Walking Project

We aim to create a safe, convenient & enjoyable walking experience across MMR through grass roots advocacy, collaboration & govt engagement 🚶‍♀️

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

What is Walking Project?
What do we plan to achieve?
How do we plan to Achieve it?
💪Support us 🔗

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@rajeshlele @gauravsabnis Thank you very much for your appreciation! Tribe can only increase with funding support! We could be doing 10x the work with a bigger team. Please do check our post on the Tata Mumbai Marathon. Please help raise funds through our page. Thank you.

https://t.co/4QUA8ISEoD

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@btalkies13 @caleb_friesen It clearly doesn't work. Need people to make a visit to the local ward office and show that there are consequences to not doing the work, all the way up the chain of command

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

To those disagreeing with @caleb_friesen, the current situation is exactly what you are defending.

In most municipalities and government agencies, very few citizens engage with their ULBs. Even fewer show up for monthly meetings or take up civic issues as a regular commitment.

Yes, citizens shouldn’t have to put in extracurricular effort to get basic civic issues addressed. Our ULBs should be doing their jobs. But we also need to reflect on where decades of public apathy have brought us. Much hasn't changed.

If you don’t have the time or motivation to engage in civic activism, the least you can do is support organizations and causes that do (like ours).

Otherwise, keep complaining about the status quo, do nothing to change it, and continue living with the consequences.

[Caleb @caleb_friesen]

I think what is actually needed is for Indian people to actually give a damn about their cities and fellow citizens.

Anybody using the "I pay taxes, I shouldn't have to do anything" excuse should go live in another country. India isn't developed, it's developing, so it needs patriots, not parasites. If this triggers you, it means you're part of the problem.

If you're not happy with the footpath (or a pothole, or anything else which is broken), fix it, or call someone to fix it, and don't give up until it's fixed. Be relentless. Be vocal. Be creative. Make it your mission to get that one thing fixed. Look at what Virendra (@Virendra0698) did by just calling the right people and being respectful (but also persistent). He and Arun Pai (@arunpaiblrwalks) along with the help of GBA and some wonderful volunteers turned an unofficial garbage dump into a pristine, beautiful footpath through sheer force of will.

https://t.co/pBmWjgckFf

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

📍Kurla Station (W)

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@anupamapatnaik @mybmcWardHW Good to know! Those black railings on the footpaths also need to go.

[Sumaira Abdulali @sumairaabdulali]

The Bombay HC's order banning firecrackers on public streets, lanes and footpaths, across all festivals and all year, is a welcome step against toxic air and noise. Awaaz Foundation's tests of 17 crackers, many sold as "green", found missing or fake QR codes and no accurate chemical or noise details. The Government and Police must ensure such crackers are never sold. Stop illegal crackers at the source. @timesofindia @CMOMaharashtra @Dev_Fadnavis @mybmc @mpcb_official @MumbaiPolice

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@MARWAMulund @streetfrontier With 20-25 times density it is best to have crossing anywhere along the road on inner roads and allow low rise dividers.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

Adding some fuel to the previous post on dividers. Thanks for the share @streetfrontier

[Street Frontier @streetfrontier]

The most surprising part of my Amsterdam trip has been the sheer lack of zebra crossings for pedestrians across the city.

Reminds me back home of India.

It’s not a design flaw. The street design deliberately allows pedestrians to cross at many places without a marked crossing.

It works because of speed enforcement, traffic-calmed streets, and very high levels of cycling and public transport use.

Of course, you can still find proper pedestrian crossings at major intersections.

[Neeraj Dixit @Dixit4Neeraj]

@Khurshedswami @walkingproject Jay walking is a term thats specifically north american, a lot of Europe has no "jaywalking" laws and in Germany, it's only illegal if a crossing is available in within 50-100, meters. All they ask is that you respect red lights. This perspective is decidedly that of a motorist.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@Dixit4Neeraj @Khurshedswami 50-100 metres may be a small distance as a car but as a pedestrian if I want to reach a point bang opposite to where I am but have to go 50 metres up and down for the same its just not easy.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

What is Pedestrian First?

Low-rise, surmountable dividers on Main Road, Lokhandwala, Andheri West, are being replaced with insurmountable ones with few , forcing thousands of daily market-goers to use a few designated crossings instead of crossing where convenient and safe. Vehicles often encroach upon zebra crossings and not yield for pedestrians at unsignalized intersections.

Lokhandwala is a busy market street, not a multilane arterial or a highway. It needs frequent crossings and basic footpath improvements, especially for senior citizens. instead BMC is spending money on adding barriers and neglecting the narrow footpaths.

At a time when cities worldwide are rethinking pedestrian-friendly streets, decriminalizing jay walking, making drivers negotiate for space with pedestrians, Mumbai is adding barriers that inconvenience people, need the pedestrian to beg for space on roads of all sizes and in-turn create consistent maintenance expenditures for plant watering and maintenance.

After the unnecessary installation of black guardrails on footpaths, these dividers are becoming a widespread practice that must be challenged. We need to resist this, starting with Lokhandwala.

Where is participatory planning and budgeting? On what basis was this decision made? What is Pedestrian First?

@AndheriLOCA and other local civic groups, please take note. Residents across neighbourhoods, please raise your voice. Repost and share to spread awareness.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

We focus on making sure that our roads which have increasingly become car centric and hostile to pedestrians start becoming pedestrian friendly.

What you are suggesting is a car centric measure.

The road in question is a high street. Not Western Express Highway or coastal road. It is narrow in width. Every evening it is busy with shoppers and local residents. The road design has to cater for their needs.

Please see attached photo. This is what happens when you create those high dividers. This is happening at hundreds of locations across Mumbai daily. Also check the photo of the flat surmountable divider.

Young males will find a way to surmount, women, women with children, senior citizens are the worst affected. Where they could have crossed in a straight line using their judgement they are now forced to walk extra to a "pedestrian crossing spot".

Slowly people either suppress their needs, reduce visits to such places or rely on motorised mode of transport to enable crossings. And that is how quality of life goes down.

Thank you for appreciating our work. Hope through our reply we have helped you to expand your horizon and take you on a path of people friendly cities. Please do check the second post on Amsterdam. All progressive cities around the world have embarked on making their cities liveable and reduce the priority to cars.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@claudiainbombay Yes, have to be careful. Thats why the wider version of same divider is best. Sharing image for reference. But this road is not wide enough.

[Chris Kost @chriskost]

The introduction of tall median barriers in Mumbai is a very unfortunate move. The older dividers needed universal access treatments but they contributed to a permeable walking environment across the city.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

There is no self goal. Check the before images of the dividers as they have existed for 40 years. No problem at all. This is a dense residential and market area. Everything is not available on the same side as you are and people comfortably cross at multiple points along the road using their judgement. No one marches into the way of a speeding vehicle. This road is not a highway, the width is less and crossing needs are considerable. In 40 years there has been no compliant or demand to change dividers. Entire Lokhandwala Complex is in redevelopment which means much more people will be staying within same area. More walking trips, no need for crossings. Jaywalking is a last century term and now disowned in America itself. Please follow the latest trends in more advanced global cities.

[Ajinkya @Ajinkya_027]

One day BMC will realise that traffic congestion is fixed by eliminating cars and playing more buses

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@public_pulseIN @mybmc That was the fear. Looks ugly as well. Original Sion beautiful beautifully integrated the pedestrian flow from the station and otherwise. And had grace and beauty. This new standard template for all bridges embody lack of empathy and aesthetic. Muscularity over everything else.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

@mybmc, appoint an urban design firm to design and implement this road properly in accordance with IRC standards.

Rupee for rupee, this road would move more people than an 8-lane road, while avoiding mass-scale demolitions and the destruction of businesses along a retail-heavy urban road.

Urban planning in Mumbai is completely out of touch with how people actually move in the city and what the modal share is.

What needs to be done is improving walking, integrating legal vendors on the street in accordance with IRC & Street Vendor's Act, and follow some of the basic principles of urban design like carriageway consistency and shoulder protion consistency.

[Jeet Mashru @mashrujeet]

BMC is sending demolition notices to housing societies in Santacruz east for road expansion from 6 lanes to 8 lanes.

The residents say atleast 1 lane on each side of the existing 6 lane road is occupied by hawkers, effectively narrowing the road.

Instead of removing illegal hawkers, @mybmc has come up with a plan of road expansion.

story by @DiwakarSharmaa in Mumbai Mirror