Busy stretches to become more pedestrian-friendly

Coimbatore: A few months after temporarily developing Big Bazaar Street and Raja Street to provide more space for pedestrians and regulate traffic movement, the city corporation has decided to develop a few crowded stretches based on the tactical urbanism concept.
Corporation commissioner J Sravan Kumar on Tuesday said they would come up with a permanent design based on the feedback on the pilot project. “A total of Rs 4.5 crore is allocated to redevelop Big Bazaar Street under the smart city missions.”
He said they would create eco-mobility corridor with exclusive non-motorized transport (NMT) infrastructure benefitting about 5 lakh people for a total of 30km, NMT routes for about 300km and 26 pedestrian hotspots that would benefit more than 10 lakh people.
Sravan Kumar was speaking at a virtual programme titled instant street interventions for safe walking and cycling. The event was organized by the smart city mission and ITDP India programme in association with the World Bank and GIZ smart-SUT programme.
Pointing out that social distancing has become the new norm of day, the corporation commissioner said it was imperative to enforce safety measures at crowded areas, including footpath and markets. When a lion’s share of road users are pedestrians and cyclers, priority should be given to them, he said.
Explaining that about 60% of the city population was dependent on public transportation and non-motorized transport, he said close to 1 lakh people were using cycles in 2011. “Now, more people have started using cycles. With 2 million population, the city sees about 30 lakh trips a day.”
During the pilot study that was carried out on Big Bazaar Street and Raja Street, the city corporation had increased the footpath area to 34% of the total road space from the earlier 10%, while the bus corridor was reduced to single lane. “There are safe pedestrian crossings and the overall movement of traffic has become smoother.”
Aswathy Dilip, senior programme manager, ITDP Indian programme, said, “If we don’t act now, physical distancing might become a challenge and our streets might become a hotspot for transmission of Covid-19.”