ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

How the Safety of our Children is Nudging Indian Cities to Rethink Safe Streets for All

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In wildlife conservation, there’s a familiar problem: charismatic megafauna—the big, beautiful, crowd-pulling mammals—soak up attention and conservation efforts, while countless other species struggle to survive unnoticed. Logic tells us the most endangered species deserve priority, but emotion usually wins. Cute creatures move hearts, budgets, and policies in ways that less glamorous animals simply can’t. 

Urban transport in India suffers from the same bias. 

Flyovers—the “charismatic megafauna” of our cities

Flyovers, foot-over-bridges, and wide roads are the “charismatic megafauna” of our cities—high-visibility, headline-grabbing symbols of development and aspiration. Footpaths, signage, and pedestrian crossings are their overlooked cousins. Not  visually unappealing perhaps, but certainly less exciting, harder to champion, and rarely the first choice in infrastructure conversations. 

That’s why knowing there is demand for footpaths isn’t enough. People-centric mobility must become aspirational. It needs to be the popular narrative, the default choice, and the shared vision of how cities should move. To get there, we must focus on behaviour change of society at large—and one of the strongest catalysts for change in any society is children. 

Children don’t just represent the future; they influence the present. Some of the most successful road safety campaigns are rooted in schools because their impact extends far beyond classrooms. Children take lessons home, start conversations at the dinner table, and —most powerfully, —hold adults accountable. We may ignore posters and policies, but we rarely ignore our children. We change habits, make safer choices, and strive to be better role models for them. 

At the same time, children are among the most vulnerable users of our streets. Their physical and cognitive development limits their ability to judge speed, distance, and risk. As vehicle ownership rises and streets grow more hostile, children face increasing danger simply navigating their neighbourhoods. This makes the case for safer, child-friendly street design not just compelling, but urgent. 

If we want cities that truly work for everyone, we must start building streets that protect, empower, and prioritise our smallest citizens.  

The Rise of Safe School Zones 

It’s a widely accepted principle in urban design: when we design for the most vulnerable, we design for everyone. Yet, despite this common wisdom, our cities still lack sufficient evidence of street designs that meaningfully respond to children’s specific needs. 

Creating Safe School Zones is a critical first step in addressing this gap and the beginning of a much longer journey toward truly child-friendly streets across the city and not just the school zones. 

In Tamil Nadu, two cities have taken promising strides in this direction. Chennai and Coimbatore have announced Safe School Zone projects aimed at transforming the streets children use every day. 

In Chennai, the initiative covers two major interventions: 

Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Teynampet (2.5 km) 
A network of streets in K.K. Nagar (19.5 km) 

    Together, these improvements are expected to benefit 31 schools (both private and corporation) across the city and impact nearly 4000 students from city corporation schools. 

     In Coimbatore, the projects include: 

    Trichy Road and Kamarajar Road (2.5 km) 

    School Streets at ten prominent locations across the city (4 km) 

      These efforts will support 24 schools (both private and corporation) and impact nearly 6,300 children from city corporation schools alone. 

      ITDP India has been supporting both cities in the rollout of these projects. However, from the very start, we took a slightly different approach with these two projects. We kept children and their voices at the heart of it! This is because any public project built on stakeholder consultations ensures inclusivity and democracy.  So, if we are designing streets for children, it is only natural that children themselves become part of the conversation. Yet their voices are rarely heard in urban planning unless we deliberately seek them out. Recognising this gap, we set out to design an ambitious—but fun activity created entirely for children. The goal was simple: to engage them in meaningful dialogue and understand, in their own words, what a truly safe school zone should look and feel like. 

      If our streets are meant for children, then their perspectives should help shape them.  

      Taking the Engagement into Classrooms 

      In Chennai’s K.K. Nagar neighbourhood, six schools and 268 students came together to reimagine their everyday streets. In Coimbatore, the voices of 280 students from four schools added depth to this collective vision. These young citizens became active participants in shaping safer, more inclusive school neighbourhoods. 

      Three thoughtfully designed activities were– 

      Love it, Like it, Don’t Want it – My School Street Edition  

      Designing My School Street
       

      Map My Journey To School


      Through this students reflected on their daily journeys, calling out safety concerns, moments of discomfort, and gaps in pedestrian infrastructure. The engagement culminated in an exercise where children articulated, in their own words, the design elements they wished to see on their school streets. Their responses offered a powerful qualitative lens into what truly defines a child-friendly street.  

      Beyond insights, the process also produced a tangible outcome: a children-led walking route map, highlighting streets that need urgent improvement, based on the routes they walk every day. Such maps can directly inform the creation of a priority network for implementing safe school street infrastructure. 

      Perhaps most striking was what children already knew. Their reflections on “good” and “bad” streets revealed a strong awareness of safety and accessibility, even if they did not know the terminology to explain them. Across both cities, their top priorities were clear: road safety and traffic management, street maintenance, and pedestrian infrastructure. Listening to them reminds us that the path to safer streets begins by seeing the city through the eyes of its youngest pedestrians. 

      Seeing the success of this approach, we at ITDP India are now striving to ensure that working with children is embedded within the scope of all “Safe Streets to School” design projects. As part of this resolution, design consultants are required to conduct surveys and interviews with students to ensure that street designs are sensitive, inclusive, and scaled to the needs of young users. 

      School streets or school zones envisioned through this process are places of calm and care: slow-moving traffic, interactive street edges, brightly coloured pedestrian crossings, clear and attractive wayfinding, reflectorised signage (that glow in the dark), and wide, comfortable walkways with dedicated pick-up and drop-off bays. While colours and motifs can be standardised citywide, each street is carefully contextualised to its surroundings. 

      School Zones as a Planning Paradigm for the Whole City 

      While school streets are daily lifelines for children, caregivers, and communities, Safe School Zones could be more than a safety intervention – they could be the strategic lens we need to reimagine truly accessible streets. When designed thoughtfully, a network of pedestrian pathways around a dense cluster of schools can do far more than serve students. It can seamlessly overlap with neighbourhood markets, bus termini, and other civic anchors, creating a walkable ecosystem that benefits everyone. 

      This idea closely mirrors the promise of first- and last-mile connectivity (FLMC) to public transport. Yet, in our planning priorities, the footpath is profoundly underrated as an FLMC service. It is often sidelined in favour of the more “charismatic” mini-buses or other forms of Intermediate Public Transport, despite being the most universal and inclusive mode of access. 

      Footpaths are the city’s quiet first responders—used by every road user, every day, often without notice, yet indispensable to the functioning of urban life. Investing in them, especially through the lens of Safe School Zones, is not just about mobility. It is about dignity, safety, and building cities that place people first. It may not be the most glamorous piece of infrastructure, but it is definitely the one needing collective attention and support.   

      By Sanchana S, Senior Associate, ITDP India

      Edited by Donita Jose, Senior Associate, ITDP India

      25 Wins from 2025 that Shaped Urban Mobility

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      At ITDP India, everything we do is guided by three goals: Increase public transport ridership, electrify urban transport systems, and secure funding at scale, to make the former two goals possible.
      And what’s our grand vision? People-first, low-emission cities. In 2025, every win was shaped by these three goals, and this shared vision.
      Some wins may look small on their own like a humble brick: a policy here, a budget allocation there, a guideline approved. But stack them together and you start to see the city being built to enable people moving smoothly, one sustainable decision at a time. Check out our crisp listicle on 25 wins from 2025 that Shaped Urban Mobility. This captures the winning moments of everyday work towards the big picture.

      Brick by Brick: 25 Milestones that Shaped Our Cities

      Chennai’s First Situational Analysis Reveals What’s Wrong with the Footpaths and How to Fix Them

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      Assessments are a part of everyone’s life. Ask a student, a professional, or even a patient, almost everyone is put through a series of tests, to check whether their performance is upto the mark or not. In the same way, don’t you think our cities need a thorough assessment, once every few years? 

      Assessments and analysis can help a lot, as if holding a report card up the face of city decision makers to assess what works and what doesn’t. It is with this thought that in 2023-2024, ITDP India’s team, embarked on an ambitious journey to assess and score the situation of the city’s streets and how walkable they are! 

      But why assess walkability?

      Walking is the most fundamental and natural mobility for most people in the city. It is a birthright for everyone to have and own, and to move, and access different parts of the city, that often gets taken for granted. 

      Picture this in fact! Almost 23% of trips in Chennai are made by ‘walking’, as per the Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMP), 2023. However, walking on arterial and sub-arterial (internal) streets continues to pose a high risk for pedestrians.  

      And these risks are translating into fatalities. Between 2019 and 2023, for instance, while Chennai took extraordinary measures to reduce the total number of accidents and fatalities, pedestrian fatalities still constituted a significant number. As per data assessed and analysed by ITDP India, pedestrian deaths made up 43% of all road accident deaths in Chennai. Furthermore, of all pedestrian related accidents in Chennai in 2023, 30% ended up as fatalities. This is an increase from 11% and 22%, respectively in 2019.  

      The above data point is crucial to delve into given that the city adopted the Non Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy in 2014, and it followed through by developing over 170 km of footpaths on key Bus Route Roads. This begs the question; what happened to those footpaths? Are they intact? Are they being utilised as was once imagined? Do they need improvements? These are some of the questions that ITDP India’s latest study, called Situational Analysis of Chennai’s Footpaths, attempts to answer.  

      What is a Situational Analysis?

      A situational assessment aims to understand the current condition of infrastructure in detail, highlighting the merits and demerits of footpaths in comparison to standards. It also builds a good database of the infrastructure and develops a scoring system to prioritise streets where footpaths require immediate attention. The study in Chennai identified 14 streets across different zones of Chennai, in which 32 km of footpaths were mapped and observed, and over 1700 user perception surveys were conducted.  More importantly, this study also provides a framework to analyse the impact of this humble piece of infrastructure on its users, for the future as well.   

      How was Situational Analysis done? What parameters were used?

       Every pedestrian infrastructure was viewed from three dimensions:

      Design Mapping

      How efficient is the design and how well it has adhered to the standards. This was done by using the MerginMaps which uses 14 performance indicators  

      User Perception Survey
      Gathering insights from vulnerable groups (young, elderly pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users) on footpath experience, using 8 indicators. 

      Observation Surveys
      Analyzing traffic volume and user behavior based on 9 indicators of optimal street usage. 

      The data collected was then analysed through the lens of 4 key parameters of Healthy Streets:   

      1. Ease of Mobility – The ease with which pedestrians can walk on wide, seamless, continuous footpaths free of obstructions.  
      1. Safety—The availability of dedicated pedestrian crossing infrastructure, traffic calming elements, a buffer between carriageway and footpath, street lighting, and active property edges ensures pedestrians’ personal and physical safety.   
      1. Universal Accessibility – Inclusion of the vulnerable sections of society, such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, and persons with other physical challenges, through design.  
      1. Livability – A sense of comfort and belonging created by the presence and integration of street play, street commerce, and other socio-economic activities, in addition to providing functional footpaths.   

      What were the key findings of the Situational Analysis?

      The study provides insights into the importance of footpaths as well as having good footpaths to improve their usability.    

      Footpath Design User PerceptionObservation Survey
      Ease of Mobility & Universal Accessibility 55% of footpaths across all streets were found to be of inadequate width.  58% of those who reported that the footpaths are not walkable are women Only 40% of the pedestrians are seen walking on footpaths. Most prefer walking on the carriageway due to obstructions and inadequate design.  
      40% of the total length of all streets lacked a footpath. 
             		76% of respondents found the streets had several obstructions on the footpath. On average, only 13.21% of modes of commute during peak hours on streets is walking.  
      On average 10 obstructions per 100m and parking constitutes 40% of all the types of obstructions, followed by encroachments like commercial spillover, advertisements, construction debris etc. 
      Safety & Livability Street lights illuminate only 61% of the streets. 
       
      The total number of pedestrian crossing points provided is 50% below the required number per IRC standards.       		57% of respondents who reported having difficulty crossing the street, and who found it unsafe at night are women 
       
      73% of respondents find streets unsafe to cross, and 71% of them are concerned about speeding vehicles while crossing.       		Speeds in neighbourhood-level streets are able to go as high as 60kmph. 
      Speed breakers followed by pedestrian crossing points are most effective traffic calming measures observed.  
      48% of all pedestrians are women, showing the need for inclusive design.  

      How did individual streets perform?

      To further make the analysis granular, a scoring framework was used which helped rate the performance of the footpath infrastructure across all 14 streets on all 31 indicators of performance. It also helped identify the nature of intervention required, based on varying performance:  

      1. A street with a rating of 25 or more can be improved through strict enforcement and minor repairs and interventions.   
      1. Streets rated 19 to 25 would require enforcement to remove obstructions, improve footpath surfaces, and introduce accessible crossing infrastructure.  
      1. Streets with a rating of 14 to 19 would require repairs to improve the continuity of footpaths, remove obstructions, and introduce safe midblock crossing infrastructure.  
      1. Streets with ratings below 14 should be redesigned and restructured completely. 

      Here the winning street was Pedestrian Plaza, scoring a brilliant 25.71, whereas the poorest performing street was CP Ramaswamy Road scoring just 12.72 on 30.

      The following inferences can be drawn from the studies, as well as the score card. 

      1. Streets prioritising pedestrians are safer, more accessible, and liveable: Pedestrian Plaza, CSIR, and Wallajah Road have exceeded basic footpath requirements, catering comprehensively to pedestrian needs. 
         
      • Pedestrian Plaza
      • Pedestrian Plaza
      • Pedestrian Plaza
      • Pedestrian Plaza
      1. Continuous and consistent footpath standards across the entire street length are crucial for ensuring ease of pedestrian mobility. Streets such as Sardar Patel Road and Peter’s Road demonstrate that design and perception scores do not align with each other.  
      • Peter’s Road
      • Peter’s Road
      • Peter’s Road
      1. Pedestrian crossings and traffic calming measures should be prioritised alongside footpath provision: Despite adequate pedestrian infrastructure, streets like Perambur High Road, Peter’s Road, and Sardar Patel Road show moderate performance.  
      • Perambur High Road
      • Perambur High Road
      • Perambur High Road
      1. In streets without formal footpaths, stormwater drains double as walking zones but lack pedestrian safety and comfort. This necessitates efficient drainage design for clear walking zones, as is evident in streets such as C.P. Ramaswamy Salai, Anna Main Road, Eldams Road, and Broadway.  
      • Eldams Road
      • Eldams Road
      • oplus_2
      1. The absence of an enforcement/O&M framework results in footpath encroachment, diminishing clear walking zones for pedestrians. Streets that perform fairly, such as Old Jail Road, Thirumalai Pillai, Gandhi Irwin, and Thiru Vi Ka High Road, illustrate this issue as they were all once refurbished under the 170km of BRR road transformation project, benefits of which did not continue due to poor maintenance. 
      • Gandhi Irwin Road
      • Gandhi Irwin Road
      • Gandhi Irwin Road
      • Gandhi Irwin Road
      • Gandhi Irwin Road

      Recommendations for Chennai to improve its network of streets

      Good footpaths are a win-win for all citizens. On one hand it can reduce travel costs for low-income households, on the other hand, it boosts physical health and improves inclusivity by encouraging more women, elderly, children, and vulnerable people to use public spaces. An overarching benefit for all sections is also that it lowers emissions by promoting walking and cycling and can address congestion. The results of the study helped identify key priorities to improve footpaths:  

      Way Forward

      An assessment is good as long as the feedback is implemented on. At ITDP India we are happy to share that the results and recommendations of the study were showcased to the city engineers. This was presented during a workshop organized by ITDP India, focusing on the significance of Healthy Street Design guidelines to enhance footpath design and usability in the city.  

      Capacity Development Workshop for Bus Routes Roads Department in 2024

      Since then, the Greater Chennai Corporation has committed to several initiatives aimed at strengthening pedestrian infrastructure. These initiatives include identifying new networks for footpath repairs and reconstruction, conducting audits to assess the condition of existing street infrastructure, and creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the operations and maintenance of the city’s footpaths. To boost these initiatives further, the state allocated a Rs 200 crore budget to build and improve over 200 km of footpaths in Chennai in 2025, which is the first dedicated budget for pedestrian infrastructure. This work is being carried out with technical assistance from ITDP India. 

      It is also pertinent to note that this exercise has been replicated in multiple cities by ITDP India, showcasing a powerful methodology that can be embraced by many more.  

      This isn’t just about rating pavements; it’s about reimagining streets as spaces of safety, accessibility, and shared humanity. The path ahead is clear: Chennai’s footpaths need more than repairs, the city does need to prioritise the scale-up of footpaths across the city. They demand a collective awakening—to see sidewalks not as afterthoughts, but as lifelines. The data is here. The solutions exist. Now, will we walk the talk? 

      By Sanchana S, Senior Associate, ITDP India

      Edited by Donita Jose, Senior Associate, ITDP India

      Pedalling Through Time; What it Means to Cycle in India for Different Generations

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      Cycling has long been woven into the fabric of daily life in India. Just a couple of decades ago, the cycle was an essential part of most households, getting children to school, adults to work, and everyone, everywhere in between. From the wobbly first rides of young kids to teenagers mastering wheelies, to middle-aged men cycling to theatres, to young women pedalling to their colleges, the cycle was more than just a mode of transport, it was part of growing up, working, and living. 

      But as motor vehicles have come to dominate our streets, the space for cycles, both physical and social, has shrunk. Yet, across India, many continue to hold on to this two-wheeled connection. This World Bicycle Day, in this blog, we bring together stories from different corners of the country, spanning age groups, genders, and backgrounds, to understand what cycling means to people today. 

      Whether it’s riding over speed bumps for the thrill, cycling for fitness or weight loss, pedalling to earn a livelihood, or simply chasing the joy of childhood, these anecdotes remind us that cycling still belongs to everyone. 

      Karl Dubash, 7 years old, Chennai 

      “I’m Karl and I’m 7 years old. My cycle is blue and black. I used to have a bell, but it broke. I haven’t given my cycle a name yet. I usually ride around my apartment. I go out cycling about two to three times, and mostly every evening. I like riding fast! My favourite part about cycling is going past the speed breakers and riding in a zigzag. It’s super fun!

      Sometimes I go cycling with my friend Akshay in Basham. We ride all around the apartment. I also go with my mom and sister. I remember my first cycle! It was light blue and white, and it had a koala on it. I liked it right away. To learn how to ride, I watched my mom and dad and kept practising. It was a bit hard at first, but once I got my balance, I was very happy. I don’t find the roads scary because my mom doesn’t let me go on them. But yes, I think they are scary. I don’t go on the roads at all, so there aren’t any places I avoid. If I could change something to make cycling better, I would wish for cycle paths like the ones in other countries. I wish we had a few in India too!” 

      Kid bikers, 7,10,11 & 15 years old, Kallakurichi

      We are the kid bikers from Kallakurichi: Aadhav (7) on a dark blue and green cycle, Ashvitha (10) on a grey one, Aadhithya (11) riding blue, and Suriya Narayanan (15) on green. We’re four cousins who spent the entire summer pedaling through our town, and we think we’re the coolest cycling crew around!

      What we enjoy most is exploring new roads, cycling down unfamiliar lanes and discovering more about our hometown as we go. Sometimes we even end up covering 10-30km just like that!

      If you ever spot us, we ride in a neat line, like ants in a trail, one behind the other, matching each other’s speed. Well, almost! Every now and then, Aadhithya gets excited and zooms ahead when the street is clear. Infact, we even use hand signals like professional riders and also use aerodynamic techniques to speed.

      Two of us (Aadhav and Ashvitha) have been cycling for over three years now. And through all our rides, one thing we keep wishing for is a dedicated cycle path, lined with shady trees to make the ride smooth and breezy. Our parents often tell us how they cycled to school with their friends, and we dream of doing the same. We’ll keep cycling no matter what, but we know many of our friends would join in if there were safe cycle tracks. We hope that wish comes true someday!

      Saba Serkhel, 29 years old, Mumbai

      “I’m Saba Serkhel, 29 years old. I work as a video and film editor, but when I’m not at my desk, you’ll probably find me sketching, reading or cycling. My relationship with cycling goes way back. I got my first tricycle when I was three, and by the time I was seven, I had my first proper bicycle. It was a hand-me-down from my sister—a bright pink cycle covered in flowers.

       

      At the time, I wasn’t too happy with the design, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was what it gave me; my first taste of freedom. I still remember the exact moment I learnt to ride. My sister ran alongside me, holding the back of the seat, cheering me on. And then suddenly, I was flying solo. That rush, that feeling of “I can do this on my own,” has never left me. Learning to cycle remains one of my most treasured memories. 

      Even now, every time I ride, I’m reminded of that moment. For me, cycling has always been more than just physical exercise, it is a return to that feeling of independence. It’s a way to break away from the noise, the traffic, and the pressure of city life. 

      Living in Mumbai, that escape matters a lot. The roads are chaotic, packed with illegal parking, potholes, encroachments—and there’s little room for cyclists. But every other weekend, I carve out a slice of calm for myself by heading to Sanjay Gandhi National Park. There, I ride through shaded trails, under towering trees, past monkeys and the occasional deer. For a while, I can just breathe. That’s the kind of escape cycling gives me. 

      Over the years I have cycled in other cities too like Athens in the U.S., Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, and each place brought its own vibe. Athens had proper lanes and was safe despite the hills. Ahmedabad’s wide, pothole-free roads surprised me. And Bilaspur, with its rural quiet, felt like peace on wheels. But Mumbai…Mumbai makes you work for it. You have to be stubborn to cycle here.  

      My current cycle is green and black, and I call it Bill, after the long-tailed Broadbill. It’s fairly new, but like every bike I’ve ever had, it gives me the freedom and the escape, and always, a quiet reminder of a little pink bicycle, a running sister, and the first time I truly felt like I could do anything.” 

      Kasim Bammanalli, 33 years old, Panaji

      “I’m 33 years old and I work as a poder which is a traditional Goan breadmaker. Every day, I deliver freshly baked bread and poi from the bakery to people’s homes, cycling through the neighbourhood, carrying a basket of warm bread on my cycle. I’ve been cycling for the past 17 years. Twice a day, every day, once in the morning and then again in the evening. I follow the same familiar route. It’s a routine I’ve gotten used to, and my black cycle is always with me. 

      I haven’t given it a name, but it’s like my companion now. Simple, sturdy, with a rack to hold my bread basket.Cycling isn’t something I find physically hard. My hands and legs don’t hurt. Sure, it’s a tough job, but the effort I put in is what I earn from. That’s how I look at it. As for safety on the road, there is not much I can do as I have to cycle, no matter what. Everything else is in God’s hands. Accidents happen. If someone crashes into me, it’s on them. If I hit someone, that’s my responsibility. That’s just how it is. 

      For me, cycling is not about fitness or fun. It’s part of my work, my livelihood. If the cycle breaks down, our employer takes care of it. Every couple of months, they call in a maintenance person to check all the cycles and fix whatever needs fixing. People often talk about improving cycling in the city by adding dedicated cycle lanes. But why would anyone add it just for me? And can it even be added on every street? For safety, I just stick to my route. Infact, I’ve cycled through fields, on busy roads, wherever needed. If traffic gets too heavy, I pull over and wait. I just do what I have to do. 

      I still remember my first cycle—it was an Atlas. Very sturdy, very reliable. Much better than the new models today.” 

      Karthik, 43 years, Chennai

      “I took up cycling back in 2014 when I hit 116 kg and knew I had to make a change. What started with short weekend rides of 20–25 km slowly became a serious fitness routine. Initially, I was just trying to shed weight and get healthier. But things really changed when I joined the Chennai Cyclists group in 2017. With local chapters spread across the city, it became easier to ride regularly and meet like-minded people.  

      Over time, I started participating in endurance rides like 100 km, 200 km, and eventually timed long distance events upto 555km and 600km. These rides are self-supported and test your planning, time management, and resilience.  

      What started as a solo fitness goal has turned into something bigger—a community, a lifestyle, and a constant learning curve. 

      But cycling in a city like Chennai isn’t easy. We often ride on highways like ECR where reckless driving is a real threat. There’s no dedicated infrastructure, over speeding, and unruly traffic make every ride a risk. We try to stay safe by riding in a disciplined formation, following lane rules, and constantly looking out for each other. Still, with so many overlapping infrastructure projects and road conditions always changing, cyclists like us are left navigating a city that isn’t built for us.” 

      M Nagalakshmi, 58 years, Hyderabad

      “My relationship with cycling has been a lifelong one, but I only resumed cycling regularly a few years ago, probably around the time I turned 50. There wasn’t any big reason or trigger. I just felt like it was time to reconnect with the child in me. And what better way than to get back on a cycle? I still remember my very first one, it was a hand-me-down, electric blue, and I rode it to school every day. These days, I ride to work, meet friends, and even just to get out and feel the breeze on my face. 

      Over the week, I usually cycle nearly 30-40 km for leisure. Apart from this, I cycle to the office, which is about 3–4 km away, unless the weather is too harsh or I’m wearing a saree. That’s where things get tricky. Most cycles today are built like sports equipment. Not very commute-friendly. Not women-friendly. Definitely not saree-friendly. Earlier, I had cycles designed in a way that it was comfortable for dresses. Now, what dominates the market are “performance bikes,” often with designs that exclude Indian women altogether. My saree gets caught in the chain. Pants get caught, too. It’s frustrating. We can’t romanticise this, as the industry is ignoring the reality of women cyclists. 

      Another big issue? Wrong-side driving. In some places, two whole lanes are taken up by vehicles coming the wrong way. It’s not just inconvenient—it’s dangerous. That’s been one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in recent years. 

      I really believe more people would take up cycling, like women, older adults, everyone, if cycles were actually designed for us. We need age-friendly and gender-friendly options. Something with side support, maybe even battery-powered cycles, so that riding stays fun and helps us stay mobile. And from the city’s side, we don’t need fancy cycling tracks, just better speed regulation, stricter enforcement against wrong-side driving, and maybe some traffic lights that actually prioritise cyclists.” 

      By Donita Jose, Senior Associate, Communications ITDP India and Shreesha Arondekar, Associate, Development and Communications, ITDP India

      How Chennai and Coimbatore City Budgets are Championing Walkable Streets

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      For years, major cities in Tamil Nadu have prioritised vehicles through budgetary allocations and infrastructure. This is despite the fact that two-thirds of all trips in the state are made by walking, cycling, or using public transport. This year, however, the tide is turning. The Tamil Nadu Budget 2025 marks a pivotal shift with Chennai and Coimbatore taking the lead, placing Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) —like walking and cycling—at the heart of mobility planning, and reimagining streets as spaces for people, not just cars. What sets this budget apart is not just the scale of funding, but the values it reflects—equity, safety, and access for all. 

      While this development is a step in the right direction and is still in its nascent stages, Chennai’s strides towards creating walking and cycling friendly streets echo some of the early moves seen in cities like Singapore. Singapore has long been a role model for Southeast Asia, known for its  integrated public transport and walkable, people-friendly streets, backed by landmark investments like the 1 billion Singapore Dollars’ fund for last-mile connectivity in 2016, and forward-looking policies such as the Active Mobility Act (2017) and Multi-Modal Transport Act (2021). Anchored by the Tamil Nadu Budget 2025, which earmarks significant investments in footpaths, smart parking, and Safe Routes to School pilots, Chennai’s journey could chart a similar course—if implementation keeps pace with vision. 

      A Historic Leap for Walkability in Chennai 

      A landmark first – ₹200 crore dedicated funding for 170 km of footpaths in Chennai  

      This year’s budget has earmarked ₹200 crore for the implementation of 170 km of high-quality footpath in Chennai. This is the largest investment for pedestrian infrastructure in the city to date, and the first time since the Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy of 2014 that footpath development has received such focused financial backing. Announced by Hon’ble Minister K.N. Nehru on March 25, 2025, this move is more than just a line item in a budget—it is a powerful reaffirmation of the state’s commitment to safer, more inclusive streets for all, especially vulnerable road users including children, the elderly, and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).  

      Chennai’s journey: From marginal to meaningful investments!

      Chennai’s journey toward walkable streets began with ambition. Following the adoption of its pioneering Non Motorised Transport Policy in 2014  the city saw average annual footpath investments rise to ₹72 crore, resulting in the creation of over 170 km of footpaths between 2014 and 2019—most of it funded through the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF). During this time, the city also tapped into the Smart Cities Mission’s Area-Based Development (ABD) funds to implement the now-celebrated Pedestrian Plaza and its feeder streets in T. Nagar.    

      Citizens walking safely on Pedestrian Plaza

      To scale up its efforts, Chennai launched the Complete Streets program in 2020 (earlier known as “Mega Streets”) with a dedicated ₹100 crore allocation under the Chennai City Partnership with the World Bank. The project aimed to reimagine neighbourhood-level street networks by integrating underground utility upgrades and walk and cycle-friendly above-ground infrastructure. However, the first implementation phase, under progress, covers only around 11 km, leaving behind the demand for a city-wide network of functional footpaths largely unmet.   

      Ongoing implementation under the Complete Streets Project at Khader Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam

      Analysing the budgetary spending, we found that from 2022 to 2025, Chennai’s investment in footpaths plummeted to just ₹13 crore per year on average. A modest recovery came in FY 2024–25, with ₹25 crore earmarked for 21 km of footpaths, but this was still far from enough to undo years of underinvestment.  

      Source: Budget Expenditure categorised by type of work and scheme, FY 2012 – January 2025 (Bus Route Road Department)  

      However, our analysis also pointed out that over all these years, road resurfacing and carriageway upgrades continued unhindered, reflecting an annual average spending of ₹84 Crores, and a consistent focus toward vehicle-centric planning.  

      Source: Budget Expenditure categorised by type of work and scheme, FY 2012 – January 2025 (Bus Route Road Department)  

      A renewed push: Bringing safety and equity to the forefront 

      Any policy without dedicated, sustained funding is just a wish. For Chennai to become truly walkable, sustained investment and quality implementation must now follow the city’s renewed aspirations, and 2025 marks a good beginning with this significant dedicated allocation for NMT infrastructure. Analysis of spending patterns on NMT infrastructure over the last three years, reveals that footpath implementation in Chennai relied on piecemeal funding drawn from state and city-level schemes—such as the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF) and Singara Chennai 2.0. In the absence of a dedicated budget, investments in Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) remained inconsistent and limited in scale. This year’s ₹200 crore commitment by Chennai, marks an eightfold increase over last year’s spending on walking and cycling. This signals a much-needed shift from fragmented support to focused investment.

      This renewed focus on walkability couldn’t have come at a more critical time. While Chennai has made commendable progress in reducing overall road crashes, the proportion of pedestrian fatalities has seen a troubling rise from 11% in 2019 to a staggering 43% in 2023.  

      Source: Road Accidents Reports (2019-2022), MoRTH & Road Accident Analysis in Tamil Nadu 2023, TNSTC  

      This persistent gap between mobility patterns and infrastructure safety highlights the urgent need for course correction, which this budget begins to address. The ₹200 crore allocation is a long-overdue shift toward building streets that are shared public spaces where everyone can move freely and safely. To transform this intent into tangible impact and ensure that the budget is effectively utilised, aligned with diverse mobility initiatives, and executed on time, a dedicated coordinating agency like the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is crucial.  

      Bringing It All Together: CUMTA as the institutional backbone  

      Much like Singapore’s shift to a car-lite city was steered by its Land Transport Authority through various institutional reforms and proactive policymaking, Chennai’s mobility transition is now gaining momentum through the leadership of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA). With a clear mandate to coordinate mobility efforts across the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), CUMTA is emerging as the anchor institution for Chennai’s people-first mobility vision. 

      As part of the Budget 2025, Honourable Minister for Housing & Urban Development, Thiru S. Muthusamy announced an array of progressive initiatives led by CUMTA.  

      • Building on the newly adopted Parking Policy, CUMTA will pilot Smart Parking Management in Anna Nagar, reclaiming public space and improving local access. 
      • CUMTA is also developing Comprehensive Street Design Guidelines for the entire Chennai Metropolitan Area—including Tambaram, Avadi, and Kanchipuram—to create safer, more inclusive streets across jurisdictions.  
      • Complementing this, CUMTA is also drafting the Traffic Impact Assessment Guidelines to help cities manage congestion and ensure new developments align with sustainable transport goals.  

      These initiatives go hand-in-hand with Tamil Nadu’s growing investment in Non-Motorised Transport—signalling not just a shift in budget priorities, but a change in how cities are planned and governed. With institutions like CUMTA at the helm, Tamil Nadu is building long-lasting systems to realise its people-first mobility vision. 

      Coimbatore Steps Up: Scaling Sustainable Mobility Initiatives 

      Building on Chennai’s momentum, Coimbatore is making its own strides towards a more people-centric mobility scenario with this year’s budget embedding sustainable mobility into the city’s planning priorities. Two key initiatives are set to guide this: revising the Coimbatore Street Design Guidelines and developing a comprehensive NMT Action Plan. These tools will help the city set a strong foundation for designing safer, more inclusive streets at scale. 

      Coimbatore has been grappling with concerns on road safety, with road fatalities rising over 1000 in 2023; ranking highest in the state. In addition to various other initiatives to address this, a ₹2.5 crore allocation has been announced for a Safe Routes to School pilot on Trichy High Road, covering 2.5 km of critical access routes. Together, these moves reflect Coimbatore’s growing commitment to creating well-planned, safe, walkable streets and mark a step forward in scaling sustainable mobility across Tamil Nadu. 

      A Decade of Partnership: ITDP’s Ongoing Commitment 

      Since 2009, ITDP in India has worked closely with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation to help shape their sustainable mobility vision.  

      Over the years, ITDP has supported with technical research and guidance on key policies and guidelines adopted by city governments, such as the Non-Motorised Transport Policy, Parking Policy, and the Complete Streets Framework. We are also continuing to help cities build the capacity to implement them through on-ground workshops, experiential street audits, and engagements with city leaders. Our role has also included providing technical support and data-driven insights to guide decision-making and strengthen the case for healthier, more equitable streets. 

      We are happy and proud to have contributed to realising these milestones and are extremely grateful for the past and present city leadership for their sustained support in championing these initiatives. 

      Capacity Development Workshop for Bus Routes Roads Department in 2024

      A Win Worth Celebrating—and Building On 

      These announcements are worth celebrating, especially for cities like Chennai and Coimbatore, that are leading this change at the forefront. However, the real measure of success lies in how well we translate this vision and intent into long-lasting impact on the ground. 

      Here are a few pointers for the city governments to make this fruitful:  

      • Chennai’s ambitious plan to implement 170 km of footpaths must be guided by a clear network planning strategy and aligned with CUMTA’s Comprehensive Mobility Plan. 
      • Bringing on board qualified technical experts and consultants will be key to ensuring street designs meet the standards laid out in the city’s adopted guidelines. 
      • Facilitating capacity building for contractors and engineers is equally important to ensure high-quality street implementation. Field engineers must closely monitor implementation quality using well-defined performance indicators to ensure accountability at every step.  
      • Cities must also embed Operations & Maintenance (O&M) systems right from the planning stage, to ensure infrastructure remains functional and safe for all users. 
      • Annually recurring budgets for NMT including dedicated budgets for O&M must be institutionalised, so cities can plan consistently and scale.  
      • One persistent challenge our cities face is siloed execution, where lack of co-ordination leads to utility works disrupting newly built footpaths and guidelines/policies exist on paper without enforcement. Addressing this will require strong inter-agency collaboration, clear mandates, and sustained leadership from institutions like CUMTA. 

      Chennai and Coimbatore have taken a significant first step. Now, they must stay the course—scaling these successes across other cities of Tamil Nadu, building systems, and creating streets where walking, cycling, and shared mobility are not just possible, but preferred. 

      By Varsha Vasuhe, Senior Associate, ITDP India

      Edited by Kashmira Dubash, Deputy Director, ITDP India

      Parking Reimagined: Chennai’s Parking Policy is Paving the Way for Better Streets

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      Commuting in Chennai’s streets often feels like a game of Would You Rather?—except that the choices aren’t fun. 

      Would you rather drive in circles for 20 minutes looking for a parking spot, only to settle for an informal parking space with an arbitrary fee? Or walk on the roadside, dodging parked bikes and cars, weaving through traffic, and hoping for a safe path? 

      In Chennai, these aren’t just hypothetical scenarios, with a population of 15.37 million and 9.2 million registered vehicles, the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) faces a severe parking crunch as there’s nearly two vehicles for every three people in the city. A driver struggling to park in a narrow lane, while a pedestrian—with an elderly companion or child—undertaking challenging obstacles on a short 500-meter walk, dodging haphazard parking one side and speeding vehicles on another- are common scenes we all encounter. 

      Sadly, neither choice makes the city easy to move around and aren’t working for anyone, just like how a would-you-rather game has no correct response. 

      But can the new parking policy and on-ground parking management be the answer, that can lead to a win-win situation for everyone using the street?  
       
      That’s exactly what Chennai has set course for. This year, the city took a historic step toward better parking management by launching a progressive Parking Policy for the entire 5,904 sq. km of the Chennai Metropolitan Area, which includes four corporations – Chennai, Tambaram, Avadi, Kancheepuram, 12 municipalities, 13 town panchayats, 22 panchayat unions and one special grade town panchayat. The policy was developed by the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), which will not only plan, design and strategise, but also oversee its implementation and monitoring. 

      Since April 2022, ITDP India has been a key technical partner, supporting CUMTA in shaping this landmark policy.  

      Stakeholder Meeting with GCC and GCTP in September 2022

      This policy not only addresses the city’s growing parking challenges through area-level parking plans, Travel Demand Management measures, but also brought together key stakeholders—including Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Avadi and Tambaram Corporations, Traffic Police, Highways, and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA)—through extensive consultations. 

      CUMTA’s Parking Policy: Transforming Urban Mobility  

      CUMTA’s newly adopted Parking Policy 2025 is more than just a set of regulations—it’s a transformative approach to managing limited parking space efficiently, reducing congestion, and improving mobility. Here’s a look at its key highlights of the policy: 

      1. Managing parking at the area level and creating neighbourhood wide solutions, to prevent spillovers  

      What does the policy say?
      With the new policy, Chennai is shifting from scattered parking management in isolated streets, to a structured, Area-Level Parking (ALP) Management plan with demand-based pricing, clear regulations, and smart enforcement. The plan allocates parking spots in every street, based on the demand, and uses both ground teams and technology to manage parking efficiently across the neighbourhood. 

      Why is it important? 
      Managing parking in a few streets isn’t effective and can make the problem worse by causing spillover and more traffic in the adjoining streets. But when we look at a whole area and its network of streets together, we can address the neighbourhood’s need for parking more effectively. This also ensures that street space is used efficiently and is accessible to all street users. By using a demand-based pricing system, we can discourage unnecessary car/bike use and encourage people to choose more sustainable options, like public transport or cycling. 

      Site Visit in Anna Nagar Chennai towards preparation of ALP (CUMTA x ITDP India x Street Matrix)

      2. Prioritising Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Public Transport users, Before Parking

      What the policy says? 
      The policy ensures that the city agencies build safe, continuous footpaths and well-integrated NMT infrastructure. The policy gives precedence to footpath allocation over parking.  The policy ensures that parking space is allocated to a street, only after sufficient footpaths and carriageway space is available.    

      Why is it important?
      More than 60% of trips starts and ends on foot. Poor footpaths/no footpaths push pedestrians onto carriageways, increasing their exposure to moving vehicles and reducing safety. Presence of NMT infrastructure reduces vehicle dependence, easing parking demand, and optimising street space, ensuring safer, more inclusive streets. This way parking plans will also nudge the city agencies to ensure walkable footpath are available, leading to wider footpath coverage. 

      Pedestrian Plaza at T.Nagar with On-Street Parking Management.

      3. Demand-Based Dynamic Pricing and Smart Enforcement to Shape People’s Parking Behaviour 

      What does the policy say?
      Parking rates under the new policy will be dynamic based on the area. It will vary, by vehicle size, location of the parking spot, time of day, and demand. On-street parking will be priced higher than off-street options (government or private MLCPs, parking lots, etc.). This will nudge those wanting to park their vehicles for long term (more than 2 hours) to look for off-street options and allowing the on-street parking lots to be open for short terms users. Prepaid parking will replace postpaid models to encourage planned usage.  
      As per the parking policy, enforcement measures will be taken up for the following kind of violations: double parking, parking in no-parking zone, parking on footpath, non-payment of parking fees etc. These violations will be discouraged with the use of technological interventions through sensors, cameras, etc. and on-ground parking teams. 

      Why is it important?  
      Pricing strategies help manage demand for parking, reduce congestion, and discourage personal vehicle user. Only those willing to pay end up coming in cars and bikes, while the rest may turn to other sustainable options.  
      For example, T. Nagar, a bustling commercial area, has a higher parking charge of Rs. 60 per hour for cars, while in other areas, the charge is Rs. 20 per hour.  
      In contrast, the proposed parking charges for Anna Nagar are Rs. 40 per hour. These rates have been set based on factors such as, how majority of the people commute while visiting the area, availability of public transport, land use, and considerations for traffic management. 
      Enforcement strategies are an important tool for behaviour change. The focus of the policy is to not penalise the violator but discourage the violations. By adding penalties and punitive actions to the violations, people’s parking habits can be modified for the better. 

      Comprehensive on-street and off-street parking fee strategy at Pedestrian Plaza at T.Nagar

      4. Chennai to take a centralised approach to parking management with a Parking Management Unit (PMU) 

      What does the policy say?  
      The policy establishes the need for a single authority to manage parking holistically. The Parking Management Unit (PMU) will be this single authority and will function under CUMTA. It will be responsible for planning, pricing, enforcement, and implementation across agencies. 

      Why is it important?  
      A single authority streamlines decision-making, prevents fragmented implementation across agencies, and ensures consistency in pricing, enforcement, and monitoring. In many other cities, this was a critical reason why parking policies failed to bring the results as expected, as the implementation and enforcement were split among multiple agencies. 

      5. Policy allows for Legal & Policy Amendments to other key legislations 

      What does the policy say?  
      For on-street parking spaces: As per the policy, Traffic Police, Urban Local Body, and Road Owning Agency can pass an official order to delegate parking responsibility and enforcement to CUMTA’s PMU. This will ensure seamless management across agencies.  
      For off-street parking spaces: The policy recommends amendments to TNCDBR (Development Control Regulations of TN). This will help redefine how much off-street parking must be made provided in any property development. For example, in areas with high coverage of public transport, the overall number of permissible parking lots is reduced. This follows the concept of parking maximums, to ensure people use the public transport that is easily available and are not dependent on personal vehicles. 

      Meeting at CUMTA with CEPT-CRDF (TNCDBR Consultant) in August 2023

      Why is it important?
      Contextualising the existing legal framework is critical for effective enforcement, regulatory clarity, and integrating parking seamlessly into urban planning frameworks.  As per the current legal framework, the parking management roles are fragmented with Traffic Police and Urban Local Bodies on planning, pricing, implementation and enforcement. The new policy allows CUMTA to take up the responsibility from different agencies and be the sole management unit- through the PMU. 

      6. Parking Fee collected from the area to be re-invested back in the area 

      What does the policy say?
      Surplus parking revenue will be ring-fenced for local improvements, including better footpaths, cycling infrastructure, and public spaces. This approach ensures that the benefits of effective parking management are directly felt by the community, enhancing the quality of life and encouraging more sustainable modes of transport. 

      Why is it important?
      Unlike traditional models where parking fees is looked at as a general pool of revenue, not linked to any one location, Chennai’s Parking Policy ensures that the revenue collected is re-directed to prioritise improvements in that specific location. 
      Currently, the annual parking revenue in Anna Nagar is approximately Rs. 35 lakhs. However, with effective parking management, it is estimated that this could increase to Rs. 3.3 crore per year. This is because, the current practice in Anna Nagar involves pricing per parking slot, rather than, an hourly basis, and not all streets have designated parking slots, resulting in an isolated approach. In contrast, the proposed plan adopts a cluster approach with hourly pricing, ensuring a more organised and efficient system. This revenue will be reinvested into improving Anna Nagar’s mobility, streets, green spaces, etc. 

      Future-Proofing Chennai’s Streets

      The policy also allows for some future-proof strategies like Urban Freight Management, EV charging integration, Travel Demand Management.

      1.   Urban Freight Management: This is a structured city-level and area-level approach to regulate the  movement of goods. This ensures dedicated loading/unloading zones are allocated on the streets  to reduce congestion and improve last-mile logistics. 
      2.  EV Charging Integration: To ensure that streets can accommodate the growing number of electric vehicles (EVs), the parking policy emphasises the need to integrate both on-street and off-street e-charging infrastructure. By planning for EV charging within parking spaces, the policy supports the shift to cleaner mobility. 
      3. Travel Demand Management (TDM): The policy also allows to create customised strategies for schools, workplaces, and commercial hubs by promoting sustainable commuting options, staggered work hours, and shared mobility to reduce peak-hour congestion.  

      How will CUMTA ensure this policy is implemented well and monitored? 

      Currently CUMTA has kickstarted the implementation of the policy through Area Level Plan in Anna Nagar. They will roll it out by hiring parking service providers who will manage collection of fees, enforcement etc. This will be a pilot intervention, learnings from which will inform future implementation. Since this is a technology driven parking management plan, CUMTA has also initiated the development of a parking app and a centralised command center for monitoring. The implementation of this pilot will be monitored through 14 robust Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).  

      Conclusion 

      Chennai’s streets, once vibrant corridors of life, now prioritise metal over people. And for years, moving through the city has felt like a never-ending game of Would You Rather?—drive in circles hunting for parking or weave through a maze of parked vehicles on foot. 

      The Parking Policy changes that. It doesn’t force citizens to choose between driving and walking or taking public transport. Instead, it ensures that everyone gets their fair share of space on the road. 

      This policy isn’t just a document—it’s the end of a bad game and the beginning of a better city. And that’s a milestone worth celebrating. 

      By Sangami Nagarajan, Associate Urban Planning,
      With Inputs from Venugopal AV, Programme Manager

      Edited by Donita Jose

      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

      Priceless Parking: The hidden costs of parking

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      The first two days of September saw two big changes to make India’s streets safer, freer and less congested. The new Motor Vehicles rules came into force on the first of September, attempting the impossible, controlling the behaviour of Indian motorists on the streets. Through heavier penalties, the rules seek to reduce violations. On September 2, the Supreme Court released a judgment on the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules 2019, under the umbrella of the MC Mehta case. This judgment can be seen as a landmark not just for improving parking management in our cities, but also for other steps towards reclaiming spaces for pedestrians. 

      Pedestrians walking on the street due to space taken up by parking

      Our cities are known for their chaotic streets. Pedestrians and cyclists competing with other vehicles for space on the streets is a common sight. This is further exacerbated by the ever increasing need for parking space for all these vehicles, mostly on the street or on footpaths, blocking the movement of traffic and pedestrians. The Supreme Court judgment begins with an admonishment of the state for its failure to provide adequate public transport, and mismanaging the consequences of that failure, the increasing number of private vehicles that have taken over our streets. 

      The judgment has taken some progressive first steps, emphasising some important aspects such as the need for footpaths in all residential areas to be cleared of encroachments to make it usable for pedestrians, and the significance of modern technology in ensuring efficient utilisation of parking spaces. It also raises the possibility of charging people for parking, though leaving that decision to the state. 

      However, there are some aspects of the judgment that need more scrutiny. The judgment also called on city planners and architects to provide adequate off-street parking at major demand hubs – commercial and institutional areas, transportation hubs, etc – accommodating the potential demand for the next 25 years. The order touches multiple times on creating off street parking spaces to cater to parking demand. This can be effective only post an effective on street demand based priced PM system. 

      Underutilised Multi-Level-Car parking structures (Credit: The Indian Express)

      Multilevel car parking (MLCP) complexes are one such solution to provide off-street parking. It is a popular myth that high parking demand can be addressed by building MLCP complexes. However, examples from India and around the world clearly indicate that it is a short-sighted attempt. In India, these MLCPs are built at great public cost and remain underutilised and vacant in many cases. Most often, the high demand is an apparent local demand, centred around one or two streets with higher levels of activity (commercial for example), while the other streets in the neighbourhood are relatively free of vehicular parking. This demand could be eased by zone-based on-street parking management, so that parking supply is distributed evenly across different streets in the neighbourhood. Hence, detailed studies are required before proposing new MLCPs.

      Another way to provide off-street parking are requirements that already exist in the Development Control Regulations(DCR) set by local development authorities, but are not adhered to in many cases. That might not be such a bad thing.  

      These requirements are referred to as parking minimums. They are laws that require property developers to include a fixed number of off-street parking spaces according to the size of a building. The reasoning for this is that without enough off-street parking, efficient traffic flow can be compromised due to vehicles cruising for parking or parking on the street. These parking minimums can be extremely problematic in practice. 

      The hidden costs of parking

      Building regulations should be modified to remove minimum parking requirements, allowing developers to assess parking demand before creating parking (Parking Basics)

      Global experts on parking such as Donald Shoup and Paul Barter point out that providing for parking minimums has a cost. By forcing developers to build huge amounts of parking, these rules increase traffic and harm the environment by encouraging more people to drive. They also lead to inefficient land use. Planners and architects tend to overestimate the demand, providing more off-street parking than necessary, leading to wastage of space. The increased cost of development are then passed on to buyers, even those who may not own vehicles.

      At the same time, there is a reluctance to engage with managing on-street parking demand. This leads to a situation where we see the extremes of large, empty parking lots and streets choked with parked vehicles. As a society, we should think about the sense in using up valuable space to prioritise private vehicle parking demand for the next twenty-five years.  

      Cities around the world have moved away from the concept of parking minimums, realising that they result in a wastage of both public and private land and investments. Mexico City has now converted their parking minimums into a parking maximum. This would change the high levels of mandated parking into the maximum allowed amount of parking, allowing developers to provide lower amounts of parking. Parking maximums are more effective because they ensure that excessive parking is not created based on norms, and developers can choose to provide less parking according to market demand. Any parking above 50 percent of the maximum would be charged and the revenues from this fee would be used to improve public transport and subsidise housing.  

      Across our cities, free parking is viewed as a right by motorists, leading to a reluctance by city authorities and private developers to charge the full cost of parking onto motorists. It is strange that most people are outraged at having to pay for parking, while showing no surprise on hearing the cost of property in commercial and residential areas. Why should the cost of land for parking not be the same as commercial or residential rental value in a locality? Charging people for parking would discourage personal motor vehicle use, shift to alternative modes and ensure that they pay for the valuable public space they use up for parking. 

      As the judgment rightly observed, a primary cause for our current situation has been the failure of our governments to provide adequate good quality public transport. While enforcing the new Motor Vehicles act and creating efficient parking management systems are much needed steps, they will fail to achieve their goals without the support of an efficient public transportation system and last mile connectivity. 

      Moving Forward

      The judgment is a great start to a national level discussion on parking. Delhi has notified the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules 2019 which aims to dramatically change parking in Delhi. The policy contains provisions to formulate hundreds of area-specific parking plans which will be developed in an exhaustive exercise over the next four months. Bengaluru and Hyderabad have also attempted to implement parking policies. Cities like Shimla and Gangtok have already created and approved city-wide parking policies. Chennai is also on the way to implementing a parking management system across the city. 

      Efficient parking management can be an effective way to ensure better streets and cities. Removing parking minimums and charging people for parking are important and necessary steps that can help cities to effectively manage the demand for parking. The judgment is a good starting point and Indian cities have already started taking the first steps towards this future.

      Written by Keshav Suryanarayanan

      Technical Direction: Vishnu Mohanakumar, AV Venugopal, Aswathy Dilip

      Congestion Pricing: panacea to Mumbai’s transport woes

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      Mumbai wears many tags: The City that Never Sleeps, The City of Dreams, The Maximum City, etc. Another moniker that aptly defines the conditions prevalent in the city could be ‘The City of Traffic Bedlam’. Such is the chaos that reigns supreme on the city’s pigeonholed roads, with private motor vehicles playing the usual suspects.

      In light of the ever-rising transportation concerns, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)—the agency responsible for urban planning in the Mumbai region—is keen to explore the feasibility of congestion pricing to reduce traffic congestion. A stakeholder focus-group meeting was held on 6 March, to understand various perspectives of congestion pricing, as part of a joint study initiated by MMRDA in collaboration with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) India Programme.

      A travel-demand management measure, congestion pricing aims to tackle the issue of road congestion, growing private vehicle use, and environmental pollution. Simply put, the approach will look to levy a charge on private vehicles for accessing a high-demand stretch or zone. These charges are aimed at discouraging usage of private vehicles, while improving and promoting public transport ridership.

      A move long overdue

      Mumbai has been renowned for its strong network of public transport systems such as the omnipresent BEST buses and the reliable ‘local trains’. But as middle-class ambitions grew, so did the car-craze. In the recent decade, private automobiles found safe sanctuaries in the homes and streets of Mumbai. Meanwhile, the BEST bus services continue to suffer due to declining fleet sizes and ridership; while the local trains, the city’s backbone, are bursting at the seams with unimaginable passenger load.

      Greater Mumbai’s extravagant private vehicle growth and expenditure on related infrastructure cannot justify the paltry commute figures. Private vehicle numbers skyrocketed from 7.9 lakh in 2001 to 32 lakh in 2017! Even though they make up for only 12% of all trips, private vehicles occupy over three-fourth of  road space, leaving the rest to the fringes. What happens when the 12% increases to 20% or even more? Constructing more roads or flyovers is not the answer – these are short sighted solutions that are expensive and unsustainable.

      Decongest and get a move on

      As per Uber Movement estimates, the average Mumbaikar spends 135% per cent more time on the road than their Asian counterparts. Thus, the move to congestion pricing is not about punishing the driver; it is more about ensuring people get to their destination faster and more affordably—with less environmental impact and less stress.

      According to the MMRDA, congestion pricing will encourage a modal shift to public transport modes which is a healthy alternative for people and the environment. It is also understood that an effective congestion pricing strategy will increase average speed and reduce travel times by all modes, especially buses.

      However, congestion pricing is a mere part of the bigger puzzle that looks to resolve traffic congestion in cities like Mumbai. “Mumbai should first try more simple traffic reduction measures like charging on-street parking and eliminating on-street parking from mobility corridors. That is slowing down buses. The buses run only about 160 km/day today, against 200 km just a few years ago. Buses have to run 200 km/day to be viable” says Harshad Abhyankar, Mobility Planning Specialist at the ITDP India Programme.

      Presently, BEST buses share the carriageway with other vehicles and hence, their operating speed is adversely affected by traffic congestion. Haphazard parking increases friction on the street edge which further slows them down. Lower bus speeds generally result in fewer buses scheduled on routes, which only entices commuters to opt for the more ‘convenient’ option – their car or the two-wheeler.  And this vicious cycle continues.

      The move towards congestion pricing will allow Mumbai to explore the possibility of firstly, charging on-street parking to discourage the use of private vehicles, secondly, prioritising and strengthening the lifeline of the city – its BEST buses, and thirdly, investing in high-quality people-friendly infrastructure such as footpaths, cycle tracks, and dedicated bus lanes. For all of this to be successful, “a legislation that gives charge of all traffic reduction measures and related responsibilities to a single entity is desirable”, emphasised a participant at the focus group discussion.

      No one enjoys being stuck in traffic. People stuck in traffic jams lose time, money, and their peace of mind. Congestion pricing is a measure to reduce traffic congestion – that is charging private vehicles for accessing a high-demand stretch or zone. The revenue generated can be levied to improve city bus services, and walking and cycling infrastructure – the more sustainable way of moving around. However, its application is an uphill task. The ITDP India Programme is excited to be working with  MMRDA to learn from this initial meeting, further its understanding from international case studies, and explore possibilities of congestion pricing in Mumbai.

      Move over traffic, Mumbaikars coming through (about time)!

      Written by Rohit James and Kashmira Dubash.

      Picture credit: Vincent Mivelaz, Flickr