Recently, a reel capturing pedestrians waving a foam block, cut into the shape of a brick, at oncoming traffic while crossing the road in Vancouver, Canada, went viral on social media. The message of the reel was that pedestrians must arm themselves if they want to be seen and taken seriously by motorists. The video was part of an April Fool prank by Vision Zero Vancouver seeking to educate motorists on road safety. At a more jurisprudential, statutory, and policy level, however, the reel raises the question of whether pedestrians today can claim a right to walk safely and whether governments and municipal bodies are doing enough to give effect to such a right.
Defining the right to walk safely
Distinguished from the freedom to roam, which refers to unencumbered access to sites of natural resources for recreation, etc., the right to walk safely relates generally to a pedestrian's right to be able to walk on the road without fear of being mowed down by traffic. However, engagement with the right at a more nuanced level reveals that the right to walk safely requires multifaceted enablement in terms of infrastructure and laws. Construction of pavements; removal of encumbrances to the use of pavements; construction of crosswalks, subways and footbridges; installation of pedestrian head-start signals, and slow down sign boards; sensors making the motorists aware of their speed; statutorily enabling pedestrian's right of way; repeal of jay-walking fines, etc. all fall within the ambit of securing pedestrians' right to walk safely.
The need to recognise the right to walk safely
The increase in the popularity of motor vehicles as a mode of transport in the early twentieth century mandated the law and policymakers to regulate them. To the detriment of pedestrians, however, such regulation translated into an increased and disproportionate statutory and policy attention to motor vehicles insofar as the use of roads itself was concerned. In India, even today, the primary statute regulating the use of roads is titled the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. While public roads were accessible to all for a significant part of human history, pedestrians' rights to walk on the road increasingly became sidelined and curbed.
For instance, the offence of 'jaywalking' was created to stop pedestrians from crossing the road, except at designated spaces or crosswalks. While such an offence appears regulatory, the net effect is that it transfers the blame for road accidents from motorists to pedestrians. The offence is today coming to be conditionally de-criminalised in several jurisdictions, such as California, Nevada and Kansas in the United States of America, in as much as it has been criticised for not only being ineffective in reducing pedestrian casualties but also for being applied discriminatorily against racial and ethnic minorities.
In the same vein, the government's focus while developing road infrastructure has shifted disproportionately to the needs of motorists rather than pedestrians. Even as solutions to fix traffic-related issues such as inferior road tarmac quality, potholes, and jams are regularly discussed in the policy discourse, problems faced by pedestrians hardly garner any attention. The simple truth is that India's roads are dangerous and unsafe to walk on. The Road Accidents in India Report 2022, released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, reveals that 32,825 pedestrians lost their lives, contributing to nearly a fifth of total road accident deaths for that period. A 2023 study by Bosch finds that 99 per cent of India's pedestrians are at risk of injury with infrastructural issues such as lack of paved shoulders, footpaths, and zebra crossings; poor street lighting; inadequate warnings about parked/accidental vehicles etc., contributing to 63 per cent of accidents.
Accessibility and disproportionate impact on vulnerable sections
Even though the right to walk safely can jurisprudentially be understood to be a facet of the fundamental rights to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and the freedom of movement under Article 19, the enforcement of this right remains burdened in many ways. Notably, the lack of accessibility arising from inadequate infrastructure and policy attention has a disparate impact on the poor, marginalised and vulnerable sections of society. As per the data released by the Registrar General of India in 2015, while 22.6 per cent of non-agricultural workers in India commuted by foot, only 12 per cent used two-wheelers, while another 3 per cent used cars or vans. A majority of road infrastructure in India caters to a minority of motor vehicle users. The costs of procuring motor vehicles ensure that safe road access is available only to those who can afford it.
The plight of differently abled pedestrians on Indian roads is significantly worse. As pavements become encumbered with rubble, trees, shops, and carts, their accessibility to blind pedestrians and wheelchair users decreases. Moreover, the construction of pavements also needs to consider the needs of the differently abled, as they often end abruptly without ramps or raised crosswalks.
The way ahead
The principles laid out by the Indian Road Congress in its Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities point us towards the requirements to be kept in mind while designing and constructing road infrastructure. The report stresses the need to plan in a manner that considers pedestrian needs while reducing their conflicts with vehicular traffic. For instance, there is a need to secure the right of way for pedestrians, even on busy roads and intersections requiring motorists to stop for pedestrian traffic. Education of motorists concerning pedestrian rights and safe road practices must also be promoted through awareness campaigns. Ensuring the above, however, necessitates both recognition of pedestrian requirements and a concerted effort to secure them.
(GS Bajpai is the Vice-Chancellor at National Law University Delhi, where Ankit Kaushik is an Assistant Professor. Views are personal.)