8/10/2019 Reclaiming our walking space, one step at a time

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region clocks5 crore walking trips every day, thehighest for any city in the country. Awalk to the railway station, a stroll tothe vegetable vendor, or a quick dash

chemist, Mumbaikars dont mind leg-t around. Now, that can only be described

ve for a city where nearly 57 per cent ofkilled in road accidents are pedestrians

where the municipal corporation recently reducing the width of pave-

s in a hare-brained move to pre-encroachments.hi Agarwal, 37, who last yearhed the Walking Project, anious attempt to give Mumbai

est walking environment in thery by 2017, loses his nerve every

and then. I was in Singaporetly to study the walking envi-ent there and was thinking --what have you got yourselfhe says sipping Darjeeling tea

offee shop on Turner Road in Bandra.utside the coffee shop, the pavement haspossible deterrent that one can conceive

walker potted plants eating into theng space, a paan shop blocking the way, aop, parked vehicles, and broken pavers jutting out at every step. So, everybodyon the road, braving angry, honkingrists, leaving the footpaths for lazy dogsabbies card games.hi blames what he calls the administra-poverty mentality for the lop-sided plan- while millions are spent on roads, flyo-nd bridges to accommodate the ever-asing volumes of cars, no thought isd for walkers. Of the municipal corpora-mammoth Rs 27,000 crore budget, only

0 crore is spent on footpaths.d thats not where the neglect of foot-ends. Mumbai, Rishi points out, does not

any street design guidelines. Delhi, a citylove to compete with, has a comprehen-70-page street design manual that lays a

stress on pedestrian infrastructure.cause Mumbai depends on the whims ands of poorly educated corporators andy contractors to design its pavements, theis footpaths good for everything else but

ng. Ever wondered why our airports areoughtfully designed, but our railway sta-

tions are not? Well, the answer is poverty men-tality. Its been assumed that train commutersdo not deserve anything better. And becauserail commuters dont demand more, they getthe filthy, smelly, rickety stations that plannersbelieve they deserve. Same goes for footpaths.

If Rishi had his way, he would get every per-son who sprained an ankle or broke an armbecause of a poorly designed pavement to file acase against the BMC or MMRDA or MSRDC.

He himself, of course, has stopped takingthings lying down. He will soon be shooting aletter to the BMC against corporator Jyotsana

Dighe who has installed iron railingsalong a narrow footpath in MillatNagar, Andheri, forcing people towalk on the road. A typical exampleof a corporators whims taking overplanning in the absence of a streetdesign guideline, says Rishi. Therailing has taken away womensoption to step off the footpath whenthey feel threatened. Even men wouldfeel claustrophobic on the narrowwalkway bound by compound wallsand Dighes railings, says Rishi.

Such design idiosyncrasies and a completedisregard for human behaviour is rampant. Theheight of walkways in the city varies from 3

inches to a foot. Bus stops that completelyblock footpaths are an accepted idea now.People believe the footpath outside their gatebelongs to them. Electricity boxes, post boxesand government-granted milk and phonebooths are all accepted pavement fixtures.

THE WAY FORWARDRishi, who is a research fellow with theObserver Research Foundation, says walkingspaces have been so grossly abused in Mumbaithat it would be foolish to target a completechange in the short term. He says we need toreclaim our walking spaces step by step. To startwith, he suggests targeting a radius of 200metres around all railway stations and majorbus terminuses, which clock nearly 10 millionwalking trips a day. Even if 100 railway stationsand 25 bus terminuses were targeted, it willimpact an area of nearly 25 km.

Rishi and his partners have also decided notwait for the administration to wake up and for-mulate a street design manual. The group willtake the best practices from across the worldand prepare a small note for all 227 corporatorssoon. Let them understand what a footpath is.Even if 27 of them show interest, it will be a big

success.The Walking Project believes that Mumbai

cannot become a world-class city if it does notlearn to respect pedestrians. Singapore,London, Paris, Rome and other great cities ofthe world invest a lot in pedestrian infrastruc-ture. And they are not called walkers paradisebecause they have wide footpaths, they are cel-ebrated so because its a pleasure to use thosefootpaths. There are street cafes, shops, muse-

ums, great architecture, gardens. Thats whatmakes walking around these cities such a greatpleasure.

Rishi describes BKC, the citys new-agebusiness district, as one the worst areasto walk around in Mumbai. Its aghost town after office hours. Evenduring the day, nobody fromthose glass-panelled offices, I amsure, steps out to take a walk.Walk for what? There is noth-ing to do in BKC apart fromwork.

The Walking Projecthas begun interveningin what can bedescribed as the aes-thetics of walkingareas too. A plan

will soon be sentto the BMC forthe E MosesRoad thatconnectsMahalaxmi toWorli Naka. One ofthe keys of this plan isto ask the Turf Club tolower its easternperiphery wall so thatthe beautiful, greenexpanse of the TurfClub becomes accessibleto all, at least visually. TheOval Maidan is an example. It has aniron grill on its periphery and its apleasure to walk around it. Whydeprive poor people, who are not mem-bers of the Turf Club, this beauty.

Millat Nagar to Mahalaxmi, engi-neering to aesthetics, advocacy to legalinterventions, thats a lot of work to do.And as per his own clock, only fouryears left to achieve the target. Thenthere are those spirit-sapping trips towalker-friendly cities.

aj Upadhyaya and Virat Singhesgroup.com

m left: From treating it as a private property to setting up shop bang in the middle to using it as a self-promotion tool, Mumbais footpaths are used for everything but walking

Reclaiming our walking

space, one step at a timeshi Agarwals Walking Project aims to make Mumbai the friendliest city to walk by 2017

MumbaiMirror I MONDAY, MARCH 4, 201TY www.mumbaimirror.com/city