ITO Skywalk impressive but it is not a substitute for ground access

Recent news reports say that the PWD is placing marshals to urge people to use the Pragati Maidan-ITO Skywalk, Delhi’s longest pedestrian bridge that cost the government ₹55 crore.

For a city notorious for its shabby walking spaces, Delhi’s most eye-catching pedestrian infrastructure recently opened at ITO was expected to be an instant hit among those on the go.

But citizens have been slow to warm up to the Pragati Maidan-ITO skywalk, Delhi’s longest pedestrian bridge built across the city’s busiest traffic intersection.

The public works department projected that almost 30,000 people would use the skywalk every day. In the first week though, the private agency handling maintenance devoted much of its time warding off couples and even hired professional bouncers to prevent the walkway from becoming a ‘hangout zone’, HT reported on October 22. More recent news reports say that the PWD is placing marshals to urge people to use the bridge that cost the government ₹55 crore.

It is not that the ITO skywalk is not useful.

It helps you cross four busy arterial roads and provides seamless access to the Pragati Maidan Metro station (experts, though, say that the skywalk could have been extended to provide the maximum point-to-point benefit to its users). It is covered, providing protection from the sun and the rain. While the more agile users should not mind the stairs, there are seven elevators for those in need. If the authorities decide to go ahead with their plan to block the ground access to the road with high railings, people will have to take the walkway and footfalls will increase.

But could this be a model worth replicating in the rest of Delhi? If pedestrians had their say, they would rather walk along the street if the sidewalks were better built and cross the road at traffic signals, if crossover facilities were not rationed to favour the right of way for motorists.

An IIT-Delhi study conducted two years ago showed that a majority of pedestrians preferred on-street walking options, mainly zebra crossing, because they were easy to use. The elderly found it difficult to climb overhead bridges, while the women respondents showed reluctance to use the underpasses for reasons of safety. The ITO skywalk promises lifts and security but our civic agencies don’t exactly have a good record in the maintenance department. For example, check the subways at Connaught Place where escalators often don’t work and lights go off after sundown.

Prioritising the needs of the pedestrian is not about building expensive, attractive infrastructure. Shoring up walking spaces does not cost a bomb. It requires some basic masonry, such as building sidewalks, that are of the right height and width, ensuring that they are not dug up, broken, littered or used as an open toilet.

These are basic concerns but to have the administration pay attention, we need a drastic change in planning and decision-making. Over the years, our governments have focussed only on building road space to facilitate faster movement of vehicles. “Even traffic signal cycles are decided on vehicular load, without taking into account the number of pedestrians waiting to cross the road,” says Sewa Ram, a professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture.

Asking for composite planning, Ram says minor tweaks in signalling, such as giving simultaneous vehicular traffic intervals so pedestrians can cross in every direction at the same time without having to wait twice, could help. In fact, London is doing just that.

“What works best in the best cities of the world is walkability,” writes Jeff Speck in his book ‘Walkable City’. London, for one, has the most detailed ‘Walking Action Plan’ to be worked into all mobility initiatives and even has a walking and cycling commissioner to oversee those.

Last year, Transport for London, the agency managing traffic and public transportation in the British capital, reviewed timings at 1,200 signal junctions and crossings and reduced the wait times for people walking at 200 crossings close to schools, hospitals and transport hubs. This year, it has launched a more radical approach calibrating 10 new areas of the city to show a green signal for pedestrians continuously, until vehicles are detected.

Such light vehicular frequency would be a rare luxury even on the quietest roads in Delhi. But that cannot be an excuse for not seeking the best possible solutions.

If the capital aspires to be a world-class city, it must respect the citizen’s right to walk. After all, all journeys, long or short, begin and end on foot.