Online newsletter Volume 2, Number 3,  Winter 2004

 It Takes a Huge Effort to Build a Sidewalk

The tale of one pedestrian safety project in a rapidly growing historic city in India

By Judy Geyer, TSC Research Associate, and Anita Bhatia of Seva Mandir

In many areas of the developing world, whether rural or urban, there is not well-developed governmental infrastructure to facilitate maintenance and improvement of motor vehicle, pedestrian, and bicyclist travel-ways.  In some situations, it falls to community-based efforts and public safety campaigns to initiate constructive efforts in transportation safety.   

The following story describes the experiences in 2002-2003 of Anita Bhatia, with Seva Mandir, a regional non-governmental organization, that led to the approval and current construction a citizen-initiated sidewalk in Udaipur, a city of about 400,000 people in Rajasthan, in northwest India.  Seva Mandir works on projects that focus on health care, sustainable farming and economic development in more than 500 villages and urban areas in Rajasthan.   

Udaipur is a walled city about two square miles in size on the edge of Lake Pichhola with a rich history dating back hundreds of years, which is marked by numerous historic structures, including palaces and forts.  In the last half century, the city has expanded beyond its walls with the result that it now experiences many issues associated with urban sprawl. Vehicle travel has increased, and many roads have been widened to meet the new demand.   

Over the last 3 years, Bhatia has spent half of her time in the United States and the other half in India with Seva Mandir.  On a recent trip back to India, her colleagues in Seva Mandir asked “What do you think has changed the most in Udaipur?” Her immediate answer was: "The sidewalks."  

"I was living less than a mile from work," she noted. "Walking to work would have been a beautiful and natural choice for me, but it didn't exist! The road had been widened and the casualty was the sidewalk (or footpath as it is called in India).  

"I started talking to people, to see if the lack of sidewalks seemed like big a loss to them.  Surprisingly, a few justified that wider roads for vehicle traffic was a need. But most did agree that the change had crept in gradually over the years and they were forced to adapt."   

A friend and colleague at Seva Mandir urged Bhatia to think about how to address this problem and create safer travel-ways for pedestrians. Bhatia called a meeting of pedestrian advocates to devise a plan for a sidewalk along the road on her route to work. 

In the group’s first meeting, it was acknowledged that there was no budget for any construction.  Instead, the group had to focus on coalition-building around a campaign for pedestrian safety that would create enough political pressure to steer funds to the project.  The group focused its efforts on a 2-km stretch of roadway with no pedestrian infrastructure. With no injury data to guide their selection, the group chose the site based on its high volumes of vehicles and pedestrians and its high visibility. The roadway connected a school, a historical site that is now a tourist attraction, and three major intersections. The group assigned students from the school to collect usage statistics about the road.   

"In the initial meeting, the group decided to focus on three areas: building partnerships with stakeholders, generating community awareness and launching a pilot project along the street," Bhatia recalled. 

"One of the early events which helped build partnerships and create awareness was a first for the city, a walkathon planned along the 8-km loop of Lake Fatehsaga. It was billed as a fitness and fun event.  It allowed us to build partnerships with 11 area schools and five local institutions. Basically, it gave us the foot in the door to talk to the [mayor and city planning boards] about the larger issue at hand. Three major newspapers of the city and a national newspaper gave coverage of the walkathon. " 

In addition to the Walkathon, Bhatia’s group organized street theater events to promote pedestrian advocacy, organized community walking tours, persistently sought news attention from local newspapers and arranged for a special pedestrian safety issue of a local school’s newsletter. As a result of the campaign, Bhatia’s group made many important contacts with various stakeholders. Her group met many times with officials in the department of town planning, met with the Collector (similar to a mayor), and spoke with the Urban Infrastructure Trust. Campaign support also came from local artists and small business owners. As part of these efforts, Bhatia’s group received financial commitments from a number of parties to advance her campaign.   

"It was beautiful to mobilize a community around an issue of local concern," she said. "There were significant contributions by busy professionals in their areas of expertise.  For example, a local architect provided staff to conduct survey of the road to submit design recommendations for the pilot project, at no cost. A school created a class project for its students to conduct surveys on road use and safety. Also, several institutions supported us with logistical help, like the use of computers, conference facilities and stationary. These were available for use after office hours, thus minimizing disruption of their operations. A prominent local artist, Vilas Janvi, created a few street theater mime skits. For actors he used children from the local Academy for the Deaf. Another local school published a special traffic safety issue of their quarterly magazine with a circulation of about 2000. The magazine was an existing resource, and no additional budget was required."  

Finally, armed with professional design recommendations for the sidewalk (donated by a local firm), the group approached the Udaipur Collector. The City agreed to fund construction of a 1-km stretch. Bhatia persuaded a local group to donate trees for the sidewalk.   

However, campaigns, design document approvals, and funding did not mean that the project was complete. Due to local officials' unfamiliarity with sidewalk standards, the current construction phase became another uphill battle.  

"According to the design recommendations in our proposal, the sidewalk width was decided to be 6 feet with an additional 2 feet at the edge for planting trees," Bhatia said.  "About a 500-meter stretch of the sidewalk is partially complete. It is 5 feet wide, and the trees have been planted right in the center. It escapes me how the space could ever be used for walking. 

"We have planned some follow-up steps to get it corrected. Hopefully we can get it corrected for rest of the stretch, which is still under construction," she added. 

"The basic premise is to have safe walking spaces for everyday activities. Most urban planning in India seems to be ignoring the issue of pedestrian rights and more importantly safety. At a very simple, basic level I think you lose the soul of a city if sidewalks go away.  

"On a more commercial level, a heritage city like Udaipur could only gain in tourism money if it leads and sets an example of a well-planned urban space. With good planning everyone wins," she said.  

In January 2005, the city agreed to allow the additional space for the trees in the sidewalk. Two local NGOs pitched in the budget to move 30 trees which were already planted to the edge of the sidewalk.

Bhatia and Seva Mandir’s experience can be seen as an example of how local efforts can create campaigns for transportation safety, with important lessons for Western observers about the barriers that hinder improvements to traffic safety, and pedestrian safety in particular, in rapidly urbanizing regions of the developing world. 

To learn more about this project, contact Bhatia at  valley101@hotmail.com.

Photo by Anita Bhatia