Planning for pedestrian friendly environment: case of Kolar

Abstract

Walking is considered as a basic means of transport. It is the most sustainable way of transport which comes with health benefits. While being the basic mode of transport it is mostly ignored making pedestrians vulnerable to accidents and keeping them deprived of facilities. An attractive walking environment attract pedestrians. It is affected by factors like provision of infrastructure, surrounding landuse and the attitude of the people residing in an area. In India, pedestrians are deprived of a safe walking environment and infrastructure facilities. It is an issue which needs to be addressed as with increase in number of vehicles on the roads will further require more infrastructure and is not considered sustainable. Improving interest towards walking and public transport need to be done to make cities more sustainable and decreasing the environmental losses. Infrastructure improvements and provision are the best and fastest ways to improve walkability in any area. They are the responsibility of the local authorities and to be done in rightful way. Kolar is a statutory town and falls under the jurisdiction of Bhopal Municipal Corporation with Kolar Municipal Council as a Local authority in the area. It is located in the southern part of Bhopal. Kolar is considered as a satellite town of Bhopal with large residential development in area. Although, commercial activity is prominent along the arterial road i.e., Kolar road making it active for pedestrians. Kolar has immense potential to develop as pedestrian friendly district with residential development not far from commercial spaces. Although, the area suffers lack of pedestrian facilities which make the area vulnerable to pedestrians and less attractive as whole. The thesis aims to study the existing scenario of pedestrian infrastructure and walking environment in the study area along 2 stretches with an aim to provide infrastructure for improving the walking environment. For analysing the status of pedestrian infrastructure various guidelines were compared along with primary survey to find the existing condition of pedestrian infrastructure. To find the overall walkability, walkability index is calculated based on the walkability survey. Suggestions are provided to improve the walking conditions in the area.