Naga City, known as the “Queen City of Bicol” owing to its central location in the Bicol peninsula, aims to become a pedestrian-friendly destination, giving an accessible network to the city’s historical landmarks.
The city is the region’s business, trade, religious and commercial center. With urbanization, however, the city has busy streets with regular traffic and pollution, yet less provision for pedestrian mobility and cycling environments.
Thus, the City Government of Naga aims to implement an urban renewal project at the Central Business District 1, or “Centro” to help the approximately 50,000 residents, who are within a 10-minute walking distance, as well as an estimated 5,500 commuters who traverse the Centro daily. It envisions to provide a pedestrian-friendly destination with safe, accessible, and walkable sidewalks, and dedicated bike lanes to promote non-motorized, thus activating better street experience for pedestrians and bikers.
Moreover, the site traverses from General Luna Street to Barlin Street leading to Porto Mariea, one of the city’s historical landmarks. The pedestrianization project aims to support the Ciudad de Nueva Caceres Heritage District owing to its local heritage by connecting important landmarks and highlighting the rich architecture at the heart of the Centro.
More importantly, the project enhances the ecological environments by providing pervious surfaces to improve stormwater quality and adding local and endemic plant species to regulate the urban microclimate and promote local biodiversity and ecosystem-based adaptation.
With this, the Centro Naga Pedestrianization project advocates a culture of walking by improving the current conditions of existing sidewalks and becoming a model in redesigning pedestrian-friendly streetscapes.
