Our approach to sustainable mobility is four-pronged, that is to Inspire, Create, Embed, and Expand.
In order to power the narrative of sustainability in Indian urban transport, we introduce ideas and initiatives to inspire stakeholders, from all forms of governance.
Take the case of Ranchi’s Smart Parking Management pilot. Tested out at the city’s arterial MG Road stretch, it reduced congestion and most importantly, ensured a twelve-fold annual increase in revenue. This success inspired the state authorities to swiftly roll the ball on framing statewide legislation for parking management.
After laying the foundation for the paradigm shift, we engage with authorities to help them create best practices and benchmarks.
On the back of its Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy, Chennai began work to create streets which facilitated walking and cycling. So far, the city has accomplished over 50km of Complete Streets and is redesigning an additional 50 km of street network. Chennai’s initiation of ‘complete streets’ influenced many other cities including Pune, who is also creating streets that prioritise to walking, cycling, and public transport infrastructure.
For sustainable projects to become part of the larger scheme of the transportation culture, there needs to be policy reformation. This is where we come in: to embed the principles of sustainable mobility into the core of the city’s transportation system.
We worked closely with the Maharashtra state government in helping them shift towards the sustainable side of mobility. Our work involved reviewing and offering our expert knowledge in the field to embed the standards of the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) into their Maharashtra Urban Mobility Policy (MUMP) framework.
To ensure the idea of a sustainable, liveable, and equitable city takes shape into a belief, it needs to be disseminated to all levels of governance—right from the top to the grassroots levels. A majority of our task involves offering knowledge to help officials expand their horizons from the perspective of sustainable mobility. It also includes getting the general public involved in matters of reclaiming their city by sustainable means.
We’ve been actively working towards capacity development and holding training workshops for officials from numerous corporations and planning committees. These include the Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies (TNIUS) workshop on Complete Streets for more than 240 officials from over 120 municipalities in Tamil Nadu; organising parking management workshop with international experts, such as Paul Barter, for Pune Municipal Corporation officials; conducting training session for over a 100 officials for the Pune Rainbow BRT project in 2009 and 2013.
