WG1 review of urban IA studies. Case DEBRECEN, HU Gábor Dombay, SZIE Ybl University

Sustainable Urban Traffic Development Plan of Debrecen 1. Scope of study Context of the Sustainable Urban Traffic Development Plan of Debrecen: the plan was developed by COWI Magyarország in 2007. 1 What are the questions which this Plan addresses? -

Which is the actual state of urban traffic in Debrecen? What are the major strategies to create sustainable urban traffic conditions?

What are the major characteristics odf Debrecen? -

The role of Debrecen: o Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of HajdúBihar county. o Very important role in Hungary in the field of economics, education, culture and healthcare. It is a major regional centre.

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Population growth o Between 1960-1990 the population increased by 70%. Presently the population is 204 thousand inhabitants. Presently there is a slight decline in population (see fig. 1.).

Fig 1. population growth in Debrecen (source: hu.wikipedia.org)

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COWI Magyarország Kft. (E. Badalay et al.): Sustainable Urban Traffic Development Plan of Debrecen. (In Hungarian) http://portal.debrecen.hu/upload/File/Egyeb/dmjvKozlekedesfejlesztesiTerve_2.pdf

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Structure of Debrecen o The area of Debrecen is 461.65 km2. o It is the centre of a traditional agricultural area. The city centre incorporates 13% of the population, also the administrative offices can be found here, creating a substantial traffic load. o 34% of the population live in concentrated residential areas (3 to 10 floor blocks of flats). o 29% live in the traditional village-like residential areas (garden suburbs). o New residential areas has been created in the outskirts.

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Transportation o Debrecen is a hub (road and rail). o The second largest airport of Hungary can be found here.

What is investigated? -

The transport infrastructure o Highway-road interactions, road structure, traffic control, parking, public transport, pedestrian and bicycle transport.

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Present situation o Traffic surveys (Fig .2.)

Fig. 2. Traffic loads.

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Parking surveys (Fig .3.) 2

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Fig. 3. Parking fluctuations

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Traffic safety, identification of critical locations (Fig. 4.)

Fig. 4. Locations of frequent accidents between 2002-2005.

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23.10

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04.00 1: 00 2: 2:0 00 0 3: 3:0 00 0 -4 4: :0 00 0 5: 5:0 00 0 6: 6:0 00 0 7: 7:0 00 0 -8 8: :0 00 0 9: -9: 00 00 10 -10 :0 :0 0 0 11 -11 :0 :0 0- 0 12 12 :0 :0 0 0 13 -13 :0 :0 0- 0 14 14 :0 :0 0 0 15 -15 :0 :0 0- 0 16 16 :0 :0 0 0 17 -17 :0 :0 0- 0 18 18 :0 :0 0 0 19 -19 :0 :0 0- 0 20 20 :0 :0 0 0 21 -21 :0 :0 0- 0 22 22 :0 :0 0 0 23 -23 :0 :0 0- 0 24 :0 0

felszálló utas/nap

o Public transport capacities (Fig. 5.)

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Fig. 5. Passenger histogram (red: trolleybus, yellow: tram, blue: bus) Commuters (Fig. 6.) Érkező utasok

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Fig. 6. No. of passengers arriving at Central Train Station

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2. Methodology a) Traffic modelling using CUBE-TRIPS software. The model comprises three major components: - areal model (Fig. 7.) - network model (road and public transport) (Fig. 8.) - traffic flow matrix. By the use of modelling different scenarios are evaluated.

Fig. 7. Areal model of Debrecen (A: city center, B: garden suburbs, C: residential areas, D: other)

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Fig. 8. The modeled traffic network of Debrecen b) SWOT analysis

STRENGTH

WEAKNESSES

• Debrecen is a regional center, a hub • international airport • generally good public transport network • ongoing centralization of traffic control • good air quality, less polluted city

• incomplete and overcharged traffic elements • deteriorating road coatings • inflexible traffic control • high rate of individual transport in relation to public transport • city center problems (parking) • low level bicycle infrastructure

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

• development of highways • EU resources for regional centers • tenders for infrastructure development • establishing the Regional Transport Association (increasing efficiency)

• increase of traffic due to central role • delay of highway developments • increasing individual transport • increasing environmental pollutions due to traffic • changing finance of public transport

3. Strategy for sustainable urban traffic development Goals: a) protection of the city centre b) traffic network with the lowest environmental impact c) encouraging environmental friendly ways of transport, inhibiting car traffic d) providing transport according to the function of the area e) improving the accessibility of commercial and industrial areas.

The strategy has detailed actions aiming to reach the aforementioned goals. A few examples: - Inhibiting the car traffic in the city centre by new parking zones (fig. 9.) and bus lanes (fig. 10.)

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Fig. 9. New parking zones in the city center.

Fig. 10. Giving priority to public transport over car traffic.

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Constructing roundabouts in major road crossings. Developing beltways for transit traffic. Encouraging the use of public transport by favourable timetables, pricing, P+R etc.

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