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Prioritising Streets for People: Reimagining Indian Cities

3rd November 2020 By admin

The Smart Cities Mission launched another national green recovery initiative—the Streets for People Challenge—with an aim to make Indian cities pedestrian-friendly, lively, and safe. The Challenge was launched by Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in a virtual event conducted on 11 September, 2020, and attended by key city officials, partner agencies, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders. 113 cities across the country have registered to transform their streets.

What is the Streets for People Challenge?

Across the world, COVID-19 has changed the way streets are used, highlighting the importance of streets for inclusive mobility, but also as public spaces for recreation, mental health, and to enhance the liveability of a city. The Streets for People Challenge follows on the heels of the India Cycles4Change Challenge to bridge this crucial gap in the way cities are envisioned and create streets that are safe, healthy, and happy, through quick, innovative, low-cost measures. The Challenge is an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in partnership with the ITDP India Programme and supported by the Fit India Movement and Swachh Bharat Mission. It is open to all cities under the Smart Cities Mission, capital cities of States/Union Territories, and cities with a population of over 5 lakh population.

Launch of the Streets for People Challenge

Stages of the Challenge

The Streets for People Challenge will be conducted in two stages. Stage One of the Challenge requires cities to test at least one pilot intervention, comprising a flagship public space project and a liveable neighbourhood, along with the development of a conceptual city-wide scale-up strategy. 11 cities will be selected for Stage Two to further scale-up their transformation. Drawing cues from locations like the Pedestrian Plaza in Chennai and the Golden Temple Heritage Street in Amritsar, the flagship projects are imagined around markets, retail areas, transit hubs, and other prominent places in the city. Cities should also choose neighbourhoods, which can range from mixed-income areas, resettlement colonies, low-income neighbourhoods, and others. In these areas, cities can create pedestrian-friendly or pedestrian-only streets, convert parking spaces to pop-up parks, revitalise dead spaces, and create walking links between large urban blocks. 

Timeline of the Challenge

To ensure well-designed pilot interventions, cities will roll out a design competition for students and professionals across the country. The competition will be launched with a design brief and entries will be evaluated by local officials, citizens, experts, and other stakeholders. To place the community at the heart of the Challenge, the design competition will include a multi-step process, where citizens can take part in discussions and vote for the best entry through a community jury. Cities will also focus on citizen participation through activities such as events and campaigns. 

Cities will participate in a virtual Streets for People Festival in February 2021. Following this, 11 cities will be selected for Stage Two. In this stage, cities will commence implementation of their scale-up plan and work towards a long-term strategy to prioritise walkable and liveable streetscapes. Throughout the Challenge, the ITDP India Programme will provide remote assistance by sharing knowledge resources, conducting online training workshops, and facilitating peer-to-peer interactions between cities.

Taking the first step

The 113 registered cities have already kickstarted the process through the Online Workshop 1, which was conducted on 1 October, 2020, by the ITDP India Programme. Key officials from Amritsar, Chennai, Delhi, and Udaipur presented the learnings from the development of various pedestrian-friendly spaces in their cities. As the officials spoke about the transformation of spaces in these cities, they emphasised key factors such as community feedback sessions and tactical measures to ensure successful interventions. The session was led forward by the ITDP India Programme through a presentation that focussed on a detailed look at the Challenge process for the cities — expanding on their next steps to engage with their communities and begin the design process. 

To facilitate this collaborative transformation, cities are now calling upon passionate individuals to support their city in coordinating, volunteering, documenting, and sponsoring various elements of the Challenge. The city will closely work with these diverse group of individuals to efficiently manage the Challenge in multiple aspects, such as data collection, media coverage, and inclusive participation.

Streets for People, By People

Cities are now in the process of identifying their pilot sites, building support from the community, and gathering momentum through the ‘Open Streets’ Campaign. The campaign aims to showcase a glimpse into the Challenge, by opening streets to pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorised transport users. By asking citizens to nominate streets for the campaign and then organising events to bring them together, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Kakinada, and many others are truly embracing this cause. The ITDP India Programme is proud to support the Smart Cities Mission in this national initiative and guide Indian cities to reimagine a future around the needs of people, not cars. 

Written by Aditi Subramanian

Edited by Avishek Jha

To support your city for the Streets for People Challenge, register here – https://smartnet.niua.org/indiastreetchallenge/support-your-city-2/

This article is part of a series of articles on the Streets for People Challenge.

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: non-motorised transport, Pedestrian Plaza, pedestrians, safe cities, Walking and Cycling

Parking Management in the Pedestrian Plaza

6th December 2019 By admin

An Infographic Blog

Conceptualised and Designed by Kawin Kumaran
Content created by Nashwa Naushad, AV Venugopal

Photographs by TD Achuthan

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: Chennai, Parking, parking management, Pedestrian Plaza, pedestrians, Pondy Bazaar, Walking and Cycling

Making Places for People: The Launch of the Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Plaza

29th November 2019 By admin

The Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Plaza, one of Greater Chennai Corporation’s most anticipated projects, was launched with much pomp and show on the 13th November, 2019, by the Hon. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru Edappadi K. Palaniswami. Spanning over 700m on Sir Thyagaraya Road, the plaza has successfully transformed one of Chennai’s busiest and car-centric shopping streets into a pedestrian promenade by prioritising people over vehicles, and opening up new ways of experiencing the space. With wide and safe pedestrian walkways on both sides, ample shaded seating, beautiful landscape, and colourful play elements, the plaza was designed as a space accessible for all, including women, children, senior citizens and people with disabilities. 

Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Plaza takes off !

A couple with a stroller walks past the parade of shops, the infant’s eyes light up at the brilliant display of wares. A group of young women store-hop, hands full with bulging shopping bags bursting at their seams, but they still want to shop more. An elderly man on a wheelchair swiftly moves through the teeming crowd, pausing at places to enjoy the sights and sounds of the promenade. Musicians take over the streets as people walking by stop to listen, curious and pleasantly surprised. Two generations of family converse over fresh filter coffee, while the third-and the youngest- runs around and plays on the see-saw by the footpath.

Vibrant, attractive, lively, with spaces to walk, run, play, socialize, sit, linger and observe.

A street full of people. A street for people.

This is the New Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Plaza! 

  • Before-Public space created
    After-Public space created
    Before Public space created After
  • Before-Organised Parking
    After-Organised Parking
    Before Organised Parking After

The Pedestrian Plaza project was conceived with the intent of enhancing the unique shopping experience that Pondy Bazaar offers, by reclaiming public space for the shoppers. For the first time, Chennai is looking at a street as not just a mobility corridor, but as a social, public space for everyone, be it families, children, and the elderly.

An open-air mall in the heart of the city! 

Before and after conceptual street sections highlighting the space reclaimed for the pedestrians
  • Before-Footpaths tranformed
    After-Footpaths tranformed
    Before Footpaths tranformed After
  • Before-Wide walking spaces
    After-Wide walking spaces
    Before Wide walking spaces After

With the success of the pedestrian plaza, the city now plans to scale up the work by redesigning and developing streets in Chennai to be future-ready and Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) friendly incorporating various aspects of mobility, utility and livability.

The first phase of the Mega Streets project envisions the creation of a network plan and redesign of over 110 km of streets spread across six different neighbourhoods. The network plan will prioritise shaping spaces accommodating the needs of all road users.

G.Prakash, IAS – Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation is all praise for namma Pedestrian Plaza!

With more neighbourhoods set to see a similar transformation, Chennai is surely moving towards better and livelier streets for all!

Written by Aishwarya Soni
Sketch by AV Venugopal

Videos created by Aishwarya Soni, Kawin Kumaran.
Photographs by TD Achuthan, Santhosh Loganaathan

Edited by Keshav Suryanarayanan

Check out our previous blog on how the Pedestrian Plaza reclaims the street for pedestrians and shoppers.

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: Chennai, cycling, Pedestrian Plaza, pedestrians, Pondy Bazaar, Walking and Cycling

The Curious Case of Intersections

24th September 2019 By admin

An Infographic Blog

Designed by Aishwarya Soni
Conceptualised by A V Venugopal, Santhosh Loganaathan and Aishwarya Soni

To know more about the best practice standards for designing intersections and complete streets, check out our Complete Streets Design Workbook, Volume 4 of a 7-volume toolkit prepared by ITDP India Programme. 

https://www.itdp.in/strides-towards-smart-cities-in-india-the-complete-streets-framework-toolkit/

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: Intersection, pedestrians, Salem, streets, Walking and Cycling

Ranchi Walks Ahead: The Overnight Transformation of M.G.Road

17th September 2019 By admin

One week. One week is all it took for Ranchi to see a huge change on M.G.Road, one of its busiest streets. The efforts of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation(RMC), the Ranchi Traffic Police(RTP), and ITDP India Programme brought about an incredible transformation almost overnight by a quick tactical urbanism intervention. Using simple temporary measures like paint and traffic barricades, the street space was redesigned to create colourful, dedicated walking paths for pedestrians. This simple first step has created a cascade of promising changes – a first in the state of Jharkhand. 

M.G.Road, leading to the Albert Ekka Chowk is one of  the busiest streets of Ranchi. Imagine a street filled with cars and two wheelers. Parked two wheelers lining both sides. E-rickshaws  stopping throughout the stretch to pick up and drop off people. The shopfronts overflowing onto what’s left of the street. Somewhere in the middle of all this, despite little to no footpaths, every hour more than four thousand pedestrians try to navigate through this chaos safely. This was M.G.Road until very recently. So, what changed ?

In early August, Manoj Kumar, the Ranchi Municipal Commissioner and Sanjeev Vijaywargiya, the Deputy Mayor came together with the ITDP India Programme to identify solutions to tackle traffic congestion and lack of pedestrian space on M.G.Road. They showed great enthusiasm for a tactical urbanism intervention – a low cost, temporary change with barricades and paints to improve walking conditions on M.G.Road. The transformation aimed at creating  wide dedicated walking paths on the street, clearly demarcated and painted with colourful patterns with the participation of pedestrians, in order to create a sense of public ownership of the streets. The result of this intervention would help raise awareness and a public demand for a permanent intervention. This would be the first trial of its kind for Ranchi and the entire state.

Once approved, the project moved forward rapidly with the support of the RMC and the RTP. At astonishing speed, within the next two days, all stakeholders were brought on board, a detailed study was conducted, and the designs were created. On the stretch between Sarjana Chowk and Albert Ekka Chowk, a 6 metre wide walking space was demarcated on both sides. The RMC and the RTP worked together to clear the area of all parked vehicles and mark the designated areas with barricades for a two day trial run before the final tactical urbanism intervention.  

From black and white to a dash of paint

  • Before-Before-After
    After-Before-After
    Before Before-After After

The night before the inauguration, the street saw a lot of activity. Members from the RMC, RTP, and the ITDP India Programme worked with a team of painters to transform the demarcated walking area into a colourful and vibrant space. Slowly, images of white paint started to take shape on the black footpath. Outlines of children playing, a child flying a kite, and imprints of bare feet started to add life to the space. Meandering paths of paint led the way through a field of shapes of varying sizes, of bubbles and butterflies, stars and sunflowers. Hopscotch tiles for children to play, and circles to jump around. Next came the splashes of bright pink, yellow, green and blue to fill in these shapes. 

Despite some rain during the painting, the teams worked on tirelessly through the night, just stopping once in a while for a cup of hot chai to warm themselves. Even late into the night, journalists and other passers-by stopped alongside the chowk, their curiosity piqued by the hustle and bustle, to find out what was happening. As a result, the project received widespread media attention, bringing many people to the chowk the next day to see the results of the nightlong efforts.  

Within a few hours of hard work, the space was transformed completely. Visitors to the street in the morning were pleasantly surprised to see the results. The Deputy Mayor, the Municipal Commissioner joined a team of volunteers from the Rotaract Club of Ranchi and other institutions along with passers-by to finish painting the walking path. 

The trial was a big success with the pedestrians and cyclists on the street who responded to feedback surveys  with great eagerness, expressing that they felt safer and more comfortable with the new space and expressed their support for the project asking for it to be made permanent throughout M G Road. 

Looking Ahead

Ranchi has already started moving in the right direction with several positive changes as a result of this intervention. The  intervention has convinced the officials to replicate this approach in other parts of the city as well. The RMC has started planning a complete redesign of M.G.Road with permanent footpaths as a pilot project for the entire city. In preparation, RMC has already issued a call for bids to repair all the drainage systems along M.G.Road. 

The RTP has also decided to take progressive steps to implement smart parking management on M.G.Road. Another major development is the decision of the RMC to start running city buses on the main road from early September. The department will begin working on a  detailed bus operations plan for this stretch along with new infrastructure for buses.  

The quick tactical urbanism intervention that happened over one week has acted as a catalyst for all these changes. These quick, low-cost and scalable initiatives can lead to a process of creating wide reaching changes across the city. This can create a city wide network of streets that enable safe walking and better transit for all.

Ranchi is already on its way!   

Written by Keshav Suryanarayanan

Edited by Kashmira Dubash

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: Footpath, pedestrians, Ranchi, Street life, Tactical Urbanism

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