ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

All Aboard the Sustrans Bandwagon: The Urbanlogue Journey

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When COVID-19 started to take over the world, little did one imagine an entire planet would come to a grinding halt to contain the virus. Public transport services were affected worldwide, motorists no longer on the streets, people began to move differently, both within the confines of their house and outside of it. The crisis gave birth to an opportunity, and as people embraced walking and cycling again, and realised the important role played by public transport, ITDP India Programme launched the Urbanlogue Series 2, to shape and influence a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive recovery for the country from COVID-19.

What is Urbanlogue?

Over the last 20 years, the ITDP India Programme has been working to transform urban transport systems across the country with improvements in walking, cycling, and public transport infrastructure. This gradual change has been facilitated by inspired political leadership, innovative city officials, and active participation and support from citizens and civil society organisations. 

With the primary objective to scale up this transformation to the whole country, the ITDP India Programme launched the Urbanlogue Capacity Development Programme. The focus of the programme has been on offering knowledge to help officials expand their horizons from the perspective of sustainable mobility. We’ve been actively working towards capacity development and holding training workshops for officials from numerous corporations and planning committees. Over the last decade, the ITDP India Programme has trained over 3000 government officials, engineers, stakeholders, and practitioners in over 50 workshops and over 20 study tours. 

In 2019, we decided to take Urbanlogue digital with the first Urbanlogue webinar series launched in July comprising eight episodes focussed on creating a roadmap to sustainable mobility for India. Urbanlogue Webinars – Series One received great support, reaching an audience of nearly 2500 public officials, professionals, students, and urban enthusiasts across the country. 

The webinars included experts from the ITDP India Programme and other governmental and civil society organisations. Some of them included Shreya Gadepalli, South Asia Programme Lead of ITDP India Programme, Rutul Joshi from CEPT University, Abhijit Lokre, co-founder of The Urban Lab, Sanskriti Menon from the Centre for Environment Education, and Raj Cherubal of the Chennai Smart City Limited, among others. 

COVID-19 and Urbanlogue 

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought our cities to a grinding halt. As countries around the world introduced lockdowns, streets turned empty, cars disappeared, public transport systems shut down, and people were forced to stay home. The crisis is not just a health crisis, but an economic crisis as well. It is crucial to ensure a green, equitable, and inclusive recovery as cities look to bounce back from the pandemic’s impact. In order to shape India’s green recovery for the transport sector, the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Urbanlogue Webinars – Series Two in partnership with the ITDP India Programme. The Transport & ICT Group of the World Bank and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) were knowledge partners on this series. 

In its second avatar, the six episode-series saw over 5500 registrations from 180 Indian and international cities. While city officials were the primary target audience, the series also witnessed widespread participation from consultants, researchers, students, members of civil society organisations, foundations, and financial institutions. 

In order to spur the conversations around green recovery and suggest the best practices for travel in a post-COVID era, the webinars covered topics ranging from COVID-safe transport solutions and the need for street interventions to expand space for cycling and walking, to digital innovations for formal and informal public transport. The series brought together a host of experts from the governmental and non-governmental spheres for the webinar, including Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA, Gerald Ollivier, Lead Transport Specialist at the World Bank, Peter Broytman of the Senate Department of Environment, Transport, and Climate Protection in Berlin, Swati Khanna, Senior Sector Specialist, Urban Development and Mobility at KfW, and Mohammed Mezghani, Secretary-General of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), among others.

Building on the immense success of the webinars and the massive response from a diverse audience, the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and to initiate the on-ground transformation for a green recovery, the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA launched two national initiatives—the India Cycles4Change Challenge and the Streets for People Challenge—to improve cycling and walking across the country. The ITDP India Programme is the knowledge partner for the Smart Cities Mission to conduct the two Challenges. 

Urbanlogue Podcasts: Taking the next step

Over the two webinar series, Urbanlogue has featured more than 45 sustainable transport experts. Building on these conversations, the ITDP India Programme launched the most recent addition to the Urbanlogue programme—the Urbanlogue Podcast—in August 2020 to take the digital dialogue forward. Keeping the focus on actionable knowledge intact, the podcast is aimed at inspiring action to address the various challenges to the development of sustainable transport initiatives across the country. The podcast is the next step to reach new and diverse audiences in the Urbanlogue journey of transforming our cities for a more sustainable future. 

Written by Avishek Jha

Edited by Keshav Suryanarayanan

ITDP India Programme: A Decade of Impact

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Infographic Blog

“All urban residents of Indian cities should have access to jobs, education, and recreation through means of mobility that are safe, affordable, resource-efficient, environment-friendly, and accessible to all.”

Over the last 20 years, the ITDP India Programme has worked with nearly 40 cities across the country to make this vision a reality, impacting the lives of millions. 

We celebrate the completion of a glorious decade of work, and welcome a new one with renewed excitement and anticipation of the possibilities ahead. 

Designed by Keshav Suryanarayanan

Conceptualised by Aishwarya Soni, Keshav Suryanarayanan

Tamil Nadu takes big steps in pursuit of liveable and sustainable cities

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Over the past two decades, cities of Tamil Nadu have seen a rapid increase in personal motor vehicles. This has been, in large part, due to the lack of investment in creating quality infrastructure for walking, cycling, and public transport, along with little or no regulation of motor vehicle parking.

Streets are getting more congested with every passing day and air is turning unbreathable. Road crashes and fatalities are at an all-time high; Tamil Nadu is at the top of the list in India. But now, a small revolution seems to be on the anvil: a state-led programme that aims to transform urban roads into ‘Complete Streets’ in cities across the state.

Earlier this year, the Tamil Nadu Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA), with technical assistance from ITDP India Programme, initiated the Transforming Tamil Nadu project. ITDP began working with ten of the state’s most populous cities other than Chennai—Coimbatore, Erode, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tiruppur, Trichy, and Vellore —to create Complete Streets master plans.

Based on this, the state has now announced its intentions to raise financing of the order of Rs 20,000 crore to redevelop 1,700 km of urban streets to improve safety, accessibility, and liveability for all road users.

Why complete streets make cities smart

As of 2018, Tamil Nadu has around 25 million registered motorised vehicles and are growing annually at 2.5%, surpassing the state’s population growth. While personal motor vehicles—two-wheeled as well as four-wheeled—account for approximately 90% of the total vehicle fleet, they serve only 28% of the daily trips made by people of Tamil Nadu. In contrast, 67% of all trips are made on foot, cycle, and public transport—modes of transport that efficiently use limited street space and are environment-friendly. Yet, thus far, transport planning and the design of streets has been unfriendly to these modes.

Here is where concepts such as Complete Streets help cities meet these sustainable development expectations. Not only do they support sustainable transport modes such as walking and cycling, but the design standards also lay emphasis on equal access to streets—regardless of their age, gender, ability, or mode of transportation.

The main components of Complete Streets are the wide and continuous footpaths, safe pedestrian crossings, separate cycle tracks (where applicable), bus stops designed to enhance convenience, designated on-street parking, organised street vending, and properly-scaled carriageways.

These streets are designed to offer the best of convenience and comfort based on local needs and offer spaces for relaxation, recreation, and interaction. And in the process, ensuring safety through equitable allocation of space for all users, keeping emission levels at a check, and promoting sustainable means of transport among the community.

Getting things started on the ground

In April 2018, the ITDP India Programme, in association with GIZ Smart-SUT, conducted a state-level workshop on ‘Designing streets for walking and cycling’ on behalf of the CMA. Commissioners and senior municipal staff from all ten cities learnt about the need for Complete Streets and the way to plan and implement them.

Realising the transformative potential of Complete Streets, the CMA launched the Transforming Tamil Nadu project. The cities were commissioned to engage with ITDP India Programme to identify, map, plan, and implement city-wide networks of Complete Streets that prioritise walking, cycling, and access to public transport.

Over a period of nine months, the India Programme held ten workshops that saw participation by over 300 officials.

These workshops helped facilitate a joint discussion between various stakeholders—corporation engineers, Traffic Police, Highways Department, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL),Tamil Nadu Water Supply And Drainage Board (TWAD), as well as civil society organisations—to work together to develop a joint vision for their city’s future.

Each of these interactions began with sensitising the officials, as most were naturally inclined to believe that motor vehicles dominated the paradigm of urban planning. They were presented with statistics that represented the present conditions. One such tidbit: a third of all trips in Tamil Nadu are made on foot! But how many footpaths are designed to cater to pedestrians or how many streets even have footpaths for that matter?!

This dialogue left a resounding impact on the audience.

Once the foundation to the concept was laid, officials were engaged in a participative mapping exercise to identify streets for redevelopment. This exercise allowed various authorities to work in collaboration, and deliberate upon conceptual walking and cycling network plans for their respective city. The data that came about, by means of this participatory session, was processed into GIS maps and analysed to understand block estimates about the streets available for transformation and tentative project budget.

As a result of this mapping exercise, officials from these then cities identified a network of 1,700 km of streets that could be transformed into sustainable, liveable spaces!

How things are shaping up

“Over the past two years, we’ve spent over Rs 20,000 crore in providing basic infrastructure with projects worth Rs 50,000 crore in the pipeline. In addition to that we require about Rs 20,000 crore for development of Smart Roads, which we are seeking from development banks,” said the state minister for Municipal Affairs and Water Supply (MAWS) and Implementation for Special Projects, Thiru SP Velumani, at a workshop held on 21 December 2018.

The workshop, conducted in partnership with Asian Development Bank, aimed to sensitise officials from urban local bodies on the Governance Improvement and Awareness Component (GIAC) of the Tamil Nadu Urban Flagship Investment Program (TNUFIP).

ITDP India Programme’s work with these ten cities helped in identifying a draft network of 1,700 km of city streets to be redeveloped into Complete Streets. Given the potential of this initiative, the Tamil Nadu government is reaching out to prospective funders. To set precedent, ITDP India Programme will work with GIZ Smart-SUT to create detailed city-wide plans for walking and cycling in three pilot cities which will then be scaled to the other cities.

As stressed upon by the CMA, during this workshop, these streets will have to be redesigned as per complete street design standards for underground utility and surface design, to gage a lasting impact on the liveability of the city.

As it is said, action speaks louder than words and Tamil Nadu’s action details its aspiration to become the walking and cycling capital of India. This giant leap by the state to create high-quality city-wide networks of Complete Streets for its citizens is commendable!

Written by Rohit James

Edited by Kashmira Medhora Dubash

Capacity Development Shapes Tamil Nadu Towns for Urban Tomorrow

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Tamil Nadu is urbanising and based on recent trends, the state is expected to be the most urbanised by 2030. With 11 Tamil Nadu cities being part of the Smart City Mission, it reflects the aspiration and potential that smaller townships hold to become urban centres. This is where capacity building and development exercises help bridge their aspirations with realistic and sustainable solutions.

At this point, many municipalities are growing faster than their projected trajectory, which has begun disrupting the established planning layout. To counter this spurt of growth, municipal officials on most occasions resort to quick fixes or knee-jerk solutions which in the future can further accelerate their woes.  

Taking notice of this worrying development, the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA), in partnership with the Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies (TNIUS) and the ITDP India Programme, commissioned the capacity building programme on urban planning. The program was structured to help prepare town planners and panchayat officials to create streets and public spaces which meet the standards of upcoming smart cities.

Shifting from streets for vehicles, to streets for all

In the midst of modernisation, a key component of civic planning that is often overlooked is equitable street design. To help towns and municipalities reimagine and structure streets, beyond just accommodating the rampant vehicle population, the India Programme was brought on board to share its expertise in creating complete streets which adhere to every road users need.

As part of the course, the India Programme designed and conducted capacity development sessions for over 240 town planners from about 100 municipalities that was spread across three months.

 

In absence of such interventions, town planners tend to sway to the tune of vehicle-centric planning; this at the expense of safe footpaths and cycling facilities. While carriageways only get broader and footpaths narrower! Hence, such developmental workshops help officials realise the need for equality and accessibility while laying out streets. Emphasis was put on creating and improving infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists—who account as the primary occupants of Indian urban roads.

Making sense of Complete Streets

‘What are Complete Streets?’ When asked to express their understanding of the concept, the responses from officials varied from ‘streets that are planned for better vehicular passage’ to it being ‘foreign/alien’ to them.

So, what are Complete Streets?

Complete Streets are street layouts that cater to all user groups—regardless of their age, gender, ability, or mode of transportation. They are designed with wide and continuous footpaths, safe pedestrian crossings, separate cycle tracks (where applicable), bus stops designed to enhance convenience, designated on-street parking, organised street vending, and properly-scaled carriageways. These streets are designed to offer the best of convenience and comfort based on local needs and offer spaces for relaxation, play, and interaction.

Understanding the essence of Complete Streets

Since motor vehicles have been dominating every square inch of our urban infrastructure and design plans, the sessions began with a bit of a reality check. Participants, including town planning inspectors, executive officers, and town planning officers, were introduced to general facts such as modal share, infrastructure inadequacies, misconceptions regarding road infrastructure planning, etc.

This turned out to be an important step in the process, as it helped expose the misbelief that motor vehicles transport more people than any other transportation mode. Walking and cycling accounts for 40-50% of the total modal share, and just a quarter of urban trips are on personal motor vehicles.

 

To further quash the fallacy, officials were shown multiple images of vehicle-centric design plans which were riddled with flaws—unusable or absent footpaths, rampant on-street parking encroachments, haphazard pedestrian crossings, etc. On realising the potential threat such single-pronged plan would generate, more officials realised why streets need to designed for all users than just vehicles.

Providing the tools for change

Understanding the flaw is just one part of the solution, the next step required acceptance and gumption to resolve it. Hence, the following session looked to tackle the incessant argument claiming, ‘Our town streets aren’t like cities, they are too small to adopt such measures.’

By sensitising officials to multiple examples of Indian streets, each reclaimed and refurbished according to best practices, many of the skeptics were won over by the effectiveness of the Complete Street programme. For example, the redesign of JM Road and DP Road in Pune; which has been lauded across the country, even winning the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Award and the Volvo Mobility Award 2017.

Further on, the basic components of Complete Streets were broken down and each element was interactively explained to officials.

To further enable their understanding of the concept, ITDP’s resources—such as Footpath Fix and Footpath Design for designing and constructing standardised footpaths and Parking Basics and Park it Right for creating means for a parking management system—were discussed and later shared with the participants for further reference.  

At the pace towns are developing in Tamil Nadu, 2030 does not seem like a distant future. Therefore, such capacity development sessions go a long way to instil concepts of sustainable and equitable mobility culture right at the grassroot levels. In essence, preparing these townships to meet their aspirations and ensure it is done for the people and not vehicles.

Written by Rohit James

Edited by Kashmira Medhora Dubash

Tamil Nadu to plan a clean, green and healthy way of moving its people: 10 cities take the lead

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Tamil Nadu is at the cusp of turning into the most urbanised State in India. With over 48 percent of its population living in urban areas, the cities of Tamil Nadu recognise the need to provide a clean, green, and healthy way of moving it’s citizens—walking and cycling.

To set the wheel in motion, ITDP India programme in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA) and GIZ Smart-SUT organised a day long workshop on ‘Designing streets for walking and cycling’.

The dearth of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure undermines our basic civil right. But, undeniably people of Tamil Nadu rely heavily on commute by foot; more than a third of all trips are made on foot!

Cities of Tamil Nadu now have a second chance at reclaiming space for its primary users—pedestrians and cyclists. The workshop paved way for the Transforming Tamil Nadu: Creating walking and cycling-friendly cities programme that aims to transform urban cores to liveable, safe cities.

The Programme brings together 10 Tamil Nadu cities — Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli, Thoothukudi and Erode — selected under the National Smart Cities Mission. These cities have been allocated approximately 2500 crores towards the transformation of 500 km of streets, in total.

The 10 cities will be assisted by  ITDP India programme, over a nine month period, to identify, plan, and implement city-wide walking and cycling networks. Of these 10 cities, three will be identified and assisted in creating detailed network plans by ITDP India programmed in collaboration with GIZ Smart-SUT. These network plans aim to boost economy, promote healthy living, and reduce the environmental impacts of our transport choices. In a nation where cars are a status symbol, it is commendable for these cities to envision an  increase in the use of cycles and the ease of walking.

The Programme, that is now commissioned by the CMA is attributed to the efforts of sensitising and inspiring city officials over the last two years. Coimbatore, with support from ITDP India programme,  kick-started the sustrans crusade by evangelising the Greenways and Lake Restoration Project, which includes a 30 km network of exclusive walking and cycling infrastructure connecting eight water bodies across the city. The city’s vision has had a bandwagon effect across the State.

The 10 cities have also been inspired by the seamless design and execution of Pune’s Complete Streets. ITDP India programme, with the support of the State Government, organised study tours for over 50 Commissioners, Engineers, and Project Management Consultants to explore Pune’s work on-ground that has set world-class street design standards in India.

TN delegates assessing the public bicycle sharing system on a site visit to Pune

As cities were already sensitised to embrace the walking and cycling paradigm shift, the participants—Commissioners, Engineers, and Project Management Consultants—were extremely receptive of catalysing change.   

During the workshop, presentations by Shreya Gadepalli, South Asia Programme Lead (ITDP), and Aswathy Dilip, Senior Programme Manager (ITDP India programme) struck a chord among participants to ensure that our cities put people before cars. In effect, all citizens should be able to walk and cycle safely, and easily access jobs and services via quality public transit.

Shreya Gadepalli, South Asia Programme Lead (ITDP), presenting on sustainable urban transport

Jan Rickmeyer, Transport Policy Advisor for GIZ Eschborn, presented case studies from Leipzig to demonstrate how cities can transform into cycling utopias. Similarly, Juergen Baumann of C40 Cities Finance Facility, presented Bogota’s story of designing 25 km of cycle highway through low, middle, and high income neighbourhoods to ensure socially inclusivity.

At the workshop, peer-to-peer learning, through group exercises, was organised by ITDP India programme and GIZ to ensure that cities were equipped with the right skill-set to translate their learnings into implementation projects. Mapping existing transport opportunities and constraints of the city has helped  determine the selection of streets that will be redesigned and transformed into walking and cycling networks.

Groups mapping existing transport constraints to identify potential walking and cycling networks

Transformation through design is the underlining key to success. In this regard, the Commissioner of Municipal Administration requested cities to adopt the model Request for Proposal (RFP): Appointment of a Technical Consultant for Planning, Re-designing and Monitoring of Smart Roads Development, prepared with the support from ITDP India programme, to appoint qualified designers to execute these network plans.

The Transforming Tamil Nadu: Creating walking and cycling-friendly cities programme that is now set in motion owing to the success of this workshop, will see through 10 smart cities wherein walking and cycling will form the backbone of their transport system.  ITDP South India team will collaborate with these cities to make their dream a reality.

Walking is a basic human instinct, and cycling is a healthy and sustainable choice. They are unparalleled forms of transport. With clear vision and direction from the State, the cities of Tamil Nadu are on a resolute path to embrace a future where cities are designed to be enjoyed on foot or by pedal.

Watch this space as we embark on a journey to assist 10 cities of Tamil Nadu transform into people-oriented cities.