducting research on Phnom Penh’s urban planning.

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Hello and welcome to the finale of the Anakut podcast: Season 2.

And what a season it’s been! Eight episodes, each on a different big subject for modern Cambodia, and 16 guests to guide us through. I can speak for the rest of the Anakut team when I say it’s been a great ride for all of us, and we hope the same for you. 

We wanted to end the season on a high point, and I’d say our last two guests helped us do just that. This week’s episode is all about urbanisation, a topic near and dear to us in bustling Phnom Penh. Anyone who’s spent any time at all in the city can spot pretty quickly its drive for reinvention, and the hectic pace of new construction over the past decade or so has done just that.

The pace of change in Cambodia’s biggest city can be a little disorienting, but Thina and I were determined to find whatever order is in the middle of it all. To help us get there, we invited on some true city-folk: Ngo Natharoun, head of the Center for Khmer Studies, a research centre that focuses on many key issues of urban development, and Michael Waibel, researcher and lecturer at the University of Hamburg and lead of the Build4People urbanism project here in Phnom Penh.

Natharoun led us off with a rundown of just how much the city has grown. By some counts, he told us Phnom Penh roughly doubled in population over the past decade to reach about 3 million people today. Since the 1990s, he added, the physical radius from the city’s centre to its outskirts has also doubled, from just about 5 kilometres to more than 10 kilometres and counting.

The physical radius from the city’s centre to its outskirts has also doubled, from just about 5 kilometres to more than 10 kilometres and counting

To get around this sprawling cityscape, Phnom Penhers are riding and driving like never before. Natharoun told us the Cambodian government counts at least 2 million motorised vehicles in the city, a number increasing at an annual rate of 11%.

Maybe the most obvious sign of all this growth are the high-rises dotting the skyline in various states of completion. But Michael and Natharoun led us to consider the rising prominence of the borey, Cambodia’s brand of self-contained, often-gated housing developments, and its implications for the future of Phnom Penh’s urbanisation.

From there, we transitioned into considerations of rising inequality as it relates to the cityscape and then, to cap it all off, looked into that hazy future to consider how current trends could manifest into the city of tomorrow

You’ll notice this episode is a little longer than the others, but I think you’ll find it’s a spirited conversation with plenty to grab onto. And hey, besides, this is the season finale we’re talking about!

I want to thank you all for following along with us on this Anakut journey. It’s been a blast taking to the airwaves for two seasons so far. We’ll see about S3 (here’s hoping) but for now, scroll back up and hit that play button!

All episodes of the podcast can be found on our Anakut webpage, Amazon, Apple, Google and Spotify. 

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The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in the kingdom’s northeast has sparked controversy since long before its December 2018 launch.

Fisheries experts had warned that damming the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers — two major tributaries of the resource-rich Mekong river — would threaten fish stocks crucial to millions living along the Mekong’s flood plains.

Tens of thousands of villagers living upstream and downstream have suffered steep losses to their incomes, HRW said in Tuesday’s report, citing interviews conducted over two years with some 60 people from various communities.

“The Lower Sesan 2 dam washed away the livelihoods of Indigenous and ethnic minority communities who previously lived communally and mostly self-sufficiently from fishing, forest-gathering, and agriculture,” John Sifton, Human Rights Watch’s Asia advocacy director and the report’s author, said Tuesday. 

“Cambodian authorities need to urgently revisit this project’s compensation, resettlement, and livelihood-restoration methods.”

“There’s no doubt at all that (the dam) contributed significantly to the larger problems the Mekong is facing right now,” said Mekong energy and water expert Brian Eyler, while adding that more research was needed on the exact losses.

The government had pushed ahead with the project — which involved resettling about 5,000 people — in hopes of producing about one-sixth of Cambodia’s annual electricity needs as promised by China Huaneng Group, the builder.

But production levels are “likely far lower, amounting to only a third of those levels”, the report said.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan defended the dam, saying it provided “the most positive impacts” and that the resettled villagers have new homes, farmland and electric power. 

“The allegations are not reasonable, they don’t look at Cambodian experiences… and the new location is better than the old place,” Phay Siphan said, adding that the government would continue to monitor the impacts on surrounding villages. 

The dam, which cost a reported $780 million to build, is part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, a mammoth $1 trillion-dollar infrastructure vision for maritime, rail and road projects across Asia, Africa and Europe.

The scheme, a symbol of Beijing’s efforts to extend economic influence around the world, has been widely criticised for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt.

© Agence France-Presse

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Nowhere is this more evident than in the city-state of Singapore, whose urban space is an ever-shifting landscape of both reinvention and conflict; it holds the potential of progress and betterment, whilst also being a shifting battleground on which present inequalities are reinforced and subverted.

In speaking of Singapore’s urban spaces, we think of control. We think of our attempt to render the city habitable and desirable – a living art piece that responds to our ever-changing needs. To those who know this city-state intimately, Singapore is at once framed by soaring skyscrapers, and yet embraces its array of modest housing blocks.

But try as we might, our control is not complete.

Today, we make the somewhat startling discovery that we are not alone in this landscape. We share our urban spaces with seemingly ‘untamed’ characters that defy the strict and sanitised mould. They stroll leisurely across your path in the mornings, giving no heed to your impatience or business. They lounge lazily under the void deck, sheltered from the harsh rains or piercing rays of the sun, seemingly without a care in the world.

Come hither, and they may perhaps deign to acknowledge your presence with a tail flick and meow; or if you catch them on a bad day, you may be greeted by an indignant swat to your outreached hand.

They are our nearly 50,000 community cats, living in the shared urban spaces as us humans, as we Singaporeans.

No longer are they ubiquitously known as ‘strays’. In Singapore, due to the efforts of organisations such as the Cat Welfare Society,  there has been a general movement to re-frame these animals as ‘community cats’, a choice in naming that is conscious, deliberate, and should be encouraged. The phrase ‘community cats’ embraces these animals as part of the community, whilst the colder labelling of ‘strays’ merely reinforces a status of drifters, of outsiders and pests that have wandered into our carefully managed territory.

Today, community cats have grown to become an almost inseparable part of Singaporean society, and this is reflective of society’s increasing acceptance of and ability to cohabit with the natural world. Community cats are taken care of by a whole neighbourhood of people who feed, provide veterinary care and in general, keep an eye out for their well-being. 

In fact, each community cat often has an assortment of names, given by different residents. Some Singaporean favourites include Girl-girl, Fatso and Baobei (Baby in Chinese). Regardless of what they are called, many community cats are loved dearly.

The people who feed them, also known as community feeders, supply them with food paid for from their own pockets. Feeders often spend a large chunk of their paycheck feeding their furry community friends. A cat feeder in the Ang Mo Kio neighbourhood of Singapore for instance was recently reported as spending SGD$820 ($620) a month feeding a whopping 30 community cats.

In fact, accommodations for these feline residents is becoming an indelible part of the imagined and built urban architecture. No longer are these cats passing wanderers; they have made themselves quite at home in the shared spaces of void decks or shelters.

Some feeders tap into their creativity and ingenuity, building DIY cat houses for these community cats. They turn something as simple as a worn-out chair and cushion, or discarded cardboard with curtains, into a fantastic residential palace for their beloved felines. Residents in Telok Blangah for instance even built a mini ‘condo’ for two community cats out of recycled items.

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Just last week, a Singaporean student designed void deck fixtures for community cats to eat, rest and play. Titled “Just Let Us Live Lah!”, the project aimed to provide safe and enjoyable spaces for community cats to live and co-habit peacefully with their human residents.

This appears to paint a rosy picture, and yet the harsh truth is, there have been periodical surges of violence against these creatures. Not all are accepted by members of the community, and there still exist (in)human acts of intolerance and aggression.

Why are there so many instances of violence and intolerance? Perhaps it is a reflection of a simmering resentment towards the ‘dirty’ and ‘uncontrollable’ Other

It is not uncommon to hear of community cat feeders being verbally abused by members of the public, who demand they stop feeding them. Just recently in May, a community cat feeder was threatened by an erratic man wielding a chopper. Crying out the words ‘dirty, dirty’, he wanted to call the police on her as he was unhappy with her feeding the cats.

The violence extends to physical violence done unto the cats themselves. In December last year, a cat was found dead with its severed left hind leg a short distance away from its carcass.  In May, at least ten cats in Ang Mo Kio were found with deep slash-type wounds on their bodies. In June, a youth tried to cane a community cat in Seng Kang.

Amidst the happy narrative of co-existence and peaceful habitation, why are there so many instances of violence and intolerance? Perhaps it is a reflection of a simmering resentment towards the ‘dirty’ and ‘uncontrollable’ Other, who has encroached into our supposedly man-made, sanitised human sanctuary. Remember too, that abuse of all kinds is so often an attempt at control and subordination.

It is telling that these acts of inhumanity and cruelty are often carried out and showcased in the public, urban space, in the only space where the cats have ever truly known and lived in. Not only are these acts of abuse a bizarre and gross attempt to reclaim control over the natural and untamed, it is also a spectacle of power, flamboyantly on display in the public sphere.

If, as noted by Robert Park at the beginning of this piece, the cityscape is a reflection and manifestation of our heart’s desire, I say that the way we treat our animals within this city is a reflection of our humanity.

Perhaps it is time to re-examine our relationship with community cats and take a long, stern gaze as to our place in the natural and built environment. Do we perceive ourselves as lofty gods, where the environment and all lives that exist within it are subject to our capricious whims and fancies? Or do we acknowledge our fundamental humanity, a humanity that is shaped not by control over subordinate animals, but of a powerful and peaceful co-existence with other humans and creatures of the world?

It is time to take a step back and reconsider our urban spaces from a different light, from a different pair of eyes. The city should not be mankind’s utopic project to serve his own human needs and wants. Rather, it should be a project to serve the needs of all inhabitants, to allow for the flourishing of all forms of life, regardless of species.

Stephanie is a Singapore-based socio-political commentator and rights advocate, whose interest lies in increasing access to justice and protection.

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The mornings start early in Phnom Penh, the food stalls open for business tucked into allocated spaces along the road as a flow of cyclists and pedestrians begin the journey to work along tree-shaded paths and plazas. 

As for the vehicles? They arrive in trickles, mostly transit buses, the occasional car and a handful of motorcycles. The dreaded rush hour wave never arrives. 

While an appealing vision of the future, this is clearly not the reality today in Phnom Penh, a city which approaches urban planning from a car-centric perspective. Driven by the global ascendancy of automobiles after World War II, the car-centric city model encourages urban sprawl along city fringes, larger roads carving up neighbourhoods, elevated expressways cutting through historic urban centres and vast deserts of parking lots. It is a model which emphasises vehicles first and people second.

After decades of global adoption, the true costs and fundamental fallacy of such a model are only recently being understood. Worldwide, relentless urban sprawl has led to increasing costs to city halls and greater inconvenience and cost to commuters, all while compounding severe environmental damages. Additionally, despite cities spending billions to build and enhance vehicle infrastructure, traffic congestion has only become worse in the most car-dependent cities. Larger roads only create more traffic demand – and thus attract even more traffic. Phnom Penh is no different, with rush hour each day bringing with it major arteries going in and out of the city clogged with traffic.

But a better future could become a reality, even in a city like Phnom Penh, if we were to choose to adopt a new urban planning model. A model that is pedestrian-centric, cyclist-friendly, and transit-orientated, leaving behind the issues of a car-centric model. This vision may sound like a dream invented by idealistic Cambodian architects and planners, but these ideas are in fact already being implemented in many major cities around the world. 

Removing and reducing roads will reduce traffic congestion

Leading the charge on re-envisioning what urban centres could look like are cities like Seoul and Madrid. Each formerly relied heavily on a car-centric approach, and have since moved away to pioneer more effective planning policies.

During South Korea’s economic rise of the 1980s, Seoul constructed multiple rounds of expressways cutting through its urban centre. By the beginning of the new millennium, these structures had become dilapidated and did little to alleviate Seoul’s ongoing problems with traffic congestion. 

Seoul took drastic measures in 2003 by removing a full section of congested elevated highway from its central district. The expressway’s demolition revealed the long buried Cheonggyecheon stream – the namesake of the project. 

Replacing the space once dominated by vehicles is a one hundred-acre, 5.8-kilometer urban park straddling the restored stream, flowing to the greater Han river. It is a lush and winding greenspace which has helped reduce heat in the immediate surrounding areas by 3.9 to 5.9 degrees celsius, has led to a reduction in air pollution by (35%), and has increased the area’s vegetation and marine biodiversity as well.

However, the most surprising benefits of this was a reduction in vehicle congestion in the city centre, and a marked increase in public transit ridership (15.1% for bus and 3.3% for subway respectively) for the central districts.

Additionally, the park’s accessibility increases connectivity between the formerly disconnected north and south districts, with the inclusion of bridges for pedestrians and vehicles. Bus transit lines were added to replace lost commute capacity, but the formerly sprawling ground-level driving lanes were greatly reduced to discourage personal vehicle usage, successfully reducing automobile trips around the central district areas.

Thus, paradoxically for Seoul, the solution to traffic issues was to minimise space and infrastructure which were exclusively reserved for cars. This counterintuitive approach exemplifies the new pedestrian-centric strategy for urban planning.

This same strategy could work in Phnom Penh as well.

If we were to restrict car lanes on Phnom Penh’s roads or remove whole road sections we might assume it would only lead to more gridlock. Yet, as suggested in the case study of Seoul, some evidence points to the potential for an opposite outcome.

To reduce traffic demand, Phnom Penh’s urban spaces should be designed to discourage car usage. The elimination or reduction of expressways and large driving lanes, strategic usage of one way roads, minimal placement of parking spots, and the conversion of vehicle roads to pedestrian thoroughfares can all discourage the over-reliance on personal cars.

Without all these personal vehicles taking up space, unused road spaces could be converted and redesignated for other purposes like sheltered bus stops, bike lanes, stall stands, trees for shading and wider, safer pavements. 

These improvements not only benefit pedestrians and cyclists, but motorists as well. Often overlooked too is that this space saving makes it easier to include dedicated turning lanes for cars at intersections, where extra space for cars is actually critical. Thus, improving the turnaround rate of intersections in turn improves the overall flow of the street, while also making it far more lively, attractive and safe for other commuters and pedestrians. 

Neighbourhood as mixed-use blocks

Traffic congestion isn’t the only negative impact of car-centric urban design. Phnom Penh suffers from fractured neighbourhoods split apart by poor road placement and increasing amounts of space devoted to vehicle infrastructure. This issue is compounded by urban sprawl which has increased distance from home, work, leisure, health, and daily grocery, etc for the city’s commuters. 

Madrid has remedied these issues by evolving around an urban planning principle called the Compact City. It seeks to reduce the need, frequency and length of private vehicle travel by placing all daily essential services within walking or biking distance to all users. It achieves this by developing mixed use city blocks containing residences, grocers, day care, and clustering such blocks around transit stations which will be used by locals for longer commutes.

Madrid has taken a step further by designating carless super blocks – a cluster of several city blocks closed to any vehicle traffic along its inner streets, vehicles only allowed to use its periphery streets to allow for basic freight and waste services. 

These formerly congested intersections were converted to lively plazas, greatly improving the walkability of neighbourhoods and providing locals with public leisure spaces at their doorstep. Meanwhile, small shops and businesses also gained sales because of the neighborhood’s improved attractiveness and ease of commute.

Walking and biking can be facilitated by having back alleys converted to green corridors and pocket gardens creating a secondary system of pathways only used by pedestrians and cyclists

Phnom Penh’s existing street layout and city blocks are well-suited for the urban design changes implemented by Madrid. 

A limited pilot super block scheme in Phnom Penh’s older districts with one way shared streets, and partial vehicle bans during certain times per day, could revitalise neighbourhoods and serve as an example to convince other parts of the city to adopt the same scheme. 

In addition to converting quiet streets to pedestrian-only thoroughfares, walking and biking can be facilitated by having back alleys converted to green corridors and pocket gardens creating a secondary system of pathways only used by pedestrians and cyclists. 

Additionally, to facilitate the growth of mixed use blocks urban planners must formulate zoning codes which encourage a diversity of residences, services and leisure activities within self-contained neighbourhoods.

Before it is too late

Some cities around the world are moving away from automobile-centric models to models focused on pedestrians, cyclists and public transit; and it’s clear that the sooner cities do so the better. The earlier example of Seoul also proves how difficult and expensive it is to remove already built infrastructure from the middle of the city. 

The opposite is true for a city which has yet to build excessive automobile-centric infrastructure, and therefore can more cost effectively adopt a pedestrian centric model. Phnom Penh still just falls into that category and we should capitalise on that fact before it is too late.

The impact of a smaller, denser and cleaner city are obvious. Should Phnom Penh follow these concepts, the impact will be enjoyed by citizens living more convenient, fulfilling and healthy lives, by metropolitan governments experiencing an ease of spending, and most importantly the environment, which will no longer be maligned by urban sprawl.

By reducing spaces for cars in Phnom Penh, it inevitably leads to a fundamental shift in how we design and use urban spaces, a shift which favours the owners of the city. Phnom Penh should be a city designed for humans, not cars.

Aronsakda Ses is a young research fellow at Future Forum interested in everything related to cities and urban design. He trained as an architect in Thailand and is conducting research on Phnom Penh’s urban planning.

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