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
