ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

Cycling Isn’t Disappearing from Indian Cities. We’ve Just Made Cyclists Invisible

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Walk down a busy arterial road in an Indian city and you might conclude that cycling is a thing of the past. But look closer, especially during peak hours, and a different story emerges. On wide streets in Pune, industrial corridors in Pimpri-Chinchwad, and arterial streets in Nagpur, cyclists are very much present. They are just easier to miss because our streets are no longer designed to see them. 

A recent study conducted by ITDP India across these three Maharashtra cities (Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, and Nagpur) found visibly high cycle volumes at peak hours, even on streets where cycling infrastructure is incomplete or poorly enforced. The data challenges a popular myth: cycling hasn’t disappeared. It has simply been pushed to the margins. 

Who Are India’s Cyclists Today?

India’s cyclists are not a homogenous group. Some ride to work, some to school, some to save money, and some for health or the environment. According to the survey of over 600 residents in three cities, nearly half of all cyclists use their cycles for daily, non-recreational trips—to jobs, colleges, markets, and homes. 

58% of responses from male cyclists said they cycle for recreation and fitness, but women, in particular, seem to rely on cycling as a mode of necessity. Nearly 60% of women cyclists reported using cycles for commuting, education, or errands. This distinction matters because it reframes cycling not as a lifestyle choice, but as essential urban mobility—especially for those with limited access to private vehicles or public transport. 

Children, too, are a critical yet overlooked group. Among cyclists under 18, two-thirds cycle primarily to reach schools and colleges, and 84% said they prefer dedicated cycle tracks over mixed traffic conditions. Their message is clear: safety, not speed, determines whether young people cycle. As one student cyclist put it, “Sometimes it gets too hot when I cycle back from school. I wish there were more trees or shade on the way.” Infrastructure, for them, is not just concrete—it is comfort, dignity, and protection. Some also said that their parent didn’t allow them to cycle to school as it was perceived to be unsafe.  

Infrastructure Exists. But Is It Working?

Over the past decade, Indian cities have invested in cycling infrastructure. Pune alone has built over 90 km of cycle tracks, Pimpri-Chinchwad more than 50 km, and Nagpur has begun developing an early-stage network.  

On paper, the city is making progress—cycle tracks have been built, and space has been allocated. But the reality on the ground tells a different story. 

Nearly 60% of cyclists rate segregated cycle tracks as ‘bad’ for comfort, pointing to fundamental design and maintenance issues. More than 60% report that these tracks are frequently obstructed by parked vehicles and vendor encroachments, while 44% highlight discontinuity—tracks that simply disappear mid-route. 

Faced with these challenges, cyclists are making a pragmatic choice. Instead of using unreliable and blocked infrastructure, many prefer riding in regular traffic lanes, even if it feels less safe. Ironically, shared streets with traffic calming measures receive better feedback, with 53% rating them as ‘good’ for comfort. 

The takeaway is clear: infrastructure alone is not enough. If cycle tracks are not continuous, unobstructed, and comfortable, they fail to serve their purpose—leaving cyclists to navigate the very traffic they were meant to be protected from. 

The single biggest complaint across all three cities? Obstructions.

Over 56% of cyclists cited parked vehicles and vendors blocking cycle tracks, while 54% pointed to weak enforcement as a key deterrent. One respondent asked bluntly: “What’s the use of a cycle track if it’s always full of parked vehicles?” 

 For women, the stakes are even higher. Half reported speeding vehicles and lack of enforcement as major deterrents, and more than 60% flagged poor road conditions and potholes as serious safety concerns. It is no surprise, then, that 87% of women cyclists said they prefer physically segregated cycle tracks.  

Regarding surface materials, 52% of respondents preferred asphalt(blacktop) as the ideal material for cycle tracks. Paver clocks are strict no-no as surface materials. 

The Silent Majority Waiting to Cycle 

Perhaps the most striking finding is not about those who already cycle, but those who don’t. 

Among non-cyclists and infrequent cyclists, 72% said they would consider cycling if safe, continuous cycle tracks were available, and 61% said strict enforcement of traffic rules would make a difference. These are not ideological opponents of cycling; they are pragmatic urban residents responding to risk.  

With Comprehensive Mobility Plans in these cities ambitiously targeting ~35% of trips by walking and cycling by 2030, there is a clear need for reliable, safe, and high-quality cycling infrastructure—not just to support existing cyclists, but to encourage new users and a broader section of citizens to adopt cycling. 

A Way Forward: From Token Lanes to People-Centred Streets

If we really want to see the cyclist back on the streets, we will need to provide dignity, safety and convenience to the users through nuanced design and strict enforcement.  

  1. First, continuity matters more than length. Fragmented cycle tracks that disappear at junctions or merge into traffic are worse than none at all.  
  1. Second, enforcement is infrastructure. Without managing parking, vending, and vehicle speeds, even well-designed tracks fail.  
  1. Third, cities must prioritise vulnerable users—women, children, and older adults—by providing shaded routes, smooth surfaces like asphalt, and traffic calming near schools and neighbourhood streets. 
  1. Finally, shared streets deserve renewed attention. When designed with narrow carriageways, speed tables, and pedestrian priority, they offer inclusive mobility without excessive segregation—an approach that many European cities have embraced and Indian cities can adapt. 

Cycling in India is not dying. It is waiting. Waiting for streets that acknowledge its users, protect their journeys, and recognise that a cycle is not a symbol of the past—but a vehicle for a more equitable urban future. 

Written by Pranjal Kulkarni, Programme Manager, Healthy Streets, ITDP India 

Edited by Kashmira Dubash, Deputy Director, ITDP India 

From Scrapyard to Supply Chain, Tamil Nadu is Bringing Circularity in its Clean Mobility Transition 

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As India works towards its climate and clean air goals, efforts are focused on making the shift to cleaner vehicles happen faster. However, for this transition to succeed, two equally important challenges need to be addressed. 

The first is moving older, more polluting vehicles off the road. In 2025, around 12 million vehicles across India were eligible for scrappage, yet between 2022 and 2025, fewer than 3% of them were actually scrapped. This is a serious problem because older vehicles do not just pollute a little more — they can pollute many times more. In fact, one BS4 truck or bus can emit as much pollution as around 14 BS6 vehicles, while one BS4 car can be equivalent to nearly 11 newer BS6 cars in terms of emissions. If cleaner mobility is to become a reality, this shift away from ageing, high-emission vehicles needs to happen at scale. 

The second challenge is what happens once these vehicles begin to leave the system. Tamil Nadu alone is expected to see around 1.56 crore vehicles enter the scrapping market by 2030. At the same time, as EV adoption increases, the state will also begin to see a rise in battery waste over the coming years. This means that a sustainable transition is not only about bringing cleaner vehicles onto the road. We need to deal responsibly with the old vehicles, tyres, vehicle components, and batteries that this shift will leave behind. Without proper systems in place, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and batteries can create environmental and public health risks. 

At the same time, vehicle components and batteries are valuable resources that contain valuable resources that can be recovered and reused, and should not be simply discarded. Critical minerals and rare earth elements used in EV batteries are limited, expensive, and highly import-dependent. Discarding what can be recovered works against the very idea of a sustainable transition. 

Hence, the next phase for a Greener Tamil Nadu needs to go beyond adoption. It must help people move away from older, polluting vehicles, while also creating a responsible and circular pathway for the materials and components they leave behind. In many ways, this is what will determine whether the transition is truly clean. 

The vision for a Greener Tamil Nadu 

The manufacturing sector, including vehicle manufacturing, forms the backbone of Tamil Nadu’s economic growth story. As the state works towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2030, the demand for materials and resources to support this growth will also rise significantly. In the mobility sector, this raises an important question: how can Tamil Nadu continue to move towards cleaner transport without creating a new burden of old vehicles, EV batteries, tyres, and parts that are left unmanaged? 

Tamil Nadu’s recent policy direction – the Vehicle Scrappage Policy, implemented through G.O. Ms. No. 451, and the Tamil Nadu Circular Economy Investment Policy 2026, together address three parts of the transition:  

  1. Moving people away from older, polluting vehicles;  
  2. Preparing for the rise in end-of-life components and battery flows; and 
  3. Reducing the pressure on limited and expensive raw materials through reuse, recycling, and second-life applications. 

What Tamil Nadu’s Vehicle Scrappage Policy Means 

Tamil Nadu’s Vehicle Scrappage Policy does more than create a process for scrapping old vehicles. It puts in place a more organised system for retiring vehicles that are old, unfit, damaged, or no longer economical to repair, while also linking scrappage to cleaner mobility goals. 

For citizens, the policy creates a formal and digitally tracked pathway to scrap eligible vehicles through authorised Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs). By moving the process to the Vahan portal and authorised scrapping facilities, the policy seeks to make scrappage more transparent, accountable, and easier to navigate than informal channels. 

The policy also lays down a method for determining scrap value, allowing vehicle owners to recover some value from an ageing vehicle through an authorised scrapping facility. It also provides a Certificate of Deposit, which can be used to access benefits when purchasing a new vehicle. 

Image source: Tata motors

Beyond citizens, the policy also has implications for the scrapping and recycling ecosystem itself. By shifting vehicle retirement into a more formal and regulated system, it creates the possibility for the sector to gradually move away from unsafe and environmentally harmful dismantling practices towards safer, more standardised, and traceable methods. For workers and enterprises in this space, formalisation can also mean clearer processes, more predictable pricing, and stronger integration with authorised recycling and recovery industries. While much of the sector still operates informally today, policies like this begin to lay the groundwork for a more organisedecosystem over time. 

At the same time, the policy recognises that this transition cannot rest on citizens alone. It requires the government itself to lead by example by phasing out vehicles in its own fleet that are older than 15 years. In Tamil Nadu, this applies to 11,908 government-owned vehicles, including those belonging to State Transport Undertakings and local bodies, which are to be disposed off through RVSFs. The policy also empowers the state to build the supporting ecosystem by enabling the establishment of scrapping facilities and automated testing stations, both of which are essential for making this shift work in practice. 

Together, these provisions make the policy larger than a scrappage rule. It is both a citizen-facing and system-facing reform.  

How the Circular Economy Investment Policy 2026 Strengthens the Clean Mobility Transition 

If the Vehicle Scrappage Policy focuses on helping older vehicles exit the system more responsibly, the Tamil Nadu Circular Economy Investment Policy 2026 looks at what happens next. The policy identifies the automobile sector as a major part of the state’s greener industrial future and focuses on three linked areas: end-of-life vehicles, EV batteries, and tyres. 

One of the clearest signals in the policy is that Tamil Nadu is preparing for scale. With 1.56 crore vehicles expected to enter the scrapping market by 2030, there is a need to build the industries and systems needed to recover value from them. The state is facilitating the development of Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs) and associated infrastructure, aligning with the national Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Program (VVMP).  

There is a major focus on advanced-chemistry cells and battery recycling, which is increasingly important as EV adoption rises. From a 3.94% adoption rate in 2022, Tamil Nadu reached 7.85% EV adoption in 2025, with over five lakh registered EVs as of February 2026. While this is a positive sign for cleaner mobility, it points to a challenge that is going to emerge. Since EV batteries typically last up to ten years, a large number of batteries will be reaching their end-of-life in the coming decade.  

Instead of seeing used batteries only as a disposal challenge, the policy treats them as a source of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt that can be recovered and fed back into future manufacturing. This is particularly important for India, which remains heavily dependent on imports for these critical minerals — entirely so in the case of lithium and cobalt, and significantly for nickel and rare earth elements. Today, a large share of battery-related waste is either exported or lost to informal channels, representing not only an environmental concern but also economic loss and a resource security risk.  

Image source: Tata World

By creating systems to recover these materials from old batteries in a more robust and localised way, Tamil Nadu can help reduce future import dependence while building a more resilient EV ecosystem. To support this, the policy focuses on the entire battery value chain, including collection, diagnostics, dismantling, recycling, and material recovery. It also encourages second-life uses for batteries, such as for energy storage, backup power, and support for EV charging infrastructure. 

The third component looks at tyres, which are among the most frequently replaced parts of a vehicle due to constant exposure and wear. A tyre typically lasts only one-fifth of a vehicle’s life, which means that the number of tyresreaching the end of their use is far greater than the number of vehicles. This becomes especially important in a country like India, which is the world’s third-largest automobile market, with the tyre manufacturing sector reaching a total production of 217 million units. Tamil Nadu plays a significant role in this ecosystem, contributing to nearly to 25% of the country’s total tyre exports, while also having the third largest vehicle fleet registrations in the country. Together, this means the state is likely to see a substantial volume of used tyres over time. In this context, the policy encourages more circular ways of handling used tyres, from recycling and retreading to creating downstream uses in other industries. This helps position circularity not only as an environmental response, but also as an industrial opportunity. 

To make this ecosystem viable, the policy also introduces financial and institutional support. It offers incentives for new recycling and circular economy businesses, support for skilling and employment, and added assistance for smaller enterprises. It also proposes enabling infrastructure such as low-carbon green industrial parks, digital platforms to connect waste generators with authorised recyclers, and climate-focused funding mechanisms. 

By supporting the recovery, recycling, and repurposing of old vehicle components, tyres, and batteries, Tamil Nadu is not only addressing an environmental challenge but also opening up new opportunities for investment in industries that can bring these materials back into productive use. This is especially relevant for EV batteries, where second-life applications and material recovery can create value beyond the vehicle’s first use. 

Along with reducing carbon emissions, the Circular Economy Investment Policy 2026 focuses on building the industries, recovery systems, and material loops needed to make the transition from ICE vehicles more sustainable over time. 

Tamil Nadu’s two recent reforms mark an important shift in how the clean mobility transition is being approached 

Having these policies in place is, in itself, a positive start. At a time when vehicle registrations continue to rise across India – now at 42 crore – and Tamil Nadu alone accounts for over 3.5 crore registered vehicles, these reforms are a logical next step in preparing for the long-term realities of a growing and changing mobility ecosystem. The state’s vehicle registration has also continued to expand steadily in recent years, increasing by 6.98% in 2024 and 8.44% in 2025, underlining the need to think not only about cleaner vehicles entering the system, but also about how older vehicles, batteries, and materials exit it 15 years down the line.  

At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the EV ecosystem is still in a nascent stage, and the real promise of these reforms will depend on how effectively the government is able to build the supporting infrastructure, strengthen implementation, and translate policy intent into systems that work on the ground. 

Written by Shreesha Arondekar, Senior Associate, Development and Communications, with inputs from Pavithiran R , Associate, Transport Systems and Electric Mobility and Sooraj E M Program Manager, Transport Systems and Electric Mobility 

Edited by Donita Jose, Deputy Manager, Communications 

Why Liveable Cities, Not Flyovers, Will Win Urban Votes

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As published in The Hindu(Tamil)

For decades now, the opening of a new flyover has been the ultimate symbol of political progress. These towering structures of concrete and steel were marketed as the ultimate solution to congestion and a promise of modernity and speed.  

But ask any commuter on any major artery in our cities, and the answer is clear: the promise has expired. The congestion returns, often worse than before, while the immense investment delivers only fleeting relief for a small segment of commuters. 

The larger public sees very little benefit. 

The core problem here lies in an old belief in city planning: that we can build our way out of traffic. In reality, new roads encourage more people to use private vehicles. When driving becomes slightly easier, more cars and two-wheelers come onto the road. Soon, congestion returns. This cycle keeps repeating and cities keep spending huge public money on projects that are both environmentally and fiscally unsustainable.  

Globally, most forward-thinking cities have begun to question this approach. One famous example is Seoul in South Korea. The city famously dismantled a massive elevated highway through its centre, over the Cheonggyecheon stream. Many feared traffic chaos. Instead, Seoul gained a six-kilometre public park, better air quality, a 15% increase in public transport use, and rising property values. Traffic did not increase. The city became healthier and more liveable. 

San Francisco, Portland, and Paris have followed suit, removing urban highways to reclaim space for people, not just vehicles. These cities recognised that the competition for the future isn’t about which city is fastest to drive through, but which is the most desirable to live in. 

So, what is the political alternative in Tamil Nadu? It’s a platform that addresses the actual anxieties of the 21st-century voter: the crushing cost of living, the daily drain of the time-tax commute, and the health burden of toxic air. 

1. Fiscal Responsibility: Better Use of Public Money 

Flyovers are extremely expensive. One kilometre of flyover can cost ₹200 crore or more. This money serves a limited number of private vehicles. In contrast, the same amount can fund solutions that help far more people. 

For example, well-planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors can move seven to eight times more people per hour than a flyover. The same budget can also buy around 100 electric buses or build over 100 kilometres of safe footpaths and pedestrian-friendly streets. 

The real question for governments should be: how can public money help the maximum number of people? Flyovers benefit a minority. Strong public transport systems benefit everyone—office workers, students, elderly citizens, women, and low-income families. From a financial point of view, investing in buses, walking, and cycling gives far better returns for taxpayers. 

2. The Daily “Time Tax” on Citizens 

For city residents, time has become a hidden tax. Hours are lost every week in traffic jams. This affects work, family life, health, and mental well-being. For professionals, small business owners, and gig workers, time lost is income lost. 

A city with frequent, reliable buses and good last-mile connectivity gives people back their time. Shorter and predictable commutes improve productivity and reduce stress. Today, many employees value an easy commute as much as salary hikes. Real estate prices already show this—areas close to good public transport are in high demand. 

When governments invest in strong public transport, they are not just improving mobility. They are strengthening the economy. Reduced travel time means more efficient cities and happier citizens. 

3. Public Health and Quality of Life 

Our cities are struggling with pollution, noise, and unsafe streets. Transport is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution and climate emissions. Every new flyover encourages more vehicle use, which worsens air quality. 

The alternative is cities designed for people. Safe footpaths, cycle tracks, shaded streets, and green spaces make cities healthier. These changes reduce respiratory illness, traffic accidents, and stress. Children can walk safely. Elderly citizens can move around without fear. Neighbourhoods become connected instead of divided by large concrete structures. 

This is not a luxury idea. It is about basic health, safety, and dignity in everyday life. 

What Voters Want Today

The voter is no longer impressed by a photo-op on an empty flyover. They are counting the hours lost in their week, calculating the fuel burning a hole in their pocket, and worrying about the air their children breathe. They are choosing quality of life. 

The winning manifesto will not list flyovers. It will pledge a statewide transit revolution – a commitment to doubling bus fleets, digitizing payments, and integrating schedules and ticketing so that a seamless multi-modal journey is a reality. It will promise to reclaim street space for people, turning dangerous corridors into complete streets. It will frame mobility not as a civic engineering challenge, but as the backbone of a prosperous, healthy, and efficient Tamil Nadu. 

The world’s most admired cities  have learned that you cannot build your way to prosperity with more concrete. Tamil Nadu has the chance to leapfrog the mistakes of the past and build truly smart, sustainable cities. The question is not whether we can afford to make this shift, but whether we can afford not to. The voter on the crowded bus, the parent worried about polluted air, and the citizen tired of traffic jams are waiting for an answer. And their votes will reflect it. 

Authored by A V Venugopal is a Program Manager at ITDP India, based in Chennai, where he leads sustainable mobility projects focused on street transformation and parking management. His work spans Tamil Nadu and extends nationally, in close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team. 

What Indian Cities can Learn From Chennai’s New Mobility Playbook

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As published in The Times of India

Indian cities do not suffer from a lack of transport plans; they struggle to turn those plans into coordinated action on the ground. Over the past two decades, most large cities have articulated similar ambitions—prioritising public transport, integrating land use and mobility, improving safety, and reducing dependence on private vehicles. Yet congestion has worsened, road fatalities remain high, and private vehicle ownership continues to rise across urban India. The problem has not been a lack of vision, but the difficulty of translating that vision into aligned implementation across agencies. 

Chennai reflects this broader national challenge. The city has planned for mobility before: a Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Study in 2010 and a Comprehensive Mobility Plan in 2019, both aligned with national policy priorities around public transport, non-motorised travel, and land-use integration. Yet the outcomes fell short. This pattern is familiar across urban India: mobility plans do not fail because their goals are wrong, but because the institutional conditions required to implement them are weak. 

What’s Changed This Time 

For context, Chennai’s latest Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for 2023–2048 must be understood in this context. It is not the city’s first attempt at mobility planning, nor does it radically depart from earlier goals. 

But the key shift is institutional. With the operationalisation of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) in 2022, Chennai now has a coordinating body for transport decisions across agencies and jurisdictions—something most Indian cities still lack in practice. Mandated under the CUMTA Act, the preparation of the Comprehensive Mobility Plan is a statutory requirement, marking a move away from ad-hoc planning towards a formally instituted process. This matters because fragmented decision-making, rather than a lack of projects, has fundamentally shaped poor mobility outcomes in Indian cities. 

Planning at the Right Scale, with the Right Evidence 

The CMP reflects the scale at which Chennai’s mobility challenges now operate. While earlier plans were anchored to a smaller planning area—1,189 square kilometres, the current CMP adopts a much broader metropolitan lens, covering 5,904 square kilometres. This expanded boundary brought rapidly urbanising suburban regions into the mobility planning framework, recognising that travel patterns, commuting pressures, and infrastructure demand today extend well beyond the city core and municipal limits. 

Planning at this scale required being backed by a stronger evidence base. The CMP draws on large-scale household surveys covering over 50,000 households and approximately two lakh citizens, complemented by fifteen primary surveys on traffic, parking, road conditions, freight movement, and travel behaviour. This shifts planning away from assumptions and corridor-level fixes towards a clearer understanding of how people travel across the region. 

Additionally, the planning process was participatory from the outset. Multiple government departments responsible for roads, public transport, planning, utilities, and finance, and public stakeholders, were engaged throughout, contributing to problem framing as well as solution design. By involving these agencies and the public from the outset, the CMP seeks to build shared ownership, an essential condition for implementation that earlier mobility plans often lacked. 

Where the Real Test Lies: Governance 

If evidence and participation explain why this CMP is different in its preparation, governance will determine whether it changes outcomes. Across Indian cities, mobility failures arise from projects implemented without alignment—often cancelling out each other’s benefits. Roads are widened while bus fleets stagnate for decades; metro and rail systems are built without reliable last-mile access; and parking supply continues to expand even as public transport struggles for priority. Each decision may appear defensible in isolation, but together they undermine the city’s mobility goals. 

Chennai’s CMP is explicit about this failure—and about what must change. At the centre of this shift is the role envisaged for the CUMTA. Unlike earlier arrangements that relied on goodwill or ad-hoc coordination, CUMTA is positioned as a reviewing authority for transport and mobility proposals initiated by different departments. The intent is straightforward: major transport interventions should proceed only if they align with the metropolitan mobility vision set out in the CMP. 

This is more than a procedural adjustment. It signals a shift in how transport decisions are expected to be made. Cities that have built high-performing urban mobility systems such as London and Singapore—have done so by consolidating authority, standardising dataand design systems, and enforcing alignment across agencies through institutions like Transport for London and the Land Transport Authority. Chennai’s CMP moves in this direction through proposals for standardised right-of-way design, region-wide data systems, parking management as a demand-management tool, and the exploration of a dedicated urban transport fund. 

Early Gains and the Test Ahead

This institutional experiment is already showing signs of traction. As the CMP is being integrated with the city’s Third Master Plan, its priorities are beginning to acquire statutory force through land-use planning. This alignment has the potential to significantly strengthen implementation—anchoring mobility decisions within the city’s formal planning framework and reducing the risk of fragmented or competing interventions. 

That said, it would be premature to treat this as a settled outcome. The durability of this shift will depend on consistent enforcement of alignment, the ability to resolve inter-agency conflicts, and the extent to which the coordinating institution’s role is sustained through administrative practice over time. 

What Could Change on the Ground 

If the CMP holds through implementation, its most visible impact will be a different everyday experience for commuters. Commutes become more predictable. Public transport becomes a reliable first choice rather than a reluctant compromise. Streets acquire clearer priorities, reducing conflict between buses, pedestrians, cyclists, and private vehicles. 

For residents in the metropolitan periphery—where growth has outpaced services—the plan’s metropolitan lens is especially significant. Better alignment of suburban rail, bus services, and regional connectivity with where people live and work can reduce dependence on two-wheelers and long, expensive commutes. Safer, more legible transport systems expand access for women, older adults, and children. Businesses benefit from more reliable labour access and logistics. 

A Test Case for Indian Cities 

Chennai’s CMP does not offer a shortcut, nor does it guarantee success. What it offers is a clearer diagnosis of why mobility planning has struggled in Indian cities—and a credible attempt to address those weaknesses through governance, coordination, and evidence-led decision-making. 

The lesson here is not that cities need better plans. Most cities already have them. The lesson is that without empowered institutions, shared ownership across departments, and mechanisms to enforce alignment, even the most technically sound plans will struggle to change outcomes. Chennai has begun to test that proposition. Other Indian cities would do well to pay attention. 

About the Authors 

I. Jeyakumar, is an retired officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) from the 1997 batch, has been serving on deputation to the Government of Tamil Nadu as Member Secretary, Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) since August 2022. He has been instrumental in building the organization and driving transformative initiatives such as the Comprehensive Mobility Plan, City Logistics Plan, Journey Planner cum QR-based Integrated Ticketing System, Parking Policy and Management for Chennai, Street Design for Safe Commute to School, and several other Multimodal Integration projects.  

Aswathy Dilip is the Managing Director of ITDP India. She is a sought-after expert in raising support for sustainable mobility from key decision-makers, governments, and stakeholders. With support from her team, she works with the National, State, and City governments; providing them with technical assistance on sustainable, inclusive, and equitable urban mobility. Her work has contributed to creating streets safe for walking and cycling, implementing parking reforms, accelerating transition and building support for high-quality, sustainable mass transit. She has a degree as an urban designer from Cardiff University, UK, with a bachelor’s in architecture. 

Making Tamil Nadu’s Cities Future-Ready:  Mobility Priorities By 2031

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Everyone talks about the future like it is all about gadgets and AI, with Robo dogs manning our cities, flying cars helping us cut the traffic at grade, and everything becoming ‘smart’ to save time.  

And while having some of these would actually make the future of cities more exciting and optimised, there is one uncomfortable truth that we can’t ignore: 
If we can’t fix the city’s mobility, by fixing the buses networks and fleet, footpaths, and the city’s air pollution — 2031 won’tfeel futuristic at all! 

And this degenerated version of future is already in play in many of our cities, where while we have summits on AI, the basic transport facilities are still tied to private vehicles and unsafe roads, forcing even the smartest minds feel humbled in front of the infrastructure. 

So, we asked a simple question: 
What does a realistic future-ready Tamil Nadu really look like? 

To answer this, it is crucial to acknowledge that transport is no longer a basic service issue for Tamil Nadu’s (TN) citizensthat simply moves people from point A to point B. It has become an issue of safety, women’s rights, and family livelihood. Increasingly, it has gone even beyond these fundamentals and become a climate issue as well, with the state’s GHG emissions growing by between 2005–2019. In major cities of TN, transport contributes up to one-third of total emissions. 

In this context, the Sustainable Mobility Network (SMN) has developed the Tamil Nadu (TN) Urban Mobility Priorities, 2031, which lists out four priority areas we wish to see addressed. These are built on the principle that safe transport and healthy cities are fundamental rights.  
 
While drafting the priority areas, the attempt was to ensure that these build on the existing schemes like TN road safety policy, TN EV Policy, Chennai parking policy, Chennai climate action plans, and CMPs, and doesn’t require for the state to reinvent the wheel. 

More and Convenient Public Transport for All!

Despite MoHUA’s recommendation of 60 buses per lakh urban population, major cities in TN operate with only 18 buses per lakh, totalling 7,909 buses across the state. To add to this, in Chennai, 50% residents lack access to a bus stop within walking distance inside the Chennai Metropolitan Area.  

Owing to this shortage of buses on the whole, even well-intended schemes like the Vidiyal Payanam scheme, which led to female ridership increasing from approximately 40%to 61.78%, has had a stunted impact. Inadequate fleet strength has led to overcrowding and long wait times for existing users, highlighting the need for more buses. 

What should be prioritised? 

First and foremost, to meet the current demand, at least 15,800 more buses are needed. This is to ensure that there is a ride for every 5-minutes by bus/ public transport in urban areas and a bus stop within 5-minute walking distance for all residents. While buses increase, it is crucial to ensure these new buses are low-floor, wheelchair friendly with ramps, automatic doors and emergency buttons. To further make it futuristic, enabling digital payments for all services, having real time passenger information and ensuring smooth transfer between various modes is crucial. 

Cleaning Up Urban Mobility

The average mode share of private vehicles is 35% in major TN cities; with Chennai Metropolitan Area alone reaching 63,413 private vehicles per lakh population! These are staggering numbers which not only leave the road networks choked with congestion, but also rapidly worsen air quality! Road transport is a major contributor to air pollution, with 4 million high-emissions vehicles in Chennai alone. This causes serious health concerns amongst citizens. 

What should be prioritised? 

When it comes to cleaning up air, every effort matters. 

Both pull and push measures. As pull measures, starting with 100% electrification of vehicles and buses in Chennai could be a start, with 50% target for other five largest cities. To further bolster cleaning up the air, ensuring smooth EV transition in private vehicles is key. For this, having one charger for every 20 EVs is crucial, along with incentivising scrapping vehicles older than 15 years.  

While EVs get promoted, disincentivising polluting vehicles is equally crucial. Here come the push factors. The state should also prioritise having a green tax on polluting vehicles along with implementation of Low Emission Zones in cities with population over 10 lakhs. 

A Pedestrian First Initiative! 

As per an analysis of Accident Data from Tamil Nadu State Transport Authority (TNSTA) and Traffic Police, 2022-2024 by ITDP IndiaIn Chennai and Coimbatore, pedestrians account for 30-50% of all road crash fatalities, highlighting the urgent need for safer streets. A school-going child in Chennai would encounter about 10 obstructions every 100 metres on a footpath, with parking being the leading contributor. The elderly and the differently-abled suffer the most. 

What should be prioritised? 

First and foremost, pedestrian- and cycle-friendly street design guidelines must be formally adopted and embedded into the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Regulations (TNCDBR) and city masterplans. This can be the foundation of all future efforts. Next, all roads must be designed or redesigned in accordance with Indian Roads Congress codes, ensuring at least two-metre-wide, well-lit, continuous footpaths and accessible pedestrian crossings. 

Building on this foundation, speed-calmed zones should be implemented around hospitals, educational institutions, and markets to prioritise safety in high-footfall areas. There should also be a simultaneous focus on a Safe Routes to School programme, with a need to be rolled out in at least 50% of all government schools to protect children’s daily journeys. 

Finally, cities with populations above 10 lakhs must implement comprehensive parking policies and Area Level Parking Management plans to manage demand and reinforce safer, people-first streets. 

Urban Transport Planning to be Holistic and Coordinated!

Despite strong public demand for better buses and safer footpaths, nearly 70% of city budgets in Chennai, Coimbatore, and Erode are spent on flyovers and road development, which are vehicle-centric (as per a study on budgets of the three cities by ITDP India). This contradiction caters to only vehicle users, resulting in transport challenges. 

What should be prioritised? 
 
First, urban laws under the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules (TNMVR) must be strengthened to explicitly protect pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users. 

Next, a state-level Unified Transport Authority and an Urban Transport Fund should be established, along with Gender and Policy Labs in all cities to institutionalise inclusive and evidence-based decision-making. 

With governance structures in place, at least 60% of transport budgets must be allocated to public transport, clean mobility, walking, and cycling. 

All urban projects should then be aligned with city-level Comprehensive Mobility Plans, Road Safety Plans, and Climate Action Plans to ensure coherence and long-term impact. Finally, local public meetings and community audits must be conducted through city mobility forums to ensure transparency, accountability, and continuous citizen engagement. 

Will this future become the reality? 

The future of mobility in TN can’t be limited to a gadget, or an app, or a code. 

The future is whether a child can walk to school safely. 

Whether a woman can board a bus without fear. 

Whether an elderly citizen can cross the street without risking their life. 

Whether a young professional can breathe clean air on their commute. 

And encouragingly, Tamil Nadu is beginning to act on this vision, not just in words, but in budgets. 

In Chennai, a historic Rs 200 crore allocation for Safe Routes to Schools in the 2026 city budget, covering 50 km, marks the first-ever dedicated SRTS budget. This year also marks the second consecutive year of large-scale funding (Rs 250 crore) for walking and cycling infrastructure. The city has further committed Rs 50 crore for 25 km of Non-Motorised Transport corridors, Rs 110 crore for bus terminal redevelopment through PPP, Rs 40 crore for multimodal integration at Washermenpet and Chepauk–Marina, Rs 10 crore for junction improvements, and a citywide Smart Parking Management programme across 20 locations. Institutional reforms, including the strengthened Quality Control and Project Development Department, indicate that implementation capacity is being built alongside vision. 

In Coimbatore, the FY 26–27 budget allocates Rs 60 crore to build 26 km of footpaths by converting storm water drains into usable walkways, which is a transformative shift in reclaiming space for people. This is complemented by Rs 10 crore for Safe Streets on Trichy Road, Rs 5 crore for public EV charging infrastructure at 25 locations, and funding to operationalise the Diwan Bahadur (DB) Road multi-level car park (MLCP), opening opportunities for behaviour change campaigns. 

Alongside MTC’s phased induction of e-buses, the Bus First campaign, and CUMTA’s push for unified mobility guidelines, Tamil Nadu is increasingly aligning policy, funding, and governance structures toward a people-first mobility transition. 

If Tamil Nadu continues on this path – strengthening bus fleets, cleaning the air, prioritising pedestrians, and coordinating institutions, 2031 will not just be futuristic, it will feel equitable, breathable, and safe. 

The opportunity is here. The budgets are beginning to reflect intent. Now the task is to stay the course! 

Inputs from Sanchana S, Tejesvini Ravi, AV Venugopal, Sooraj EM, Bezylal Praysingh and Donita Jose, ITDP India

One Challenge, Five Startups, Better Public Transport for All 

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As appeared in the Sustainable Transport Magazine

“Where is my bus?” Ask any Indian commuter, and chances are they have asked this before. The long waits and uncertainty often push people to simply give up and hail a rickshaw. Over time, what should be a city’s most reliable service — public buses — caninstead drive people towards private vehicles. This frustration is not unique to India, and innovation is needed to improve today’s bus systems across the board. 

History shows that significant challenges like this can often be solved by breaking them into more manageable parts. That is how ‘hackathons’ began in the 1990s — computer programmers fixing one glitch at a time until entire systems are improved. The lesson was simple: solve more minor problems first, and the larger system benefits. 

In April 2021, India embarked on a collaborative journey to solve issues with its urban bus systems. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the Smart Cities Mission launched the Transport4All (T4A) Challenge — India’s first and largest digital transport challenge. Co-hosted by ITDP India, with support from the World Bank, Startup India, and CiX, the program brought together over 240,000 citizens, 130 cities, and 28 startups. This collective effort aimed to tackle a single mammoth problem, divided intoseven clearly defined challenges. The outcome? Of the 10 pilot projects born from the Challenge, several are already helping to ease commuters’ daily challenges through digital innovation. 

The Concept and Challenge Design 

The T4A Challenge used a dynamic, three-stage process to bring together cities, citizens, and startups to co-create solutions for public transport.  

Stage 1: Identifying Problems  

The first stage in 2021 involved a comprehensive assessment of the realities on-the-ground. Ninety-nine cities formed a Transport4All Task Force, a multi-stakeholder collective, to guide decision-making. This collective included city bus authorities, traffic police, metro rail operators, and NGOs. Since T4A was a digital innovation challenge driven by data at its core, a massive data collection exercise — the largest of its kind in India — was undertaken. Over 200 NGOs supported a city survey that involved more than 200,000citizens, 17,000 bus drivers and conductors, and 25,000 informal public transport drivers. Their inputs helped shape eight core problem statements. 

Stage 2: Solution Generation  

With the problem statements defined, the Challenge shifted its focus to finding solutions by reaching out to startups in 2022. From over 160 applicants, 45 startups with 70 proposals were shortlisted to develop and refine digital solutions through mentoring and workshops. After another round of screening, the top ten winning startup solutions were selected. They each received a reward of up to ₹20 lakhs (USD $22,000) per solution, along with the chance to proceed to the next stage of implementation. 

Stage 3: Pilot Testing  

This was where theory met practice. In 2023, the winning startups received pilot orders to engage with public bus operators for large-scale testing of their digital solutions. This stage was crucial for refining the solutions based on four mentorship rounds, in which the startups ironed out their selling points, business models, and prototypes. At the end of this stage, eventually, two problem statements were dropped due to a lack of robust solutions. Five startups ultimately took on the following six problem areas:  

  • Route Rationalization 
  • Network Digitization 
  • Bus and Staff Scheduling 
  • Transit Performance Monitoring 
  • Passenger Information and Ticketing 
  • Bus Maintenance Scheduling 

The Impacts and Innovations

Years of effort finally came to fruition when these five startups rolled out their ten pilot projects in six cities — Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Mira Bhayandar, Belagavi, Kalyan-Dombivli, and Davanagere. Each pilot started with a simple question that needed to be answered.  

Take bus route planning, for instance. In Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad (two neighboring cities with one public bus operator) and Mira Bhayandar, bus operators asked: “Why can’t bus networks be viewed and planned digitally, instead of being scattered across paper files and Excel sheets?” One startup, Anamar Technologies, digitized 1,100 routes in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad into General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) formats, enabling multiple digital solutions for the bus operators at Pune Mahanagar ParivahanMahamandal Limited (PMPML). Meanwhile, the startup Amiraj Wahan did the same in Mira Bhayandar for three routes. Now, staff can update routes in minutes, and passengers can see them directly on Google Maps. 

There has also always been an issue of planning staff and vehicle schedules dynamically based on passenger demand and traffic. Drivers and conductors have long asked: “Why can’t our shifts be planned reasonably and efficiently?” In Belagavi, the startupInnoctive Technologies (CargoFL) introduced a scheduling tool that reduced scheduling time from 1410 minutes to just 120 minutes. In addition to improving scheduling, it also saved up to ₹13 lakh (USD $15,000) per depot annually and increased vehicle utilizationfrom 25 to 80 percent. 

For many city bus operators, another frustration was: “Why don’t we have a dashboard to see how buses are performing?” The startup, Vrishchik Technologies LLP, stated that in Davanagere, they created digital dashboards that track operations with 95% accuracy and generate up to 30 actionable reports on various operational aspects.  

Even bus maintenance was reimagined. Instead of waiting for breakdowns, bus operators asked: “Why can’t repairs be predicted and planned?” QED Analyticals and ApnaWahan piloted predictive maintenance in Pune, using on-board devices and digital platforms. The result: repair turnaround times dropped by 50% from 3 hours to 1.5 hours, and overall costs fell by 16 percent. 

And what about the passengers who often wonder: “Why don’t the buses go through the areas where people actually live and work?” As cities grow, routes get outdated, which means some buses run nearly empty while others are overcrowded. The startup, AmirajWahan Pvt Ltd, helped three cities — Belagavi, Kalyan-Dombivli, and Mira Bhayandar — redesign their networks. In Kalyan-Dombivli alone, 84 routes were rationalized, expanding coverage from 280,000 to 720,000 people.  

Lastly, one issue is persistent for many of India’s modern bus users: “Why can’t bus information be at our fingertips, and why can’t fares go cashless?” In Pune and Mira Bhayandar, Anamar Technologies and Aloha Tech, respectively, launched mobile apps offering live arrival times, multimodal journey planning, and cashless ticketing.  

Going Digital is Now Essential

T4A’s four-year journey, culminating in these ten pilots across six Indian cities, underscores the power of collective action. It shows what is possible when citizens ask the right questions, innovators create freely, mentors guide, and cities open their doors to change. Data and digital tools tied it all together. From dashboards that track fleet performance, to predictive systems that flag maintenance needs, to apps that display live bus information and tickets — these pilots have proven that technology and public transport can work together. They also sent a clear message to India’s 100+ bus operators: going digital is no longer optional, it is essential. 

The next step is to ensure that these solutions do not remain short-lived pilots but become part of daily operations. That means building the capacity within public bus operators and, just as importantly, investing in them in the long term. Innovation needs funding to survive and scale. The T4A Challenge has shown us that it is attainable. Now it is about making it the norm, so that bus riders across India no longer need to keep asking, “Where is my bus?”  

By Donita Jose, ITDP India and Varsha Jeyapandi, ITDP India 

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

What Makes a Street Safe for School Children

by

Conceptualised by Smritika Srinivasan (Ex ITDP India) and Varsha Jeyapandi
Designed and Illustrated by Varsha Jeyapandi
With inputs from Kashmira Dubash and Venugopal AV