DH Bengaluru 2040 Summit | Bengaluru to Walk-a-luru: Panellists highlight steps needed to enhance green mobility

Bengaluru: ‘Obstruction-free footpaths’ and ‘universal pedestrian infrastructure’ were the key buzzwords coined by a panel on walkability at the DH Bengaluru 2040 Summit on Friday, which explored the need for green mobility solutions.

Arun Pai, founder, BangaloreWALKS — who identified 422 problems on 100 km of footpaths through his footpath walks across the city — introduced these two words as priorities that we can focus on as a rapidly-growing city.

“To make Bengaluru Walk-a-luru, we need only three things — good weather, footpaths and trees,” he said, adding that he wants to walk and assess the quality of 1,000 km of footpaths this year to highlight the “voice of the pedestrian,” as his vision for 2040.

Announcing her vision for a walkable Bengaluru, urban designer Nithya Ramesh said, "I hope [in 2040] we are all ashamed to own vehicles." She cited examples of Denmark and the high-rise laden but walkable Manhattan to emphasise the need to formulate policies that disincentivise private transport, even if it will "make a lot of us uncomfortable". She also emphasised her vision for footpaths being constructed through a gender-inclusive and barrier-free lens to enable the public participation of people from different sections of society.

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The panellists acknowledged that the mobility conversation in the city was “car-first, pedestrian-later”, even though most of the population walks in some capacity, but BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath noted that the development of roads includes footpath development.

“Footpaths are very important; we shouldn't make roads without them. We have made our design handbook after talking to experts to decide how the footpaths should be, without compromising road space and or the infrastructure for BWSSB drains, KPTCL, OFC, and BESCOM cables under the footpaths,” he said, assuring that the BBMP would “certainly” be allocating money for them.

Highlighting his vision for 2040, which involves safe public transport, clean water, and greenery, he also noted that a mass rapid transport system and the reduction of private vehicles are imperative in this conversation, without which extant issues would not improve, “even if we double or quadruple roads”. Without enough alternatives, people cannot be penalised for owning and using private transport. He also called it utopian to say the city shouldn’t take up tunnel roads or road widening because people can go in buses.

“We need another Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 crore invested in the city…We must plan now for 2045, 2048,” he said.