ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

A Marathon, Not a Sprint — Lessons from India’s Walking and Cycling Challenges

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As published in the Sustainable Transport Magazine

As we close the chapter on two of India’s landmark mobility initiatives, the India Cycles4Change (C4C) and Streets4People Challenges (S4P), there is much to celebrate from this transformative four-year journey. Four years is also the time it takes to prepare for the Olympics, and just as the world has witnessed the spirit of the 2024 Paris Summer Games, these efforts share many things in common. Just like Olympic athletes need consistent training and resources to shine on the global stage, Indian cities received continuous support and guidance to shine throughout these Challenges. With help from national and local experts, they built a network of partners, engaged with their community, and strengthened their capacity through open dialogue and collaboration, ensuring they had everything they needed to create safer and more accessible streets for all. 

In 2020, India’s Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and ITDP India collaboratively launched the India Cyles4Change and Streets4People Challenges with a vision to transform Indian cities with improved walking and cycling infrastructure. Many of India’s streets have become increasingly dangerous for the most vulnerable, with pedestrians accounting for 20% of road fatalities in 2022, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This is a staggering 32,800 lives lost. Also, India’s air pollution and quality ranks among the worst in the world. To combat this, we need more people to choose walking and cycling over private vehicles where possible. Cities must create a safer and more conducive environment for both new and existing pedestrians and cyclists for this shift to happen.  

However, at the onset of the two Challenges, the team began to realize that expecting quick on-ground transformation was fairly ambitious. While 117 cities signed up for the Challenges, they were all at different points in their journeys, with respect to their understanding of sustainable mobility, resources, infrastructure, geography, and institutional ecosystems. Even though this was a friendly and healthy competition, fairness would be compromised if the participants started from different points. Thus, the team went back to the drawing board and changed the rules of the game itself. It was no longer just about the scale of on-the-ground transformations; equally important would be promoting the dialogue around walking and cycling, improving community engagement, and building a stronger foundation for capacity building and institutional reform. Over the next few years, these programs became a marathon, rather than a sprint. 

The Streets4People Challenge reimagined city streets as places for civic engagement. Image: Smart Cities Mission / ITDP India


The government and ITDP India began by channeling the focus on three aspects that ensured our efforts were sustained throughout the four years. One, by creating an ecosystem of champions from city leaders to local communities for support; two, by encouraging cities to engage with citizens to get their buy-in at the onset; and three, by building their technical capacities at regular intervals in the most innovative way possible.  The true success of these Challenges came from lasting lessons that have set the cities on a course for change for years to come.

At the beginning of the Challenges, cities were required to pilot interventions locally and gather community feedback before making them permanent interventions. Many successfully implemented changes using tactical urbanism to test designs that could be adjusted based on how people engaged with spaces. For instance, the city of Kohima transformed an old parking lot into a vibrant community space for pedestrians and cyclists, featuring food vendors, pop-up seating, colorful artwork, and new landscaping. They also programmed street carnivals and engagement activities to activate the community within the space. Some cities that lacked such expertise connected with support from partners such as civil society organizations, design experts, resident groups, and cycling advocates. The success of these partnerships underscored the importance of creating local communities of champions as knowledgeable stakeholders who could guide cities through the design and implementation process, ensuring that efforts were both sustainable and impactful. 

While this was happening at the city-level, a burgeoning ecosystem was also taking shape at the national level with these Challenges. The commitment to promoting active mobility had full support from the national Ministry, driven by strong leadership that believed in the cause. It became evident that many city leaders were inspired to become champions after seeing the dedication of the Ministry. The national ecosystem was further strengthened by the collaboration with organizations  like ITDP India, which played a crucial role in providing technical expertise. This guaranteed that, while cities had the financial and national support to implement the Challenges, they could also benefit from strong technical guidance to ensure their concerns were addressed throughout the process.  

Of course, no best practice can be formed without citizen and  public engagement. Cities initially faced challenges in motivating their people, shifting perceptions, and breaking stereotypes  
around cycling and walking. Many residents did not view these as practical alternatives to personal vehicles and resistance to streetscape changes made progress challenging. However, as the  
programs progressed, engaging communities in decision-making was crucial to fostering a sense of ownership, leading to greater acceptance and behavior change. Take the city of Davanagere,  
for example. They ran a creative campaign that made cycling ‘cool’ again with themed merchandise, bike rallies, and citywide promotions. Local residents soon embraced cycling en masse,  
rallying behind the vision for safer, more sustainable mobility. That is the power of bringing people along for the ride.

The Cycles4Change Challenge encouraged cities to improve safe, connected cycling infrastructure. Image: Smart Cities Mission / ITDP India

Each city’s own growth remained at heart of this work, which is why building capacity was crucial for the success of these Challenges. Having the right support to build expertise and skillsets for cities was part of a winning strategy. Throughout the Challenges, ITDP India helped host 18 sessions for cities, including national Healthy Streets and Public Spaces workshops in cities like Bengaluru, Chandigarh, and Pimpri Chinchwad, and interactive design clinics for city leaders to receive input from experts. Over 85 toolkits and technical resources on planning, budgeting, and infrastructure were developed and disseminated during these workshops.

To make capacity building even more engaging, ITDP India also introduced an innovative game during these workshops. This fun and interactive approach helped city leaders learn how to  
develop a Healthy Streets Plan, map out a multi-year action plan, and identify key interventions in three crucial areas: action, foundation, and communication. This ‘gamification’ strategy  
helped the leaders immerse themselves in a hands-on learning experience, moving beyond traditional presentations to explore the complexities of sustainable mobility. 

By January 2024, 15 cities emerged as leaders, with many others making great strides in changing their streets. Across 33 cities, over 350 kilometers of improved footpaths and more than 220 kilometers of cycle tracks were developed, while 48 cities launched projects to revamp over 1,400 kilometers of streets. Plus, 15 cities adopted Healthy Streets Policies, 18 set up dedicated Healthy Streets groups, and 17 developed their three-year action plans. To top it off, 33 cities formed Apex Committees to keep the momentum going with future collaboration.

As we close the transformative chapter of the Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges, these initiatives have set the stage for long-term change nationwide. Success was not merely about achieving quick wins; it was about laying the groundwork for resilience by mainstreaming dialogues, building capacity, and fostering an ecosystem of walking and cycling champions.

Like coaches preparing a team for victory, the Ministry and ITDP India helped lay a solid foundation for scaling walking and cycling options across India. Now, it is important for the national government to capitalize on this momentum by allocating more budgets and strengthening policies and institutional reforms in favor of safe, equitable streets for everyone. Let the next  Challenge begin!  

Written by Kashmir Medhora Dubhash, Senior Programme Manager – Communications, Partnerships and Development

Technical inputs Smritika Srinivasan, Senior Associate – Urban Development

Learning from Play: Designing an Urban Street Design Game (Part 2) 

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For everyone who thinks managing urban transport is serious business, and not fun and games, we are back to say it can be both! 

A few months ago, we wrote a blog on how to design an urban transport game. In the blog, we captured our learnings of gamifying the process of developing long-term plans for Healthy Streets. We did this so others can learn from the process and build on it. Well, this is our way of giving back, having learned from and built upon the expertise and experience of many other organisations in this field.  

This is another such attempt to document our journey with a new game – Getting Your Street Design Right. In this blog, we elaborate on how we gamified the process of developing good street designs. 

This game was played on 31st May, 2024, with 70 engineers of Greater Chennai Corporation at an inter-departmental workshop. Here’s how it was developed.

Engineers from the Greater Chennai Corporation playing the game during the Inter-departmental workshop

Drawing Inspiration from Experts

In our quest to strategise the next game on getting street design right, we came across Global Designing Cities Initiative’s (GDCI) work. In 2023, GDCI hosted an interactive workshop with nearly 40 participants from Renca and Cerrillos (municipalities in Chile). During this workshop, city officials redesigned an intersection using puzzle pieces that represented key street sections such as bus lanes, cycle tracks, curb extensions for play, commerce, and pedestrian crossings. What a great idea! Inspired by their approach and drawing from our own experience, we started out designing our next game.

Crafting a Clear Intent

Having designed multiple games and hands-on exercises in the past, we knew that getting our intent right was key to designing this game. Street design is a vast subject, and with limited time, we had to focus on specific areas and key takeaways for the participants—the city engineers. Here’s what we wanted them to take away from the game:

  1. Grasp the basics of street design – Our participants were city engineers who were familiar with street design. However, they needed guidance on the right principles that would make their projects more impactful and long-lasting. Hence, we decided to focus on the basics, which could then be incorporated even in their ongoing projects for better impact.  
  2. Understand the reasoning behind the standards – Simply sharing information was not enough. Without understanding why certain street design standards are recommended, there’s always resistance to change. Hence it was necessary to establish the reasoning through the game, making it easier to grasp.
  3. Foster collaboration across departments – Different departments involved in street design have their own perspectives and processes. It was important to bring them together and get them to collaborate.  

In short, we designed the game to simplify street design while making it fun, insightful, and collaborative.  

Establishing Gaming Principles 

To understand the design of street elements—footpaths, carriageway, landscaping, bus stops, street furniture, utilities, etc.—better, we wanted participants to explore redesigning a street. With this as the base, we structured the game on the following principles: 

  • Allow for mistakes and fixes – We wanted the participants to see how their current approach to street design wasn’t effectively addressing on-ground challenges. Hence, the game was structured in two rounds—one, where they design the street as usual, and two where they rectify their design based on the best practices. 
  • Evaluate the design and learn – To get participants to fix their designs, we needed them to understand the design gaps and why it was considered so. For this, we introduced a design evaluation round for them to understand the reasoning behind the street design standards.  
  • Reward players – It was established up-front that this game would have no winners. But where’s the fun in that? To keep the excitement going and to celebrate the teams for getting some aspects of street design right, we introduced badges! Each badge represented a key element to street design and winning that badge meant they designed that element well. Each team needed to win all six badges to unlock a “Healthy Streets Badge”.
The different kind of badges awarded to the participants after each round of play

Detailing the Game

From our past experience, playing the game in groups, especially smaller ones, is most effective to hear different ideas. We decided to play this game in groups of 6-8 participants, creating an interactive approach for participants to learn by doing. Here’s how the game played out:

1. The Playing Board

We started by creating a fictional street, Malgudi Salai (Malgudi Street, in Tamil) and developed a plan view of an 80m stretch of this street, on the playing board. To keep it as realistic as possible, we depicted broken footpaths, varying carriageway widths, parking encroachments, large intersections, etc. on the playing board. Common pedestrian issues were also identified on the board to make it easier for the participants to understand the context and resolve them through design. 

2. Context Sheets

To help participants visualise the street , we developed additional information for Malgudi Salai. We included street photographs (of streets with similar character), land-use, and it’s location in the city.  

A sample of the context sheets provided to the participants
A sample of the context sheets provided in the form of photos

3. The Game Pieces

The elements of street design were our game pieces. Since we wanted players to learn from their mistakes, we developed the street elements of varying dimensions, including some that did not meet standards. This way the players had a variety of pieces of the same street element to choose from. We were also curious to know which ones they would pick in an ideal design scenario.

A list of street-element cutouts handed over to the participants as game pieces

4. The evaluation matrix and characters

To make the game more engaging, we introduced two fictional pedestrian characters—Thangavel, a person with disability, and Kamala, a caregiver—who frequently used Malgudi Salai. Through their journey, we highlighted specific street issues, such as Thangavel struggling to navigate a broken footpath with his wheelchair. These scenarios helped participants understand the street issues from the characters’ perspectives. We shared an evaluation matrix which helped the teams evaluate their designs, keeping in mind the needs of Thangavel and Kamala. The evaluation matrix was a set of questions to check if a particular street design element was designed correctly. 

The two game characters and a sample of the evaluation sheet

5. The right process

After the players designed the street and evaluated their designs, it was time to fix it. For this, they needed guidance on best practice of street design. So, before the teams modified their designs, we provided a step-by-step guide on how to redesign their streets. This was followed by another round of evaluation, and then the awarding of the Healthy Streets Badges.  

Rolling out the Game 

The capacity-building workshop had representatives from departments including the Bus Route Roads, Stormwater Drains, and Special Projects, along with Zonal engineers. We split them into groups of 10, making sure each group had representatives from different departments.  
 
And then, game on! The team dived right into Round 1, working together to come up with a design solution for Malgudi Salai. We witnessed participants engage in healthy debates over minimum standards of the street elements.  
 
After 15 minutes of play, the designs were complete and then came the moment of truth—the evaluation and handing over of badges. All groups got a minimum of two aspects of street design right, qualifying for atleast two badges. However, since they did not incorporate all elements of street design, they did not qualify for the Healthy Streets badge. This quickly made them realise that just fixing one or two aspects of the street doesn’t yield the impact they expect.  We eventually informed them that they had an opportunity to win the Healthy Streets badge in Round 2 by following a secret recipe! The energy in the room shifted—they were now pumped to pay attention to the guidance (the secret recipe) we provided on the right street design practices.  

As the participants worked on Round 2, following the guidance provided, they even remembered to add access ramps for Thangavel’s wheelchair, without our nudges! They also realised that by making small modifications to their approach, like starting off with identifying the centreline of the street and fixing uniform carriageway widths, they were able to accommodate wider pedestrian infrastructure. They could do all this without compromising on other elements.  

As a result, all teams qualified for a Healthy Streets badge by following the not-so-secret-anymore recipe! The players actively referred to the evaluation matrix and the guidance to ensure they got their designs right. This went on to show us that even a simple game like this can be so impactful.  

Glimpses from the game play at the workshop

Conclusion 

Just like our game play in 2023, we once again saw how powerful and transformative games can be. The process of developing the game and especially the positive response of city officials to the game makes us hopeful about the future of streets in our cities. Through such continued engagements, we hope to make Healthy Streets a reality and enable our cities to create impactful transformations on the ground. 

We leave you with this – there is hope for the streets in our cities. The game is far from over. 

Written by Smritika Srinivasan, Senior Associate – Urban Development

Edited by Donita Jose, Senior Associate – Communications

How to create impactful national programmes – Lessons from the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges

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Four years. 

Three steps—Test, Learn, Scale.

Two national Challenges. 

One mission—to support cities across India to create Healthy Streets—streets that prioritise walking, cycling, and public transport.

With the wrap-up of the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges with the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in January 2024, we look back at the origin and impact of the two programmes. We also present five key lessons from the experience which can help shape any similar efforts to transform our cities at scale. 

Let’s go back to where it all began. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all our lives turned upside down, and people HAD to adapt to survive. Amidst this chaos and uncertainty, we noticed something remarkable—people flocked to the streets to escape the four walls of their homes. Not only were they reclaiming their streets for fun and socialising, but people were now walking and cycling to access essential goods and services!

And that got us thinking—can we use this moment to get cities to create people-centric streets that could enable healthy lifestyles, and pave the way for a green recovery from the pandemic? 

The birth of the Challenges and its impact

Enter series two of the Urbanlogue webinars, launched by ITDP India in collaboration with the SCM, to provide expertise and spur conversations on best practices for travel and health in a post-COVID era. Over 5500 city officials attended these sessions to understand topics including COVID-safe public transport solutions, the need for street interventions to expand space for cycling and walking, and digital innovations for formal and informal public transport.

 

But talking wasn’t enough. We needed to see on-ground action.  And so, the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges were born. Launched by the SCM and ITDP India, these two Challenges aimed to support cities in transforming their streets into Healthy Streets in a holistic step-by-step manner. Cities were excited about this initiative and to our pleasant surprise, we had a whopping 117 cities signing up for these Challenges! There began India’s Healthy Streets Revolution.

Fast forward four years, 15 cities have displayed exemplary efforts and innovative solutions in their Challenge journey, and emerged as the Challenge Champions! These cities pushed boundaries and implemented unique ideas across three pillars—Action (infrastructure pilots), Foundation (institutional changes like policies, committees, and cells), and Communication (campaigns, consultations, and outreach). But the true force behind the success of the Challenges—every single participating city who contributed in different ways, from small-scale ideas to large-scale implementation, doing whatever they could do given their context.

To check out the entire journey of these cities, the impressive work done by them, and their way forward, check out our recent publication ‘Transforming Lives With Healthy Streets: Unravelling The Journey Of Creating Healthy Streets In Indian Cities’

Our learnings from the process

This journey, however, brought a lot of uncertainties that our core team—a six-member team doing the technical and coordination work—had to adapt to constantly. In such moments, as Dory from the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ said, we just kept swimming, and kept our eyes on the prize—supporting cities in creating Healthy Streets! 

Here’s what we learnt from the process: 

  1. Set the right expectations – We quickly realised that a nationwide Challenge approach was an effective tool to mainstream the conversation about a topic—Healthy Streets in this case. But, when it comes to implementation, cities were at different starting points with respect to their understanding, capacity, infrastructure, ecosystem etc. So, expecting the same level of results from all of them would have been unfair. Our goal was to get city officials to understand the concepts to at least start talking about Healthy Streets and the importance of prioritising them in their cities. By calibrating the expectations, we were able to achieve this by the end of the Challenges.
  2. Enable the right ecosystem – No matter how great the ambition to drive change, nothing is possible without the right kind of support. We saw how committed and proactive city leaders inspired action and were instrumental in getting things done. Not just that, the cities with a network of strong local partners—civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, resident welfare associations, Bicycle Mayors, etc—consistently surpassed expectations because of their unwavering support in driving the work forward.
  3. Ensure collaboration between multiple departments – Through the Challenges, we actively worked with the Municipal Corporation and Smart City Limited who took the lead in each city. Across the country, cities that stood out and implemented great infrastructure had one secret ingredient—engaging with multiple departments to ensure coordinated action and support for the project. Building the support and capacity of these various departments—including others like the Traffic Police and the Planning and Development Authority—is the only way Healthy Streets projects can be implemented holistically. 
  4. Establish a robust data collection and monitoring system – While cities worked towards the actions expected of them through the Challenges, they faced a major gap in setting up processes for data collection and monitoring. In addition to the technical guidance and resources we provided, supporting cities was crucial—to prioritise this action, identify a nodal staff person, and build their capacity to work with data.
  5. Promote behaviour change – Through the Challenges, cities were introduced to the power of campaigns. Cities went all out in hosting social media campaigns, Open Street events, and other events like walkathons, cyclothons, cycle rallies, etc. to mainstream walking and cycling among the public. But this by itself is not enough to get more people cycling. While one-off events are great for garnering public support, long-term campaigns with a lens of behaviour change, like the Cycle2Work campaign initiated by some cities, are the only way to nudge people to take up walking and cycling as a mode of commute. This is also necessary to ensure the infrastructure implemented by cities are used well—infrastructure and campaigns go hand-in-hand in ensuring successful Healthy Streets initiatives. 

Way Forward

We believe that the IndiaCycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges are an innovative step towards the larger vision of creating sustainable cities of the future. Cities have committed to continuing their efforts by identifying their short-term and long-term goals for the next three years, including plans to allocate budgets for Healthy Streets. We hope we can see many more cities embrace Healthy Streets and become lighthouse cities in the coming years!

Just like the Challenge cities, we also applied the TEST-LEARN-SCALE mantra in strategizing and developing the Challenges. We tested out this new format and gathered our learnings. Now, we can’t wait to strategize the next step—SCALE. We also hope that this format inspires other agencies and organisations, within the country and across the world. Stay tuned to see what comes next!  

Written by Smritika Srinivasan

Edited by Keshav Suryanarayanan

Persuade and they will do: Creating persuasive national programmes for cities

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The title of this article is a play on “Build it and they will come”, a phrase commonly used to describe the idea that if you create good projects, people will come to use them. This applies to much of the infrastructure cities create—well-designed Healthy Streets and vibrant public spaces can in turn bring more people to use them. Back in 2020, we launched two ambitious and experimental national programmes with the Smart Cities Mission—the India Cycles4Change and Streets4People Challenges. And we started by asking ourselves—how do we effectively persuade cities to do exactly that – build better streets?

In his pathbreaking work on persuasion, psychologist Robert Cialdini laid out six principles we can use to understand the two Challenges—as a national effort to persuade cities, their leaders, and their people to change their minds and their actions. We can then use this understanding to inform the design of other innovative programmes going forward. But first, we can start by seeing what the Challenges managed to achieve.

The impact of the Challenges

We wrapped up this four-year experiment in January this year. Of over 110 participating cities, 15 cities have emerged as champions of the two Challenges. While these cities have made the most progress across various factors, the efforts of the other cities have been nothing short of inspiring.

33 cities implemented over 350 km of improved footpaths and over 220 km of cycle tracks. Projects are underway to transform over 1400 kilometres of streets in 48 cities. In addition to implementing projects, cities have also institutionalised this change by setting up Healthy Streets Apex Committees and Design Cells, adopting Healthy Streets Policies, and developing detailed three-year action plans to continue this momentum.

We launched a comprehensive publication that documents detailed case studies of street transformation projects completed under the Smart Cities Mission, and learnings from their implementation. We’re very hopeful that this momentum will continue beyond the Challenges and that cities will go on to scale up their efforts rapidly in the coming years. 

As we brought the two programmes to a close at a national workshop last month and look back at the journey, one aspect stands out—the sheer scale of the effort from so many cities, their decision makers, engineers, urban designers, technical experts, and most importantly the people of these cities. How did the Challenges manage to make this happen? And how can this inform other programmes which also target city-level action? 

Using the six principles of persuasion

The psychologist Robert Cialdini published a book called ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’ in which he lays out six principles which can be used to be more effective when trying to persuade others to take a specific action.

The six key principles Cialdini identified are Authority, Reciprocity, Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, and Scarcity. Let’s see how each of them plays out in the context of the Challenges.

Authority 

Right from the get-go, the Challenges had the full support of the national Mission behind them. This was crucial to ensure cities took up the opportunity and maintained their momentum across the different stages of the Challenges. Having strong technical experts like ITDP India as a partner anchoring the programmes and several other experts as jurors also ensured the cities had access to credible and concrete guidance throughout the process. This helped build trust with the cities and helped get their active participation. 

Expert roundtables as part of national capacity building workshops

Reciprocity

At every step of the journey, we started by asking not what the cities could do, but asking ourselves what we could do for the cities, to make it easier for them to take action. We gave the cities various resources—bite-sized guides on various topics, easy-to-use templates, even a game to help cities understand how to create action plans—before asking the cities to act. In addition to all this, we also had the more tried and tested method of offering prize money to the top cities selected. Each of these had a role to play in how much effort the cities put in. 

Library of resources

Consistency

Expecting immediate and dramatic transformation from cities is asking to be disappointed. The goal was not to start sprinting and stop within a few feet gasping for breath, but to run a marathon. We broke down the actions cities needed to take, with monthly workshops along with resources to guide them on specific actions—one action after each workshop. In the spirit of an experiment, we urged cities to adopt a Test-Learn-Scale approach—try temporary and inexpensive solutions to improve their streets, learn from their experience and that of other cities, and scale these lessons into permanent infrastructure. With regular Open Street events and campaigns, the cities also gradually got their citizens on board with reimagining their streets. 

Actions in various stages

Social Proof

This principle was crucial. The Challenges were a unique mix of competition and collaboration. While cities were technically competing with each other to be selected as the top cities, we ensured that the cities build a strong culture of peer-to-peer learning by spotlighting the efforts of various cities through our workshops and site visits where other cities could learn from successful tests. We also created a progress dashboard of the cities so that cities and citizens could also look at how well their city was performing in comparison to others. 

Progress dashboard of cities

Liking

We can’t help it—we’re more likely to listen to the people we like. One of the main results of the programmes has been the creation of a strong community of champions for sustainable mobility. We heard heartening stories of officials from different cities reaching out to each other with questions, coming together to discuss ideas during workshops and in WhatsApp groups. We hope these relationships grow and they continue to inspire and motivate each other to make all our cities better. 

Creating a community of champions

Scarcity

Through a time-bound and stage-wise process, we also emphasised the urgency of action to the cities. Only the best of the cities could move to the next stages and continue to receive detailed technical guidance and support. This incentivised the cities to attempt all the necessary steps in each stage to make sure they could progress.

Persuasion is necessary, not optional

We designed the Challenges to get them to act quickly. And this is what we need as the nation grapples with the complex challenges of urbanisation, pollution, and climate change. Without persuasion, we risk momentum towards a greener future slowing down in the face of inertia and inaction. In India’s journey towards sustainable mobility, persuasion is not just desirable—it is a necessity. It can catalyse action, transform mindsets, and pave the way for a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow.

The journey of the cities will continue. Other national, state, and city-level programmes will be developed to prioritise sustainable mobility. And when they do, we hope they can build on these learnings and find other innovative ways to persuade and inspire cities to accelerate action.

Written by Keshav Suryanarayanan

Chennai’s Streets for People initiative wins the Ashden Awards

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Over the last five years, Chennai’s Streets for People initiative has been instrumental in transforming over hundred kilometres of the city’s streets for more accessible and equitable mobility. An initiative of the Greater Chennai Corporation with technical support from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) India Programme, the Streets for People initiative has been selected as the winner of the acclaimed international Ashden Awards 2020 in the Sustainable Mobility (International) category.

Rethinking Urban Mobility

With citywide lockdowns and the suspension of public transport systems, COVID-19 has forced cities to rethink urban mobility. The pandemic has illustrated what streets without cars could look like, and people around the world have reclaimed their street spaces for mobility or access to essentials and services among others. More importantly, the lockdown has amplified the importance of walking and cycling as affordable, equitable, and sustainable modes of transport for a large section of the urban population. 

The Streets for People initiative in Chennai was aimed at improving walking and cycling infrastructure and enables people to move safely through the city. In Chennai, these streets proved extremely effective during the lockdown, enabling physical distancing and safe movement in neighbourhoods. As cities reopen and physical distancing becomes the new normal, the importance of such people-friendly initiatives for pedestrians and cyclists grows manifold.

The Ashden Award celebrates the city and its citizens for accomplishing such an amazing feat. In essence, the award recognises ITDP India Programme’s objectives to improve the quality of life in cities so that future generations inherit urban spaces that are liveable, equitable, and sustainable. The awards highlight sustainable solutions that tackle global issues such as climate change and create equitable societies. Chennai’s Streets for People initiative is among the 11 winners at the annual Ashden Awards, which was held on July 2nd 2020 in a virtual ceremony. The winners were chosen from over 200 applicants working on creating resilience, green growth, and fairer societies. 

The Chennai Streets for People Initiative

Since 2013, Chennai has been transforming its streets for safety, comfort, and inclusivity. In 2014, the city adopted the Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy, to dedicate 60 percent of its budget towards NMT. Chennai was the first Indian city to adopt a policy of this kind. Since then, with the support of the ITDP India Programme, the city has – 

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Impact of the work 

Lauded as making Chennai the “walking capital of the country” by L. Nandakumar, Chief Engineer, Greater Chennai Corporation, these interventions have led to wider footpaths, cycle-sharing systems, and last-mile connectivity in the city of Chennai. The initiative has helped in transforming over 120 kilometres of streets to be safe and accessible for pedestrians across the city. The project has improved access to roughly 300 bus stops and over 60 schools. Moreover, it has also helped in the effective implementation of parking management systems in approximately 500 kilometres of streets. 

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Globally, cities like Paris, Milan, and London have allocated significant portions of their budgets towards creating walking and cycling-friendly infrastructure. Chennai has taken similar action through the Mega Streets programme, to create a city-wide network of streets with a lifespan of at least 30 years thereby prioritising ‘Liveability, Mobility, and Utility’. Launched earlier this year, the project aims to transform 1000 kilometres of streets in the city. The Government of Tamil Nadu, in its annual budget speech in February 2020, has expressed its intent to invest over USD $500M to replicate Chennai’s success in ten other cities, which will transform over 1600 kilometres of streets across the state.

A shining example for Indian cities

Chennai’s Streets for People initiative is a gamechanger in terms of transforming India’s cities into more equitable and people-friendly urban spaces. Moreover, the government’s intention to expand the project represents its potential to transform streets across Tamil Nadu for future generations. The Ashden award recognises and celebrates the success of Chennai’s Streets for People project done by the Greater Chennai Corporation supported by ITDP India Programme as not just the first step in scaling up across Tamil Nadu, but also as a lighthouse for urban development across the country. 

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

Rethinking decision making through collaborative community planning

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The French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre interpreted space as an entity that is not static, but one that is alive and dynamically shaped through the interaction of people with it. He stressed on the importance of the production of space through these social relations over merely treating space as an object. We, however, live in a world which largely follows the technocratic planning principles for managing these spaces, rather than  embracing the relations that form them. 

Through understanding the relationship between people and their surrounding environment inherent to every space, the cities can ensure a demand-driven approach to solution making, where decisions are largely tailor-made than mass produced to the context. This will ensure a multidisciplinary approach to solution making, where there is open knowledge sharing and a collaborative work of different stakeholders. An intervention will thus have more credibility when it is shaped through a participatory approach involving all participants who have a stake in it. 

The case of transformation along Sringeri Mutt Road

An interesting example of how the participatory deliberation of the people can shape spaces they live in was observed in the case of the tactical urbanism intervention along the Sringeri Mutt Road, facilitated  by ITDP India Programme in Chennai. The quick and cost-effective initiative that was largely community driven, was aimed at enhancing the road and personal safety of the neighborhood, primarily women and children.

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Deepening Democracy: Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance by A. Fung and O. Wright  highlights three key principles of Empowered Deliberative Democracy which seem to be strongly embraced in this case.

The first principle speaks of ‘practical orientation’ of having a specific focus on tangible problems, which helps solve it through the next two principles. With abandoned vehicles and unauthorized parking lining the stretch along the canal, the dead spaces had become a breeding hub for anti-social activities.   The tangible problems in this case were identified as the need to enhance road and personal safety for the street users in the neighborhood.

The second principle is about ‘bottom up participation’ which calls for including people directly affected by the problems, to serve as a channel for experts and citizens to work together. The direct involvement helps in increasing efficiency, trust, and accountability. The ITDP India Programme was able to measure the root cause of the concerns through initiating dialogues with the different stakeholders in the neighborhood. Those who faced the brunt were frequent users of the street, which were the local residents and the students and teachers of the neighboring school. The different layers of the problem were gradually unwrapped through site visits and discussions with these users

The third principle on ‘deliberative solution generation’ involves joint planning and problem solving through a process of deliberation. The participants hear out each other’s concerns and work together towards developing a solution through discussions than heated arguments.The fresh lease of life that the space witnessed was due to the efforts of the Chennai Traffic Police, Greater Chennai Corporation, civic action groups like Thiruveedhi Amman Koil Street Residents Association (TAKSRA) and Karam Korpom, Chennai High School (Mandaveli) and the ITDP India Programme.


Sketch by the author on the case of Sringeri Mutt Road based on the principles of Empowered Deliberative Democracy

This case showed alternate approaches to transformations that a city can witness, where deciphering the needs and solutions is a joint process with the people involved, than a top-down approach.

Moving towards a systemic change

The intervention on the ground, its success and the interest it has lit amongst the city officials to scale- up, draws parallels to stage model of social innovation discussed by Robin Murray, Geoff Mulgan and Julie Grice.

Source: Stages of Social Innovation from ‘Social Innovation Regimes An Exploratory Framework to measure Social Innovation’ Castro Spila, Javier & Luna, Álvaro & Unceta, Alfonso (2016)

The tactical urbanism solution as a prototype addressed the poor social conditions that prevailed. The smiles that it achieved in bringing to the faces of the children and other users have reflected the triumph of the approach and the city is pushing towards scaling up these quick, low cost and community driven interventions to other areas. 

Pugalis and Giddings in their work on ‘The renewed right to urban life’ extends on the Lefebvrian philosophy which values the coproduction of space. They bring up the concept and importance of ‘little victories’, small wins that add up to create strong ripples capable of bringing a systemic change.  A systemic change involves the gradual reshaping of mindsets that have been accustomed to a set machinery and distribution of power. These steps to scale up the interventions, however reflect the possibility of bringing a systemic change that values the collaborative approach to decision making, by prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable users. The interest of the city to facilitate this decentralized approach, indirectly shapes this into a coordinated decentralized system, taking the best of both systems.

As a country that has shaped through over seventy years of democratic politics, there is an inherent need to see citizenship as something that is as dynamic as a space itself. Urbanist Luigi Maza speaks of the dual nature of citizenship, one that is not just a bundle of rights and obligations, but a dynamic social process of the citizens contributing to the production of spaces, redesigning its rules and obligations. As the city  adopts new ways of decision making, the citizens also have to start thinking outside the walls of the homes they have built and see the entire city as their home and contribute towards improving it. After all, as Jane Jacobs rightly put it, ‘Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody’.

Written by AV Venugopal

Edited by Kashmira Dubash


Some paint, few brushes, kids young & old: Sringeri Mutt Road’s tale of transformation

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With a spring in their step and a song in their heart, elated school children walk along a vibrant walkway and cross over the new zebra crossing to reach their school. Thanks to the efforts of the Chennai Traffic Police, Greater Chennai Corporation, civic action groups Thiruveedhi Amman Koil Street Residents Association (TAKSRA) and Karam Korpom, Chennai High School (Mandaveli), and ITDP India Programme, Sringeri Mutt Road in Chennai has been given a fresh lease of life.The quick tactical urbanism intervention, using temporary measures such as paints and traffic cones, has helped reclaim the street for pedestrians, especially the children who use this street to access the seven schools in the neighbourhood, providing them with a safe and lively walking experience.

The menace that was

The school authorities further shared that a majority of the students walk to school. However, the adjoining footpath is uneven and dotted with obstructions that force pedestrians to spill over onto the road and into the swarm of motorists, putting them at even further risk.

Even the residents echoed much of the same concerns regarding safety. With abandoned vehicles and unauthorised parking lining the stretch along the canal, the dead space had become a breeding hub for anti-social activities. A survey among the street users, conducted by the ITDP India Programme, indicated that two out of three users felt unsafe to walk down the Sringeri Mutt Road after sunset.

Tired of living in the fear of using their own street, resident associations came forward to kindle a new approach to driving change.

Community-driven transformation

The transformation brought about by TAKSRA along with ‘Karam Korpom – Stop Abusing Public Spaces’, a group that reclaims public spaces through art, displays the power of community-driven initiatives. Their work has inspired neighbouring groups and other communities in Chennai to take up the mantle for reclaiming their streets. The makeover of Sringeri Mutt Road is yet another instance of residents rolling up their sleeves to revive a desolate area into a vibrant community space.

Turning over a new leaf

In the first step towards Sringeri Mutt Road’s makeover, abandoned vehicles were towed off by the Chennai Traffic Police. To liven the dead space, the walls on both sides were given a fresh coat of paint. Following which, students, volunteers, and even excited traffic officials were given paint cans and brushes to let their imaginations run wild on these blank canvases. Next, a quick, impromptu tactical urbanism intervention was conducted.

Within a matter of days, the stretch that once instilled fear was transformed into a safe and colourful walkway. Post-intervention surveys show that over 90% of the users now feel safer in using the street.

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Looking forward

Tamil Nadu has constantly hit the headlines for the dubious distinction of leading the country’s road fatality figures. In 2017 itself, the state recorded an abhorrent 3,500 pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents. The traffic police, therefore, is resolute in taking steps towards improving road safety for all users – most importantly, children. Measures like tactical urbanism interventions are significant in helping the cause and hence, public support for such movements are imperative for scaling this up successfully to more areas.

The case of the Sringeri Mutt Road makeover is an encouraging example of citizens shaping their public spaces and doing their bit to make streets safer. These small-scale initiatives feed into the ongoing work of creating a city-wide network of streets that facilitate safe walking and cycling for all. With over 1,500 anganwadis in the city, the Chennai Corporation envisions to improve the mobility to all anganwadis and schools, thereby making a leap towards child-friendly cities.

Let’s hope that the transformation witnessed along Sringeri Mutt Road sets the ball rolling for more community-driven initiatives. Such quick, low-cost, and scalable interventions are bound to catalyze long-term changes across the city.

Written by: Aishwarya Soni; A V Venugopal

Edited by: Nashwa Naushad; Rohit James

Video Credits : Santhosh Loganaathan, Aishwarya Soni and TD Achuthan




Chennai enroute to humanising streets through better design

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Having successfully created over 100 km of Complete Streets with wide and vibrant footpaths, Chennai is now expanding its efforts! The city aims to create a master plan for a city-wide network of streets for walking and cycling, along with adopting Street Design Guidelines to guide all future projects.

“The engineering team in Chennai has already been involved in many street redesign projects and has a lot of ideas. The stage is set, now we just need to scale up the work and transform Chennai with a Non-Motorised Transport master plan,” said the newly appointed Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation G Prakash, IAS, at an internal kick-off workshop on 8 March, 2019.

The day-long workshop, held by the Greater Chennai Corporation with technical support from the ITDP India Programme, was set with a dual agenda. Firstly, it aimed to establish the vision for Chennai to create a Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) master plan and to identify the process to develop the same. Secondly, it aimed at the dissemination of information from the design guidelines to the engineers and officials from various departments of the city.

Through a hands-on and participatory exercise, participants were able to give feedback to improvise the guidelines. The workshop brought together over 60 participants, comprising of engineers and officials from different departments of the Greater Chennai Corporation.

NMT Masterplan

All global metropolitans, including Indian ones, are waking to the realisation that it is imperative to prioritise walking and cycling while planning cities. To quote placemaking pioneer Fred Kent, “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.”

“With over 100 km of streets reclaimed for pedestrians and cyclists, Chennai is certainly on the right track of prioritising people over motorised transport,” said L Nandakumar, chief engineer of the Greater Chennai Corporation, while presenting various street transformations and laurels the city has achieved over the years.

The need for an NMT master plan was highlighted by Aswathy Dilip, Senior Programme Manager at the ITDP India Programme, who spoke of the requirement for bringing a network approach in the planning of  projects in the city. This will help scale up the existing projects, ensuring the street transformations are not scattered and instead done in a holistic manner. An NMT master plan will ensure the promotion of environmentally friendly modes that encourage healthy lifestyles. It will also contribute to social equity by improving accessibility to work and home for all cross sections of the society.  

The proposed approach for the Chennai NMT master plan is in line with the Tamil Nadu Mega Streets Programme, that plans to redesign 1,600 km of roads across ten corporations in the state.

Chennai Street Design Guidelines

Over the past few years, Chennai has been taking great efforts to create safe, walkable, and livable streets that cater to all user groups. Known as Complete Streets, these are designed with wide and continuous footpaths, safe pedestrian crossings, dedicated cycle tracks (where applicable), conveniently placed bus stops, clearly designated on-street parking, organised street vending, and properly-scaled carriageways.

With many more streets in the pipeline to be redesigned by the Greater Chennai Corporation, the NMT master plan looks to drive this vision through with a set of guidelines to direct the design and implementation process.  The main focus being to improve the user experience and ensure seamless connectivity. As a result, the state is planning to adopt the Chennai Street Design Guidelines—which draws from various Indian Roads Congress guidelines and also from the city’s own learnings from its street design experience.

The guidelines aim to create streets for all users. It is intended for urban designers and most importantly, government officials and citizens who look to inhabit better quality urban environment and bring back life into our city streets.  For this purpose, the design guide identifies the different functions of streets and emphasises the need for complete streets that accommodates all.

Besides the step-by-step design process chart, the guidelines offer designers a checklist of information to be collected prior to designing the street. It also highlights the various elements that form a complete street. Through street and intersection templates, one can get a sense of how different elements come together to create different types and sizes of streets.

Hands-on Exercise

To better understand the concept of Complete Streets, the engineers, at the workshop, were engaged through a hands on exercise to use the guidelines to redesign a city stretch. As interest grew in the exercise so did the valuable feedbacks, which have been noted and the ITDP India Programme will work to improve suitably.

 

 

 

 

In 2014, Chennai set an example for the rest of the country by adopting the non-motorised transport (NMT) policy. It sent out a clear message: Chennai prioritised its people over cars. By creating a master plan for a city-wide Complete Streets network and adopting the Street Design Guidelines, the city is adding more feathers to its already illustrious cap. These moves reflect Chennai’s commitment to create safe streets that consider the needs of all users.

 

Written by A V Venugopal

Edited by Rohit James and Kashmira Medhora Dubash