In 2022, we saw our actions over the year have a cascading effect and seen many things fall into place. It’s been a year of scaling up our work at the city, state, and national levels; experimenting with new tools—illustrations, games, and even skits; experimenting with new tools—illustrations, games, and even skits; strengthening relationships with multiple new partners!
Here’s a look at our top 10 wins for 2022:
01 | Launched a Healthy Cities Leaderboard to track the progress of cities through the India Cycles4Change, Streets4People, and Transport4All Challenges!
We launched a Healthy Cities Leaderboard to track the progress of participating cities towards the goals set through the three national Challenges. We hope to see them learn from and be inspired by each other’s progress and speed ahead towards transforming their cities.
Here are some highlights from the leaderboard:
• 32 cities formed the HS Apex Committee
• 14 cities formed the Healthy Streets Cell
• 49 cities hosted open street campaigns
• 51 cities are implementing walking and cycling infrastructure
02 | Trained over 800 officials through 35 workshops, including 2 national workshops
Through the three national Challenges, we trained over 800 officials from over 40 cities to create Healthy Streets and improve their public transport systems. We developed a range of resources for the cities; you can find the entire repository here.
We conducted two national Healthy Streets workshops—in Bengaluru and Chandigarh—to bring together officials from all the cities participating in the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges, to build their capacity on various topics, and to create a space for active peer-to-peer learning.
03 | Created an illustrated Healthy Streets Vision: Translated into 10+ languages, Adopted by 9 cities
We need to redefine the relationship between our streets and people to ensure that everyone—regardless of age, gender, or physical ability—can move safely and comfortably and breathe clean air. We unveiled the Healthy Streets Vision to inspire cities to transform our streets into healthy and happy spaces for people.
The Vision illustrates 10 things that make Healthy Streets. The vision is now translated into more than ten languages and adopted by 9 Indian cities!
04 | Experimented with new ways of communications: Designed a game and a skit on sustainable mobility!
Over the year, we experimented with new ways of communicating to engage with city officials and get them to interact with each other in new and interesting ways. We thank them for keeping an open mind and supporting these efforts.
We developed a game and a skit for city officials and tested it at a national Healthy Streets workshop attended by over 130 city officials. It was great to see their enthusiastic response and engaged participation!
Many of us in the ITDP India team are huge fans of games. We think they work well to get us to think strategically in creative ways and have fun along the way. So, when we started thinking of interactive ways of training city officials to create action plans for Healthy Streets in their cities, a game seemed obvious! We developed the Healthy Streets Action Plan game as a fun and participative way for city leaders to engage with the process.
We look forward to building on the game in 2023!
To effectively convey the nuances of multi-stakeholder campaigns like the Cycle2Work campaign we tested with cities, our team wrote and performed a skit—the first of its kind in a national workshop—to take the audience through the various steps involved in rolling out such a campaign.
05 | Supported PMPML in adopting an ambitious 5-year vision for buses
On April 18th, PMPML launched Vision 2027 on Pune’s Bus Day 2022.
By 2027, PMPML—the bus operator for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad—aims to provide sustainable urban mobility by making buses available near everyone to transform them into congestion and pollution-free cities.
The vision aims for three things:
• More and Greener Buses
• Faster, Reliable, and Affordable Services
• Safe Access to Public Transport
06 | Developed and tested a Street Assessment Framework in Pune to be scaled up to cities across the country
We collaborated with the Pune Municipal Corporation to test the framework to assess their streets and identify areas in need of urgent improvement. The city launched the Walking and Cycle Analysis Report on 11th December, on Pune Pedestrians’ Day!
The framework helps cities measure the impact of street design projects on four principles:
- Ease of movement
- Safety
- Universal Accessibility
- Liveability
07 | Launched 3 reports on the status of e-mobility in India with ASRTU
We partnered with the Association for Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) to launch three reports on the status of e-mobility in India. The reports aim to show emerging e-bus technology, electric informal public transport, and electric micro-mobility.
We look forward to working with ASRTU to build the capacity of State Transport Undertakings (STUs) across the country.
08 | Developed state- and city-level recommendations for electric 3-wheelers in Tamil Nadu: Informed by surveys in 6 cities
To understand the gaps and barriers to electrification from the perspective of the 3-wheeler drivers, ITDP India conducted in-depth surveys of autorickshaw drivers in six cities and focus group discussions in three cities across Tamil Nadu. More than 2,600 autorickshaw drivers were interviewed, providing valuable insights into three-wheeler operations and the bottlenecks to transitioning to electric vehicles (EV).
Informed by the findings from the surveys and discussions, ITDP India prepared a report on the electrification of 3-wheelers in Tamil Nadu, which included state-level recommendations to help overcome challenges related to EV adoption. We shared the recommendations with Guidance Tamil Nadu, an investment promotion agency under the State Industries Department, to inform the ongoing revision of the state EV Policy.
We also developed a detailed roadmap for the electrification of three-wheelers for Chennai. The roadmap identifies specific action points for the city to help overcome challenges related to adopting electric three-wheelers. We look forward to working with the city to accelerate the transition to electric mobility.
09 | Signed MoUs with 10 new partners
2022 was a great year for partnerships. We signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with national-level agencies such as the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) and Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) to support them on improving public and private bus operations at the national, state, and city levels, and with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to support cities across the country in implementing sustainable, equitable, and inclusive urban mobility.
We also signed MoUs with multiple city agencies, including the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the Surat Municipal Corporation, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation & Nagpur Smart & Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd., and the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd.
In collaboration with the Council for Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) and Sandeep Gandhi Architects (SGA), we will be working to accelerate the electrification of public and private sector buses.
We look forward to working with our partners to scale up transformation across the country.
10 | Supported the operationalising of CUMTA to transform Chennai’s transport systems
Bringing all key agencies and stakeholders related to mobility under a single roof, the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) will ensure seamless integration and implementation of all transport projects in Chennai. In 2022, CUMTA set up four sub-committees to focus on specific areas: multi-model integration, road safety, digital integration, and mobility resilience.
As a knowledge partner to CUMTA, we are supporting them in the activities of the sub-committees, identifying gaps in the status quo, strategising priority actions for improvement, and building capacity. In the first Authority Meeting chaired by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, two priority areas were identified: Common Ticketing System for Public Transport and Safe Commute for Students.
We look forward to supporting CUMTA towards the vision of a safe, smart and sustainable transportation system in Chennai.
We take this moment to acknowledge the contributions of our many partners, who make our work and wins possible. Our deepest gratitude to our funders for supporting our work. Our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and Government officials—at the national, state, and city levels—for collaborating with us to create a walking, cycling, and public transport transformation in India. We’d also like to thank the sustainable transport community—NGOs, consultants, mobility experts, academic institutes, CSOs, and individuals—who make things happen on-ground.
In 2022, the ITDP India team also expanded and grew stronger, united in our mission to create Healthy Streets, Healthy Cities and Happy Lives.
We look forward to seeing where 2023 takes us!
Written by Varsha Jeyapandi
Edited by Keshav Suryanarayanan
