Carefree on Car-free Sundays: Citizens take to city streets for fun and revelry

9th August 2018 by admin

Imagine an arterial road in your city. Now, place a child running about in that stretch. Fair to assume that your brows twitched at the thought of these two events aligning. Though stark, urban dwellers are naturalised to the danger that arterial roads or streets in general hold. But to hold a static entity accountable is unfair. So where does the buck stop?

Let’s reimagine this sequence of events. Same arterial city road and same child running about carefree. This time though, cordon off vehicles from the section. Suddenly, the road seems to be devoid of chaos. It even becomes an oasis where people can come together to run, play, and enjoy themselves to their heart’s content.

Isn’t it bewildering how one component can drive our stress up the walls and still be considered an integral part of our lives. This is exactly what the “Car-free” initiative was conceptualised to debunk. Originated in the Netherlands and Belgium during the 1956 Suez Crisis, the move was planned to ration petroleum. But it took its true form in 1958, when New York City residents blocked vehicles into their neighbourhood to protest the extension of a road at the cost of a public space.

As vehicles started taking over our streets and lives, the initiative gained prominence to counter this menace. And it is with the same intention that the initiative made its way into the Indian quarters. The “Car-free Sundays” drive, proposed by ITDP India Programme in collaboration with Riverside School and other partners, was first introduced to Ahmedabad in 2009. Every Sunday, citizens were given unconditional access to three arterial stretches to experience the freedom of walking and cycling on safer car-free streets.

India’s first car-free Sunday in Ahmedabad in 2012

It wasn’t long before other states recognised the transformative nature of the initiative. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were quick to come on board and transform their streets into vibrant spaces for citizens, not vehicles, to occupy.

Leading the charge in Tamil Nadu was Coimbatore. The dialogue, facilitated by ITDP, was a success. All partners –including the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), print media partners and the residents– realised that the concept would help improve walking and cycling conditions in the city.

The Corporation and the Coimbatore Police left no stones unturned to help citizens reclaim landscape lost to vehicles. With prior public consultation workshops for residents, the campaign was launched across two stretches –DB Road and T V Swamy Road– for a total of 1.7km, in 2015. This sense of emancipation was refreshing, as many came in droves to be part of the revelry. Soon accolades started pouring in, with the campaign being honoured with the Best Project Award, Non-Motorised Transport category, by India’s National Ministry of Urban Development.

People enjoying hop-scotch at the car-free Sunday in Coimbatore

The obvious impact was soon realised by Chennai and it didn’t take much for city officials and the police to join the bandwagon, with ITDP again playing a hand holding role in collaboration with Chennai City Connect and The Hindu (media partners). Titled “Namma Chennai Namakke” (Our Chennai for Ourselves), many residents took an instant liking to the idea.

“I would love to see children aimlessly ride their cycles on the road…or adults playing badminton and pet enthusiast take their companions for a walk. I personally would indulge my pet, without the fear of him/her getting hit by a car,” said Jennifer Jacob-Murali, resident of Chennai.

Father and daughter bonding over skipping at the car-free Sunday in Chenani

Every Sunday, the ruckus of vehicles were replaced by that of laughter and excitement. Of kids being kids and parents joining the act. Of people dancing, doing yoga, and enjoying art and craft. Of citizens, young and old, not surrendering their right to walk, run, and cycle to the chagrin of fuel guzzling automobiles.

Today, these cities have taken a step ahead towards sustainable urban transport solutions with Chennai adopting a Non-Motorised Transport Policy and Coimbatore adopting the Street Design and Management Policy. Car-free Sundays helped citizen to wake up to the possibility of enjoying public spaces like roads and streets without the hindrance and dread of vehicles. Its success gave momentum to the ‘Model Roads’ project, as citizens demanded better walking and cycling infrastructure across Coimbatore.

Not even John Lennon could have imagined how vehicles would take over lives, leaving us struggling to find our way. So an ode to his legendary vision, with a twist of our own.

Imagine there are no vehicles
It’s easy if you try
No fumes around us
Only people and the sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Cover image courtesy: Times of India, Coimbatore.

Maharashtra Urban Mobility Policy

31st July 2018 by admin

If life is a theatre, then commuting on Indian urban roads is a Greek tragedy that unfolds daily. Jostling for space, dashing to beat a signal or tip-toeing around oncoming traffic, all these are daily reminders of how desperately the Indian transport system needs an overhaul. According to a Boston Consulting Group survey, a commuter in Mumbai spends 135% more time in road travel than any other Asian city.

Yet, our current vehicle-centric transportation planning only adds more vehicles on roads. And beating congestion by adding more roads is a battle that no city has won. It isn’t just the rapid increase in congestion, traffic snarls or travel time, but also the subsequent rise of pollution and road accidents that hamper quality of life in our cities.

“Every rupee spent by a city on public transport boosts its economy by four rupees!” said Mr Khatua, Director of Mumbai Technical Support Unit, at a workshop on the Maharashtra State Urban Transport Policy. Succinctly put, the senior officer magnifies the need of the hour: sustainable public transport systems.

Closely looking at Maharashtra’s urban population, it is expected to increase by a whopping 30% in the next decade and by another 50% in the years to follow. Going by the present-day scenario of urban commute in the state, the future seems too hazy. To counter these issues, the Urban Development Department of the state has drafted and published the Maharashtra Urban Mobility Policy.

With sustainability at its core, the policy looks to develop transport systems in accordance. So efforts will be concentrated on urban transit systems which reduces burden on resources and most importantly, offers an equal space to every commuter. Hence, facilitating walking, cycling and usage of public transport.

How the policy came about

In 2006, the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) was laid out as a guidance for transportation planning in Indian cities. It prioritized the movement of people and not vehicles in cities, emphasizing on adequate road space for sustainable transport modes, such as walking, cycling and public transport. However, the NUTP mostly existed as a term of reference on papers.

You may ask, so why bring it up now? Well, Maharashtra is taking strides to plug this gap, making it the first state to define its own transportation policy. This further ensures that its urban transportation projects are consistent with NUTP. In June 2017, the Urban Development Department released a draft of the policy. To ensure transparency and insight on feasibility the process was participatory, taking into consideration comments and suggestions of citizens and officials from various cities.

Consultation with Pune Municipal Corporation

Consultation with Nashik Municipal Corporation

In all of this the ITDP India Programme provided technical guidance to the Urban Development Department, and the department is now in the last stages of finalizing the draft.

What it offers

Applicable to all urban areas of the state, the policy envisions transport modes which are safe, reliable, sustainable and accessible for citizen from all walks of life. Additionally, focusing on women’s safety.

The key objectives that the policy will enforce upon cities are:
· Safety and convenience offered to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users.
· Reducing usage of personal vehicles
· Our transportation infrastructure must be is universally accessible
· Road fatalities should be drastically reduced
· Ambient air quality should meet or exceed Central Pollution Control Board norms

All this is easier said than done, of course. Hence, the policy offers tangible metrics for infrastructure implementation, followed up with support and training provided by the state government.

The policy also helps to detangle the bureaucratic red-tape and ensures a coherent approach is in store. Cities with a population of 10 lakh or more are expected to establish a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority and an Urban Transport Fund to manage financial resources for all transportation projects. This will ensure that each agency works in coordination and follows an identical vision.

In conclusion, the policy offers a glimmer of hope; and we say glimmer because there are still many a miles to go and stretches to be reclaimed for equal distribution. But this clearly is a step in the right direction which will impact and influence other states to follow suit. In essence, Maharashtra has shown its wherewithal to get with the times and be the trailblazer that leads by example.

Are flyovers the problem or the solution to traffic woes in Indian cities?

14th June 2018 by admin

The growing traffic problems in our cities calls for urgent and effective remedies. Yet old-school ‘solutions’ such as flyovers, wider roads, and elevated expressways actually make matters worse. Flyovers represent a twentieth century delusion of free flowing traffic, built at extraordinary costs for a very small percentage of road users.

Over decades, planning and development authorities around the world have fetishized the flyover as putative symbols of ‘modernity’ or ‘technological advancement’. Their actions to fuel the velocity and demand of private vehicles have shaped the urban space discourse. Flyovers continue to hack through the urbanscapes, displacing homes and economies.

In reality, while such infrastructure may provide a short-term illusion of relief from traffic woes, but by making it easier for people to use their own vehicles, new roads attract even more traffic and repeat the vicious cycle of congestion all over again.

Around the world, cities from Seoul to San Francisco are tearing down flyovers and/or rejuvenating dead spaces under the flyover with human scaled spaces that promote green modes of transport. In doing so, these cities have been able to reduce pollution, improve safety, and ensure that high quality public transport offers a meaningful alternative to sitting in traffic.

The Cheonggyecheon River Linear Park Project, Seoul

Cities in India have started to recognise that the key to urban mobility is moving people, not vehicles. In 2016, Ranchi (capital city of Jharkhand), a city for which ITDP India Programme has provided technical support since 2013, took bold steps and stalled the construction of two flyovers on Main Road.

The Urban Development and Housing Department, Government of Jharkhand, cancelled the flyover project that was proposed to decongest the city area, and instead focused on designing the street to prioritise the cleanest, most efficient modes: walking, cycling, and public transport.

Over a third of the population in India cities rely on walking, cycling, and other forms of human-powered transport to commute to work and get around cities every day. Increasing the use of cycles and the ease of walking is one of the most affordable and practical ways to reduce CO2 emissions, while boosting health and access to economic opportunity.

Indian cities should also focus on public transport driven mobility. By international standards, our cities need 20-30 km of mass rapid transit for every 10 lakh (one million) residents. This means that the larger cities of the country like Chennai require over 300 km of rapid transit. Currently, with only 100 km of suburban rail and metro combined, it would take two generations to build enough rapid transit in the city!

One of the most effective option to scale up the nation’s ability to provide high capacity public transport corridors is the Bus Rapid Transit, also known as the BRT. The system features dedicated median lanes for buses, allowing commuters to bypass the congestion in mixed traffic lanes.

A Bus Rapid Transit can carry anywhere between 10,000-30,000 people per hour per direction, which is approximately seven to eight times more than the capacity of a 2-lane flyover. The system can also be deployed quickly at a fraction of the cost of a flyover. A flyover costs approximately Rs 200 crores per km, whereas, a Bus Rapid Transit costs Rs 15-20 crores per km.

Cities like Seoul, San Francisco, Toronto, built flyovers between the 1950s and 1980s, only to pull them down later to make space for its people! To be ‘smart’, Indian cities must learn from these examples and best practises. Our cities should realise that such infrastructure only begets more traffic and pollution, and shift focus to prioritising walking, cycling, and the use of public transport.

Authored by Kashmira Dubash

Chennai’s journey to reclaim city streets for its people

8th June 2018 by admin

Chennai, a thriving South Indian metropolis and the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, is at the cusp of turning into one of the world’s megacities. While it historically had the image of being somewhat insular, the Chennai of today is a cosmopolitan hub where the old meets the new.

Transportation is the focus of many pressing issues facing Chennai today—decisions about whether to build highways or bus corridors have a great impact on our health and our environment.

But within five years of ITDP’s engagement with the city, Chennai took the bold move of adopting the Non Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy—first in India. The policy mandates that a minimum of 60 percent of of transport funding to create and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure in the city.

Having retrofitted over 50 km of walkable streets over the years, Chennai has initiated the next phase of redesigning an additional 50 km of street network. Chennai’s policy has inspired many national and international cities—from Chandigarh to Nairobi—to adopt similar policies. The comprehensive approach undertaken by Chennai, was awarded the Sustainia Award in 2015.

Watch how ITDP India has supported, and continues to support Chennai transform its streets for a better city, and better lives.

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

25th May 2018 by admin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ITDP India – Our Journey from a Dream to Reality

11th May 2018 by admin

It was back in 1998 that ITDP began its engagements in India, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” What started as one woman’s journey to change the dystopian path our cities were drifting towards has transformed into a formidable force of young, passionate visionaries who strive to bring back life in a place we call home. Today, ITDP celebrates two decades of action on the ground, catalysing tangible transformation at scale in over a third of urban India.

Transportation is the focus of many pressing issues facing the world today—decisions about whether to build highways or bus corridors have a great impact on our health and our planet. For this reason, ITDP has worked with over 18 Indian cities to reduce the human impact of transport choices: ensuring cities put people before cars, all citizens can walk and cycle safety, and jobs and services are a bus ride away. Through the dedicated efforts of our team and a strategic approach towards sustainable transport, ITDP India programme has impacted the lives of millions for the past 20 years.

The journey in India began in Agra. The vision to develop a modern cycle rickshaw to counter the growing threats of motor vehicular pollution, gave way to the India Cycle Rickshaw Improvement Project. What started off as five prototypes has become sustainably embedded as the standard design in cities across North India. Today, around half a million of these modern cycle rickshaws serve 4-5 million zero-carbon trips daily and offer dignified livelihood to over a million people, transforming the lives of their families as well.

ITDP realised the need to transform the quality and availability of public transport in Indian cities. Since 2003, the India Programme evangelised the idea of the Bus Rapid Transit (popularly known as BRT) to transform mediocre bus services into high-quality mass transit.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, welcomed ITDP to reimagine bus transit in 2005. Our partnership with Environment Planning Collaborative, and thereafter with CEPT University and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation resulted in the launch of Janmarg (in 2009)—India’s first high quality BRT system that expands to a network of 87 km. Janmarg has inspired many cities in India, and with guidance from ITDP, five cities have created 200 km of high-quality BRT to date.

In 2009, the India Programme revolutionised the way people perceived streets in India. Safe, child-friendly streets are not just a mirage of the past, but can be a beautiful reality even today. Ahmedabad was the first city in India to host Car-Free Sundays in collaboration with ITDP, Riverside School and other partners. The initiative allowed citizens to experience the freedom of walking and cycling on safer car-free streets. The success enabled expansion to Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to raise awareness and transform their streets into places we all dream of everyday.

ITDP India Programme initiated collaboration with Chennai City Connect in 2009 to improve cycling and walking conditions across the city. Change isn’t easy in cities where the car is a symbol for status. But within five years of ITDP’s engagement with the city, Chennai took the bold move of adopting the Non Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy—first in India.

The policy mandates that a minimum of 60 percent of of transport funding to create and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure in the city. Having retrofitted over 50 km of walkable streets over the years, Chennai has initiated the next phase of redesigning an additional 50 km of street network. Chennai’s policy has inspired many national and international cities—from Chandigarh to Nairobi—to adopt similar policies. The comprehensive approach undertaken by Chennai, was awarded the Sustainia Award in 2015.

Since 2013, the India Programme has worked with the smaller cities of Tamil Nadu – Coimbatore, Trichy, Tirupur, Salem, and Madurai. In Coimbatore, the Namma Kovai Namakke (Our Coimbatore Ourselves) campaign, initiated by ITDP, sparked citizen demand for better pedestrian facilities. Coimbatore was the first city in Tamil Nadu to host Car-Free Sundays, that inspired Chennai and Madurai to do the same. The city also adopted The Coimbatore Street Design and Management Policy that aims to increase walking, cycling and public transport use. In light of Coimbatore’s vision to improve people-mobility, the city has planned a 30 km-network of walking and cycling paths to connect the city’s major lakes, in line with the guiding Policy.

The India programme began its engagements in Maharashtra in 2009, first with the Municipal Corporations of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, and thereafter in Nashik and Aurangabad. Today, Pune is the epitome of a smart Indian city. Pune launched 40 kms of the Rainbow BRT in 2015, with an additional 45 km in the pipeline. The city adopted the Urban Street Design Guidelines and plans to redesign 100 km of streets based on the world-class standards set by the transformation of JM Road and DP Road pilot project.

While Pune has taken the first steps towards developing a people-centric city, the next challenge is to address the encroachment onto footpaths by parked vehicles. As a result, Pune adopted the Public Parking Policy to regulate parking, in 2018. The Policy aims to manage on-street parking through an efficient paid parking system but exempts bicycle parking from any charges. Pune realises that encouraging cycling reduces CO2, improves commuters’ health and increases retail visibility. As a result, the city plans to implement a dockless Public Bicycle Sharing system of 13,100 cycle, under the city’s Bicycle Plan. Yes, the city has worked wonders. Pune, Chennai, and Coimbatore – all cities ITDP assisted, were selected in the first round of the national government’s Smart City Mission.

In 2013, the India programme also expanded to Ranchi, the capital of the state of Jharkhand. Local conditions were unfavourable to support sustainable transport; thus, ITDP initiated collaboration with local civil society groups, educational institutions and trade associations that formed the Ranchi Mobility Partnership. Ranchi’s Mobility for All action plan prepared by ITDP, with input from the partners, provided a detailed roadmap of transport solutions for local conditions.

The action plan inspired the city to take responsibility of overseeing operations of 100 new buses, and an additional 300 buses in the due course—an applaudable move for a city that had fewer than 30 buses. The plan also identified a cycle network to improve access to public transport; as a result, the city is in the midst of constructing the state’s first Bicycle Sharing system comprising of 1200 cycles.

Onward and upward, Ranchi’s Parking Policy has inspired other cities in the state, like Jamshedpur, to manage on-street parking. The State too realised the chaos caused by unregulated parking and thereafter adopted the Jharkhand Parking Regulations—first in India. Jharkhand is also the first state to endorse the Transit Oriented Development Policy that was prepared in consultation with ITDP India.

On account of leveraging the sustainable transport agenda at the national level, the India expanded to the country’s capital, Delhi, in 2016. This gave rise to the policy brief on Women and Transport in collaboration with Safetipin and UN Women. Women represent the largest share of public transport users, yet they face many barriers that limit their mobility such as safety, comfort, convenience and affordability. Empowering women in transport enables them to participate in workforce, thereby creating a societal shift to transform the entire world economy.

The India Programme’s capacity development work, through training workshops and study tours, has been imperative to the success of its projects and policy. The India Programme has trained over 1000 government officials and other stakeholders. Over the years, our knowledge products have not only been used for best practise references, but also endorsed by the government – for example, the National Guidelines for Public Bicycle-sharing for the Ministry of Urban Development, and Street Design and BRT Guidelines for the Indian Roads Congress (IRC).

Since 1998, ITDPs’ agenda of improving the quality of life of citizens through equitable and sustainable transport has only magnified in momentum over time. Times have evolved, but our dream remains the same. Take a moment and imagine a 2050: will we design a future where we continue to get trapped in endless traffic while pollution destroys the city, and infrastructure fails to deliver? Or, will we live in ‘smart cities’ where people can zip around town, connected with walking and cycling boulevards and world-class rapid transit. The choice is yours; we chose the latter.

P.S. Dear Mahatma Gandhiji, we are being the change we wish to see in the world today. And, we have been doing it successfully for the past 20 years in India!

Public bicycle sharing: Ranchi’s big move to being a cycle-friendly city!

25th April 2018 by admin

“At the end of the day, I head to a nearby store for vegetables and other items before walking home,” explains Shivani, a native of Ranchi who commutes to work by shared auto rickshaw. Her shuttle isn’t uncommon in a city that’s growing rapidly despite the lack of formalised public transport system. However, she needn’t fret – the city’s ‘go-ahead’ for a public bicycle sharing system (commonly known as PBS system) aims to improve last-mile connectivity.

In Jharkhand’s first step toward cycle-friendly streets, Ranchi city has begun construction of its PBS system stations this month. ITDP assisted the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) in preparing the feasibility of PBS in Ranchi that proposes to see 1200 cycles distributed in the state capital. ITDP also provided technical assistance for the tender document and review of bids in the process.

Construction of PBS stations underway in Ranchi

A PBS system is a flexible form of personal public transport. Cycles are stored in a closely spaced network of stations. With a smart card or other form of identification, a user can check out a cycle from a station and return it to any other station. The system offers the convenience of cycling without the burden of ownership, and the flexibility to accommodate one-way trips.

PBS stations are being built in high-density commercial areas

With the finalisation of the operator, the system is being implemented in two phases: 600 cycles will be rolled out by May and the remaining 600 by July. The cycle stations provide access to notable public destinations in high-density commercial activity zones like Main Road and Lalpur Road, institutional areas and residential neighbourhoods.

The implementation of the system will not only enhance the image of cycling in Ranchi, but also reduce congestion and improve air quality by attracting private vehicle users. Ranchi’s endeavour to reclaim streets for people will bring them a new experience: a city that can be enjoyed on cycles!

Pune inspires Tamil Nadu cities to reclaim streets for people

6th April 2018 by admin

“Smart cities are equivalent to glamorous buildings where policies and guidelines form a strong foundation”, Mr. Kunal Kumar, IAS, Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation. Over the years, our streets have been reduced to battlefields as people try to grapple with traffic congestion, lack of footpaths, and air pollution. One city that has taken bold, applaudable measures to rectify this chaos is Pune. Pune has been and continues to be an inspiration for many Indian cities that strive to reclaim streets for its people.

To explore Pune’s accomplishments, ITDP organised and facilitated a study tour for Tamil Nadu city officials – Corporation Commissioners of Erode, Madurai, Salem, Tiruppur, and Vellore, accompanied by engineers from the office of the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration. The study tour was conducted in collaboration with Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd. (also known as PSCDCL) and Pune Municipal Corporation, in February. The one-day programme aimed to sensitise participants on the best practises of designing complete streets – streets with quality footpaths, segregated cycle tracks, safe pedestrian crossing and managed parking.

Delegates interacting with PSCDCL team at the Smart City Operations Centre

The delegates visited the Smart City Operations Centre that seamlessly integrates management and monitoring of the smart city operations. To the extent, “this system also oversees the energy consumed by streetlights in the city and alerts us when any light stops working”, explained Mr. Manojit Bose,Chief Knowledge Officer, PSCDCL. The team from Tamil Nadu marvelled at the Centre’s resourcefulness at data collection and efficiency in maintaining the city’s public infrastructure.

This was followed by a roundtable discussion, facilitated by Mr Kunal Kumar, Commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation. Mr Kumar highlighted three guiding principles for a smart city: adopt policies that guide it’s existing and future transportation requirements, leverage multiple sources of funding, and build internal capacity. Pune has launched a two-year programme with Singapore Land Transport Authority to enable 120 engineers from five departments in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad to acquire the knowledge and skills required for the projects.

Mr. Kunal Kumar interacts with the Tamil Nadu team and shares his recommendations for the success of the smart city projects.

The discussion was followed by a site visit to Aundh-DP road to observe the seamless execution of Pune’s complete streets. Mr. Vikas Thakar, Pavetech Consultants, gave an insight into the implementation of high quality streets and detailed the design process of DP road. The delegates took the opportunity to experience Pune’s public bicycle sharing (PBS) system first-hand by cycling along the dedicated cycle tracks on DP Road. Pune’s dockless PBS system was proposed under the city’s Bicycle Plan which piloted 275 bicycles of the proposed total of 13,100 docked bicycles. The system received a great response from the delegates.

Tamil Nadu delegates testing Pune’s dockless PBS system

The delegates also visited a transformed public amenity space at Baner. Pune’s vision of creating recreational spaces has been revolutionised. Gone are the days when parks were the only public open spaces in the city. Underutilised and derelict parcels of land have been acquired by the Corporation and developed into theme-based amenity spaces. The two pilot projects in Baner are perfect examples of how cities can explore and catalyse the versatility of urban spaces.

Amenity space developed on the theme of ‘Art and Culture’ in Baner

Although smart cities are often synonymous with information and communication technologies, a city has to invest in human and social capital for improving the quality of life and achieving sustainable economic development. That is when it can truly become a smart city. And, after the exposure visit to Pune, it can be safely said that this is what cities in Tamil Nadu are aspiring for!

#PressforProgress: Cities must measure sexual harassment in streets and public transport

8th March 2018 by admin

Cover Image by Adam Cohn
Written by Sonal Shah

Over the last decade, there has been acknowledgement in mainstream media on the sexual harassment faced by women and girls in urban public transport and on streets around the globe. The fear of crime is widely recognised as a barrier to public transport use. Yet, our mobility plans continue to remain gender blind, as they do not measure the level and extent of harassment faced by women and girls. The normalization of harassment puts the onus of safety on women and girls, thereby restricting their behaviour and mobility. The role of transport planning in alleviating or exacerbating sexual harassment and violence has not yet percolated within mainstream discourse and in the minds of policy and decision makers. This is a lost opportunity as the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that US$28 trillion would be added to the global economy by 2025, if women were to play an identical role to men in markets.

While mainstream media has focused on gruesome incidents such as rape, violence against women and girls also includes groping, molestation, staring, stalking, stealing, cat calls and acid attacks. In Delhi, a 2010 study with over 5000 men and women showed that over 95% of the women had experienced harassment in the past year and public transport, buses and streets were identified as the most vulnerable spaces. While women of all ages faced some form of violence or sexual harassment, school and college girl students in the 15-19 age-group were the most vulnerable. In Mumbai too, 95% of the women respondents reported sexual harassment, 46% reported facing harassment inside buses and 23% while waiting at bus stops.

Sexual harassment is prevalent and underreported, both in developed and developing countries. In New York City, it is estimated that 96 percent of sexual harassment and 86 percent of sexual assaults in the subway system are unreported. Similarly, in Baku, Azerbaijan, while 80 per cent of 200 women surveyed had faced sexual harassment in the metro, none of them reported it to the appropriate authority. In Brazil, it is acknowledged that more than half a million women suffer some sort of sexual violence, every year.

The nature and form of harassment is context specific. According to a research by the Women Empowerment Link, the three most prevalent forms of violence against women and girls in Kenya who use public transport are: use of derogatory language by the matatus crews, coercion of passengers to board public service vehicles against their wish and unwelcome touching of female passengers. Other common forms include contemptuous treatment of women, stealing from and stripping of women passengers.

Creating safer streets and public transport systems will require coordinated actions in infrastructure, service improvements and behaviour change arising from progressive legislation, law enforcement and social norms. While the prevalence of sexual harassment in streets and public transport is known, this data has predominantly been collected by civil society organizations. Cities need to collect gender disaggregated data and measure sexual harassment on their streets and in four legs of the public transport journey (Figure 1) to develop clear actions. These can range from reserved seats, permitting women, girls and the elderly to board or alight from buses in between stops in the night, providing real time information on the arrival of public transport vehicles amongst others. The gender disaggregated quantitative data from travel surveys must be complemented with focus group discussions to understand men and women’s perception and experience of the public transport journey across socio-economic groups.

Figure 1: Four legs of a public transport journey

Gender safety audits must be mainstreamed in the assessment of transport infrastructure. Safety audits evaluate the physical and social aspects in creating safer streets. For example, Safetipin, a phone application scores streets and neighbourhoods on 8 parameters: lighting, openness, visibility, presence of people, security personnel, condition of walking paths, availability of public transport and gender diversity. The ninth parameter allows users to rate how they feel – from comfortable to being frightened. With women and girls who do not have access to smart phones, safety audits can be conducted with them by walking through their neighbourhoods to identify and evaluate spaces along the above parameters. The safety scores provide valuable information to improve the quality of walking infrastructure and crossings, continuous and consistent street lighting, access to facilities such as public toilets, increasing “eyes on the street” (through police personnel, patrolling vans, men or women street vendors) and designing streets that encourage use by diverse groups.

Image 1: Jungli Maharaj Road, Pune (India)

Transport service providers, bystanders and police personnel must be interviewed to understand their awareness of the frequency and causes for sexual harassment and their role in preventing or addressing it. Behaviour change is a long process involving progressive legislation, law enforcement and change in social norms. However, cities can create standard operating procedures along with gender sensitization workshops to train the police and transport workers / operators to prevent and address sexual harassment. Cities can create campaigns to communicate a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment, encourage women and girls to report incidents of sexual harassment and bystanders to intervene

Women need to be at the centre of the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of transport policies and projects as partners, professionals and as decision-makers.

Creating safer streets and public transport systems is not a one-time activity involving installation of CCTV cameras, panic buttons and GPS devices. It will require continuous and coordinated actions by multiple stakeholders – transport and urban development departments, police, commuters / bystanders and women’s groups. But cities must measure the contours of sexual harassment as part of their mobility plans, along with other dimensions of gendered travel – trip chaining, mobility of care, affordability, accessibility, comfort, convenience, forced mobility and immobility. #Pressingforprogress involves making women and girls visible as active users of streets and public transport.

Pune soon to become a cycling haven: Bicycle Plan approved

30th December 2017 by admin

“I would gladly leave my motorcycle home and cycle at least thrice a week if roads were made safer!”, said Deepti Gokhale, a working woman in Pune. Granting her wish and that of many others in the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) General Body has approved a Comprehensive Bicycle Plan which envisages safe and convenient cycling conditions for existing and future cyclists in the city.

To transform this vision of a cycling haven into reality, the Plan provides several recommendations including the creation of a city-wide cycle track network, a public bicycle sharing system, design guidelines for cycle-friendly infrastructure, bicycle parking facilities and strategy for awareness campaigns. Its vision for integration with public transit prompts Pune’s citizens to use cycling for last-mile connectivity. With the Pune Bicycle Plan, PMC aims to improve the city’s share of cyclists from its current 3%[1] to 25% by 2031.

Today cycling constitutes a mere 3% of the city’s trips

Not long ago, cycling was a widely popular mode of transit, favored by most school and college students. However, today cycling constitutes a mere 3% of the city’s trips owing to congested, unsafe roads with over 500 motorized two-wheelers and cars being registered every day. In an effort to make Pune a cycle-friendly city again, the Comprehensive Mobility Plan, prepared in 2008, set an ambitious goal that “by 2031 at least half the trips in Pune i.e. 50%, should be by walk or cycle”[2]. To meet this goal, PMC set out to create a Bicycle Plan for the city, with support from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and encouragement from Parisar, a non-profit organization lobbying for sustainable transport.

The Corporation appointed a team of consultants, including iTrans, Prasanna Desai Architects and Centre for Environment Education (CEE), to create the plan. The consultants surveyed over 11,000 people from various backgrounds for their travel patterns, views about cycling, willingness to shift, etc. A Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) was formed to oversee the progress of work, with regular cyclists and concerned citizens as key members. ITDP India Programme was also a part of the BAC and helped in periodically reviewing the Plan. Two rounds of public consultation took place before the drafted Bicycle Plan was submitted to the General Body for approval.

The fear of riding on roads with mixed traffic deters people from cycling regularly

One of the primary objectives of the Pune Bicycle Plan is the creation of a 300 km network of bicycle tracks in the city. The fear of riding on roads with mixed traffic deters people from cycling regularly. Segregated, user-friendly cycle tracks, like the one recently constructed on JM Road, will help put them back on their bicycles.

A key component of the Plan to support the cycle track network in the city is the Urban Cycling Design Guidelines for cycling infrastructure, like the physically segregated cycle tracks in high-speed roads, the visually segregated cycle lanes in medium-speed roads, shared use of cycles and motorised traffic in low-speed roads, and appropriate vegetation. The Plan details the width and material requirements to enable comfortable conditions for cyclists.

The public bicycle sharing (PBS) system proposed under the Plan aims to serve as another mode of transport for commuters and provide efficient last-mile connectivity for public transit users. The Plan suggests 388 stations and 4700 bicycles in the first phase, with a proposed total of 13100 docked bicycles. A dockless PBS system, recently piloted with 275 bicycles in three different areas of the city, has received great response from residents and four vendors dealing with dockless systems have recently signed an MoU with PMC.

Apart from the policy and design changes, the Plan also recommends awareness and outreach programmes to rejuvenate the culture of cycling in the city. As part of these programmes, several discussions have been conducted with multiple stakeholders such as schools and colleges, RTO, Traffic Police, various NGOs, cycle shops and corporate staff (as a part of their CSR initiative).

The year 2018 will see various measures for the implementation of the Cycle Plan

The year 2018 will see various measures for the implementation of the Cycle Plan, like the setting up of PMC’s Bicycle Department, re-construction and retrofitting of select existing cycle tracks, and the development of a training facility for cycle mechanics. With many such steps in place – and in the pipeline – for the improvement of all sustainable transportation modes, Pune is becoming an incredibly ‘smart’ city indeed!

[1]“The mode share of cycles, elicited from the household survey carried out in 2016 for the Pune Cycle Plan is 3%. This is a much smaller proportion as compared to the modal share of 2012 from Pune Metro DPR study which shows 9% of cycle as a mode share.”- Comprehensive Bicycle Master Plan, 2017
[2] Currently, walking and cycling constitute 32% of the trips made in the city

« Previous Page
1
…
3
4
5
6
7
…
9
Next Page »