Expertise and interests in the domain of urban science
1. Urban planning: sustainable cities and transport
Analysing the sustainability performance of planning policies (Adhvaryu, 2010)
Examples of planning policies are combinations of alternative land use policies (eg, compact, dispersed, edge expansion, new settlements, etc) and alternative transport policies (eg, public transport improvements, highways investment, etc).
Modelling cities
Developing simplified mathematical models of land use and transport interaction (LUTI) (Adhvaryu & Echenique, 2012): Such models can be used to analyse the performance of combinations of urban form and transport policies under economic, environmental, and social sustainability criteria.
Analysing the evolution of urban spatial structure (Adhvaryu, 2011b)
Enhancing development/master plan formulation using mathematical models (Adhvaryu, 2010)
Incorporating economic aspects into models of cities (Adhvaryu, 2010, Adhvaryu & Echenique, 2012): Incorporating economic aspects that strongly explain behaviour makes urban models more representative of the reality (as against the pure planning/engineering tradition of dealing with only physical aspects of cities).
I am also interested in commercially developing simplified urban models, for which the potential market could be governments in small towns and cities (both in developed and developing countries), who, to begin with could invest in developing such models with minimal resources. Later on, if they wish, these could be easily updated as new data become available and easily upgraded if more resources become available, creating a long-term relationship with the clients.
Mapping public transport accessibility levels (Shah & Adhvaryu, 2016; Adhvaryu et al, 2019; Adhvaryu & Kumar, 2021; Adhvaryu & Mudhol, 2021)
Visualisation of public transport accessibility levels that can be used in various policy decisions such as TOD and land use regulations, parking, affordable housing, and multi-modal integration.
Investigating the relationship between energy use and urban environment and activity at both urban block and city levels
Examples of urban environments and activities are density, built form, travel patterns, and types of land use.
Urban design aspects of city form and street patterns
Investigating how, and if so to what extent, does physical design affect the way we make location and travel choices relating to housing, work, education, shopping, recreation, etc.
2. Urban transport infrastructure design
Exploring alternative designs of road sections for a variety of urban uses
Eg, residential, commercial, and mixed uses; accommodating transport infrastructure like bus-priority and busways, design of pedestrian-friendly and accessible streets, and accommodating non-transport uses such as hawking and vending; parking management
Exploring feasibility of bus-priority public transport systems in developing countries
My MTech (URP) thesis explored the feasibility of busways in Ahmedabad (1995). In 2019, I co-authored a book chapter on critically analysing the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transport System that started operations in 2006
(see, Swamy, HMS., Adhvaryu, B., Sinha, S. (2019)).
Planning and design of multi-modal transport hubs (for more see this article on MIEM students' studio work)
Accident analysis (for more see this article)
Design of accessible public transport infrastructure and developing criteria and methodology for evaluating transport infrastructure designs (Adhvaryu, 2006).
My MSc Transport dissertation (2003) addressed design of accessible public transport infrastructure. Brighton Bus Station was used as a case study, with emphasis on bus station design in constricted areas (eg, historic city centres). My interest here is to take up some unresolved issues for further research.
3. Advocacy for safe traffic
During my earlier tenure at CEPT (2001–04), I founded a voluntary agency called Safe Traffic Advocacy Group (STAG), which was involved in conducting several workshops, seminars, and public presentations for school children on traffic safety. I believe that traffic situation in our cities could be only improved using a three-pronged approach—the 3Es explained as follows: [1] Engineering: Developing confusion-free physical design of roads and junctions (including signals and signage) and adding new capacity and augmentations (if necessary) [2] Education: Developing awareness and sensitivity towards other road users and safe driving habits, and [3] Enforcement: Developing and updating traffic management plans, exercising greater vigilance by traffic police, stricter vehicle licensing, and ensuring road-worthiness of vehicles.