Mumbai Citizens' Group Unveil 'Pedestrian Manifesto' Ahead Of Maharashtra Assembly Elections, Demand Walker-Friendly Streets

As the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections come close and citizens put forward their demands for the future representatives of their constituencies, a group of citizens involved in making the city more pedestrian-friendly has come up with a pedestrian manifesto. The manifesto includes eight demands, ranging from establishment of non-motorised transport cells to making footpaths accessible for the specially-abled, with a single aim to make Mumbai walkable.

In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, walking is the most common mode of transportation and still the walking infrastructure of the city lacks basic utilities to make the city pedestrian friendly. Walking Project, a grassroots advocacy campaign to create a safe, convenient and joyful walking environment in Mumbai, recently released its first Pedestrian Manifesto before the upcoming state assembly elections.

The manifesto’s foremost demand is establishment of non-motorised transport cells in all urban administrative sub-divisions with a population of over 1 lakh. The cell including urban planners, architects and other permanent staff members will be responsible for designing and overseeing the implementation of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure enhancements within its jurisdiction.

The manifesto also covers the issue of illegal hawking and demands implementation of a comprehensive hawking policy for regulating and organizing hawker distribution across the city. It also addresses the issue of excessive on-street parking citing it as an obstacle to widening of footpaths. It demands implementation of a comprehensive parking policy across Mumbai to assess the parking demand, rationalise the allocation of on-street parking, and demarcate legal parking spaces.

Through the manifesto, Walking Project has also demanded pedestrianising the surroundings of transit hubs like railway stations, metro stations and bus depots. It suggested that improving walkability within a 300-metre radius of these transit hubs through wider footpaths, channelized pick-up and drop-off zones, standardized signage, modern accessibility standards, and high-quality surfaces, can significantly elevate the pedestrians’ quality of life. It also demands retrofitting of footpath kerbs with modern accessibility standards to make the urban spaces more inclusive for people with mobility challenges.

The manifesto specially focuses on the need to develop the Swami Vivekanand (SV) Road in the western suburbs and Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Road in the eastern suburbs, two of the longest continuous anterior roads in Mumbai. Underscoring the urgent need to develop them into world-class pedestrian-friendly corridors, the manifesto suggested improvements in footpath width, designated hawking area and high-quality signage among other guidelines listed by the Indian Roads Congress.

The manifesto also demands expansion of urban tree cover to reduce surface temperatures on footpaths and enhance pedestrian comfort. According to the suggestions stated in the manifesto, the local municipal body should identify and allocate suitable spaces for tree planting, which can be managed directly by the municipality or through public private partnerships and should be monitored by a third-party organisation to ensure transparency and effective maintenance.

Vedant Mhatre, program coordinator at Walking Project, said, “We have invested heavily in capital expenditure on metro projects, but far less on improving and maintaining the walkability in the city. As we move into the future, with a changing climate and rising income levels, it is imperative to make the city safe, comfortable, and inviting to walk on as possible. Politicians need to recognise the importance of this human-centered agenda, and our pedestrian manifesto provides a clear vision for the future, with concrete points for the Vidhan Sabha election hopeful candidates to run on.”