Walking, a Fundamental Right?

1. Walking, a Fundamental Right? 6thEuroIndia Summit & Mission “On Greening Cities” Presentation Promoting Walk to Work and Transit Oriented Development ( TOD) The Right to Walk Foundation Hyderabad Oct 21, 2013

3. Scope of the Presentation • Present Scenario of Pedestrian Infrastructure • What are the Issues? • Why it needs to be Improved? • Suggestions on how it could be Improved

4. Deadly Statistics Will You Walk? • On an Average, One in Every Two Deaths is a Pedestrian • Source: http://www.htp.gov.in/AccidentAnalysis.htm#Analysis)

5. Vehicular Traffic Flows and Modal Splits

6. Road Space Allocation • Allocate road space equitably. Plan for people. Not vehicles. Take buses out of congestion. • More people use bus, walk and cycle. But cars and two-wheelers dominate the road space

7. To Make Hyderabad Walkable ...To This From This...

8. Team Effort

9. Pedestrians Crossing: Risk Your Lives

10. Pedestrian Crossing ( London)

11. Who Stole my Footpath?

12. The Many Uses Of Footpaths

13. Footpaths??

14. Walking Infrastructure : Germany

15. Footpaths??Parking Space of Course

16. Shoppers Plaza: Barcelona

17. The Start – Mehdipatnam( through petitioning) Before After

18. Rally Aug 2008 at Manikonda Before After

19. RTI Success: Responsibility of footpaths • RTI: Responsibility of footpaths • RTI filed by R2W in 2008 • Responsibility of roads with several departments – GHMC, Roads & buildings, national highways, state highways • Initially GHMC and Roads and Buildings department passed the buck • Result • GHMC accepted complete responsibility of footpaths in the entire GHMC area

20. What are the Issues? • Social Issues • Regulatory Issues • Legal Issues • Political Issues • Attitudinal Issues • Structural Issues

21. In Brief • Free vehicles + free fuel a deadly combination against non motorised transport • Understanding of Structural Issues • No Act regarding Pedestrian safety/ Pedestrian infrastructure • Planning Commission definition of infrastructure does not seem to include pedestrian infrastructure • Parking Facilities?? • Responsibility of Footpaths and Pedestrians as part of Traffic

22. Why it needs to be Improved?What’s In It for Me? • Better Public and Individual Health • Less Traffic Chaos • Occurrence of Grid lock reduced • Less Driver Trauma • Better Public Transport Usage • Better Tourism Reduction in Accidents Saves Lives

23. Question to be addressedWhat’s In It for Me? How am I going to benefit if footpaths and pedestrians crossings are better or people prefer to walk?

24. It’s Not Rocket Science!! • Public Private Partnerships: Creation of Special Purpose Vehicle • Encourage Out of the Box Thinking- Walkthrough demos • Market Walking and Make it a Cool Thing to do • Develop Video games • Involve IT for better management • Link Benefits to Walking

25. New Markets • Marketing / Branding Walking • Walking as a Choice • Use of Technology in Creating Awareness : (quantify carbon footprint reduction, pollution effect) • Lancet Study: “To estimate how different transport patterns would affect health, the analysis considers four alternative 2030 futures for London (an example of a large city in a highly motorised country) and for Delhi (an example of one in a rapidly motorising country). The results show that technological measures such as hybrid cars will make only minor inroads into the burden of disease from transport. Major public health benefits will depend on the introduction of policies that combine reduced motor vehicle use, more walking and cycling, and low-carbon-emission motor vehicles.” (Reference: The health benefits of tackling climate change An Executive Summary for The Lancet Series)

26. Walk the Talk • Decision Makers MUST USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT • Take Help from European Cities • Value Human Lives

27. Footpaths constructed in 2011 and demolished in July 2013Road widening

28. Misplaced Priorities