BENGALURU : Last week, the cause of pedestrians received a big boost. It started with a tweet by the well-known industrialist Anand Mahindra who tweeted to his 6.5 million followers acknowledging the effort by Bengaluru to make pedestrian friendly streets calling out Church Street and St Marks Road.
He went on to add that though he was car manufacturer, he endorsed pedestrian only streets.The chief minister’s response was heart-warming. He went even further. He said the city’s mobility future lay in all forms of public transport, bicycles and pedestrianization.
This is music to many of us who have been chanting the mantra of pedestrians first, the vulnerable cyclist and focus on public transport. Back in 2009, it was the green signal to Tender SURE roads that set us on this route to reclaim our streets. This issue has received bipartisan support across political parties and one is hopeful it will continue in the future.
The essence of any mobility strategy must embrace the idea that we need to focus on moving more people faster and safer in place of the traditional way of investing in moving private vehicles faster though signal free corridors, flyovers and the like. These infrastructures have not necessarily helped move vehicles much faster since they bring in more traffic that slows everyone down. These infrastructures have a place in cities particularly on arterial roads but cannot be the corner stone of the strategy to fix our city traffic.
We need to hug the vulnerable pedestrian, cyclists and encourage use of public transport. Tender SURE roads, footpath improvement projects, public bicycle sharing systems are taking root in the city and that augurs well for the future.
We must demand good footpaths for at least 2,000kms for our MLA candidates. MLAs also have the power to change our archaic Acts that control bus transport. Currently, theStage Carriage Act gives BMTC a monopoly. The Contract Carriage Act does not allow private players to use modern technology to give flexible options on routes, pick up / drop points and timings to serve the citizens. So, we have a situation where BMTC, Transport department neither allows new players or adopt outsourcing models of wet leases where citizens can get even better bus services. This status quo needs to be challenged. We can collectively fix Bengaluru’s notorious traffic. It starts with a ‘Pedestrians First’ approach.