Vectio Traffic & Transport Planning has been awarded the contract to carry out the preliminary study of acoustic impact solutions, the barrier effect and the enhancement of collective surface public transport, on the A5 between PP.KK 3 + 000 and 8 + 500 in response to the General Directorate of Public Space, Works and Infrastructure of the City of Madrid.
The project has been developed in several phases of field work, the first phase corresponds to an exhaustive analysis of the geometric characteristics of each section in the corridor and a campaign of pedestrian and vehicular gaits with radar technology and artificial vision as well as a campaign of Pedestrian interception surveys, public and residential transportation users in the Latina district.
The totality of field works carried out led to the design of a series of solutions by Vectio, concretized in three proposals under the premises of the urban model TOD (Transport Oriented Developemnt).
According to City and County of Denver (2006) “TOD is more than just development close to public transport. A successful TOD is capable of creating beautiful neighborhoods, full of activity and walkable by pedestrians; provides housing, commerce and the possibility of choosing between different modes of transport; it generates lasting value for citizens and for public and private agents; and it facilitates access to workplaces in the region, administrative or governmental centers, health facilities and cultural or leisure destinations.”
From Vectio there are three proposals to transform the corridor into an urban environment in which the barrier effect is eliminated, pedestrian permeability is encouraged on both sides of the corridor and the use of public transport and non-motorized means is favored:
- Proposal 1: Tunnel-Bus-VAO-Ciclovía, includes a central cycle lane as well as cycle lanes on both sides of the road, shared high occupancy lane for interurban bus and a tunnel for trips whose origin or destination are outside the corridor.
- Proposal 2: Trinchera -Bus Vao, includes four lanes at different levels for passing traffic and one lane per direction on the surface for private vehicles and urban buses.
- Proposal 3 surface: includes a lane of high occupancy vehicles and urban bus as well as bike lanes on both sides of the road.
The challenge to which Vectio faces given the three solutions is to manage to integrate the offer of public and non-motorized transport efficiently and by means of a modal transference to obtain a transformation in the character of the corridor.
In order to make a final decision, an evaluation of the effects of each proposal has been made available to the competent authority (modal transfer to public transport, environmental effects, capacity restrictions, impact on the barrier effect, etc.). as an action plan in which it will be necessary to resize the public transport network as well as the urban planning strategy in the environment to transform the corridor into a pleasant urban environment.