Prospects of Urban Design in Commercial Areas:A Case Study in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Due to present day significant increase in population and consequently in traffic congestion in most of the metropolitan cities in India, designing of streets in order to maintain active traffic flow, parking of vehicles and the safety of cyclist and pedestrian has become important aspects for consideration. This paper addresses various problems faced by pedestrians, cyclists as well as motorists in the concerned area due to improper and ineffective designs of carriage way, footpaths and even the lighting and storm water drainage facilities in the streets. This paper presents the proposed design of the concerned area, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It covers the design of every aspect of street starting from carriage way to pedestrian friendly footpaths, street furniture, street lighting, table top crossings as well as the storm water drainage facilities. Various studies of topography, traffic volume, pedestrian and cyclist count, right of way overlay, parking were carried out multiple times in order to conclude the proposed design.