Walking classes unite

an initiative for the rights of pedestrians to their space

tiger varadachari road

the corporation is allowing more parking space on tiger varadachari road

Walk-A-Thon

21st September

Starting at 4:30 PM, Labour Statue, Marina.

Ending at Pattinapakkam, Foreshore Estate.

7 PM Closing ceremony with a street play and music.

Walking for Pedestrian Rights and related themes.

To register:

send a mail with name and contact number to ped.access@gmail.com; or

contact Venkat on 9884706531.

For more, check the entry right below.

Walking the Talk

It’s finally here, folks! The clock’s a-ticking for the Walking Classes Unite walkathon.

We start off at the Labour Statue at 4:30 PM. There will be an inaugural to-do to kick off the event.

The route followed thereafter is along Marina, within 7 KM. This ends up bringing our determined pedestrians to Pattinapakkam, Foreshore Estate, for a street play and some music by way of a closing ceremony.

That’s the brief overview – watch this space for details! Just to quickly clear the obvious questions:

What are we walking for?
- securing pedestrian rights. redefining urban spaces. making urban transport equitable. raising awareness.

How are we walking?
- Any way you like it! But with a clear way of indicating that we’re doing it for pedestrian access (funky headgear!).

Who is walking?
- You. And everyone you tell. Everyone who cares. Whoever cares will come. Spread the word!

Why walk?
- It’s fun. And it’s good for the soul. Not for the sole of your shoe. The idea is to shoo away such a state of affairs. We walk for a fair state.

When and Where you already know: Labour Statue, 4:30 PM, 21st September (Sunday).

See you there! To register, mail ped.access@gmail.com.

Easier still, call Venkat on 9884706531.

And watch for a beautified version of this blog and this post coming soon.

Keep walking, Johnnie!

Widget

Collegiates, join us in the long walk to equity!

Anna Nagar Audit Walk Exhibition

Walking Classes Unite conducted an Audit Walk along with the Anna Nagar West Extension Residents’ Welfare Association. See the slide show!

The inauguration was done on 28th June by the Chief Election Commissioner (State) and was well-attended. A local theatre group enacted a brilliant street play for the occasion.

Presentation of Spastic Society Audit Walk to City Officials

June 20, 2008

View the presentation here!

The presentation for city officials about the Spastic Society Audit of April 17, 2008 was well attended. There were representatives from Corporation, Electrical Board, the Traffic Police (who left early) and some others. Please refer to the Register list taken by SPSTN. Following the presentation, there was a brief discussion about the proposed recommendations and comments from the representatives.

The rep from EB said that the open wire from Taramani is actually a telephone wire, so we should contact Telephone rather than EB for that problem. As for the Electricity box, there is only one on the Taramani Road, and it has already been cleared.

When the issue of hawkers was raised, the representative from Corporation (man in pink shirt) said that the Corp is already working on a proposal to move all shops from Taramani within the week. There will be no rehabilitation of these hawkers, they will only be removed. When it was suggested that these hawkers have a market from the Ascendas employees (cigarettes and cheap tiffins) so they should be moved down towards Ascendas, he said that these hawkers will just come back later. They must be removed because they are misusing the space. One example he gave was where they found a hawker using a handicap person’s identity to set up shop in the area. For the Corp, the issue of hawkers is not one to take lightly, and so the Hawking Committee is working hard to settle this problem.

As for the newly constructed central median on Taramani Road in front of SPSTN, the same rep said that there is already space given in front of the EB building for crossing. And once this central median is completely done, there will be a slope and small opening given to pedestrians. Mrs. Shyam responded that a small opening in the central median is not enough. Because the road is busy and there is no traffic signal, children often wait in groups to cross the street. A small opening as such will not be sufficient space for a group of 10 or more school children waiting to cross the road when there is so much traffic coming at high speeds.

One solution that was given to rectify this problem is the installation of speed bumps on roads like Taramani and OMR to control the speed of the oncoming traffic. But the rep from Corporation said that only cops can control the speed because the OMR is a main road with high speed traffic, so speed bumps cannot be put in place. It is a policy that speed breakers are not allowed on main roads here in Chennai. So pedestrians would have to rely on the traffic police to enforce traffic rules and control the speed of oncoming traffic. However, as Dr. KP Subramanian said, how can traffic be maintained at an appropriate speed when the police aren’t on duty all day long. So he suggested that pedestrian subways be provided on the OMR since there is a heavy volume of pedestrians using the road.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi, the librarian, said that “I have to depend on others because of the roads when I come to school from Mahlia Kalish…. Pedestrians are invisible… There are no traffic police around to help me cross the road. And I need somebody’s help, so every morning I come with a colleague to work. I have to take an auto when I come alone though. This is only because of the road.” She cannot climb the foot over-bridge.

A computer teacher from SPSTN who takes the bus to SPSTN from Valapani, said that the buses do not stop in front of the school. And so, bus users don’t know where to stand for the bus because there is no proper bus shelter and the bus drivers often do not wait for the passengers to get onto the bus. This is a problem that we must bring up with the Bus Dept.

Annie Shyam made a presentation of recommendations. Zebra crossings for pedestrians are essential and vehicles should slow down to ensure the safety of pedestrians. She wanted 7 zebra crossings to be installed.

1) There needs to be a zebra crossing in front of the MRTS bus stand to cross over to Tidel Park because there are so many people crossing the road to go to the institutions around the area. A light and a sound buzzer should be included at all crossings. One of the reps commented that instead, the bus stop should be moved closer to the MRTS so that the bus commuters can cross at the intersection or use the foot over-bridge. There should be more of an effort by Bus Routes to integrate the transport system so that bus stands and the MRTS are linked and accessible.

2) The intersection of the OMR and Canal Bank Road is chaotic, so there needs to be a zebra crossing and speed breakers placed on the OMR crossing over to Tidel Park and a zebra crossing Canal Bank Road from the MRTS. There should also be zebra crossings on all three sides of the OMR turning into Taramani Road.

3) Along Taramani road there should be speed breakers and a zebra crossing from the Technical Teacher’s Institute over to SPSTN. There should also be a school zone sign posted here clearly.

**generally, she suggested that there should be zebra crossing by every bus stop and that every zebra crossing requires a light and sound buzzer.

One commenter responded to Mrs. Shyam by suggesting that subways for the OMR – Canal Bank intersection because it is too busy. But Mrs. Shyam said that this would only make the pedestrians even more invisible. Why should the pedestrian be forced to go underground to cross the street? Even if you put escalators and lifts for these over-bridges and subways, they will not work over time (just like the ones in the MRTS). Over 2 percent of India’s population is disabled, so why aren’t the pedestrian facilities reflecting that population.

Dr. KP Subramanian suggested that SPSTN be made into a special zone where speed must be controlled and the height of the footpath be reduced. However, adding the number of zebra crossings that Mrs. Shyam suggested would not be possible.

As a conclusion, a former member of Hwy Department said that he will go back to his department and review our recommendations. He would support making SPSTN a special zone, and take note of making more audible crossing signals available. But all these things will have to be discussed in each of the departments in charged.

Parallels in Mumbai

On the last evening of May, I walked along the Promenade at Bandra. It extends from the point at which Turner Road meets the sea (better known as the site of Joggers Park) onwards north to where it meets with Carter Road, ending off roughly where the famous Café Coffee Day at Bandstand is (arguably the CCD averaging the richest visitor profile in the country).

The next morning, while gazing on to Malabar Hill out of Gieve Patel’s studio, I had a telephonic conversation with Darryl D’Monte. He, along with PK Das (architect and rehabilitation engineering expert), led the development of the promenade by the Bandra West Residents’ Association a few years ago. What follows first is a brief outline of his and others’ work in this regard.

Initially, the whole area was a mess. Then, INTACH conducted a study of the entire stretch of coastline. Darryl, PK et al procured the residents’ concurrence for the promenade – quite a job in itself. They next requested Shabana Azmi to spend out of the MP’s fund for local area development on this project. She acquiesced, following which the BMC was contacted for a lease and agreement. Charge of construction for a period of one to two years was given to the PWD.

That’s how the promenade came to be constructed. A commercial sponsor was found in the form of Marico, a palm oil major which proceeded to green up the promenade with gardens in which they planted, well, palm trees. Walking along the promenade these days, one is accosted by many dog walkers (especially on the Carter Road stretch), many of the jogging tribe with ipods strapped to their arms, several kids playing on the swings in these gardens, and the odd alien (with two eyes looking out of its mouth).

The idea of a commercial sponsor for upkeep and maintenance in this form has, indeed, worked well. Another way commercial sponsorship is gained is through utilizing the site for cultural events round-the-year, minus the upcoming monsoon months (especially post 2006 floods!). The ‘Celebrate Bandra’ festival is an example. This has been a source of funds since 2003; details are available on www.celebratebandra.net.

Darryl mentioned the oil spill of the 1990s, subsequent to which the idea of using the shipwreck as a ‘floatel’ was doing the rounds (the current buzz is a monstrosity along the lines of the statue of liberty that’s to come up in the middle of the Queen’s Necklace, except that it’ll be a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, so if one speaks out against it, one may be perceived as being anti-Maharashtra). After the oil spill, they became alert to similar potential dangers, and took up active opposition to encroachments. This is especially important in view of the fact that the Carter Road stretch has one of the best preserved patches of mangroves along the south Bombay coast (sorry, no offense, but Mumbai just sounds wrong sometimes).

What resulted is the Mumbai Waterfront Centre. This has won several awards, notably a Washington-based one and another from Deutsch Bank. The London School of Economics runs an Urban Age Project, and recently a $100,000 award instituted as part of it was shared by the Triratna Prerna Trust and the Mumbai Waterfront Centre. A Mumbai-specific conference was held and is accessible on the Urban Age Project site. Figures on pedestrians and cyclists sourced from a World Bank study are also presented (such as that 60% of all people in Mumbai walk/cycle, and that a staggering 87% of Mumbai commuters use these modes of transport). One would only expect these figures to be higher in our other cities, given that Mumbai has close to the best public transport system for any Indian city.

Coming back to the avenues used for commercial sponsorship, at the city level, there is the ‘amphitheatre on the hill’. This is located on the southernmost tip (Gateway of India area; INTACH did a study of this too), at Land’s End (perhaps you’re familiar with the story of the Taj Land’s End, which was constructed back-to-front by mistake, so that when the British architect who’d done the designing came in on a ship, he had a heart attack on seeing it). The amphitheatre has a seating capacity of 1200+, and was again built out of the MP’s fund thanks to Shabana Azmi’s compliance. Regular performances held here (by performing artists such as Amit Chowdhury, singer and poet) are another source of funds. The Mumbai Festival, held every February, is another utilized avenue.

A couple of leads Darryl gave which might be worth following up at some point:

1. Pukar for work on gender and space. Sameera Khan and Shilpa Phadke would be people to contact.
2. The architect PK Das for details of two designers (each other’s sisters) who did the promenade furniture. This includes innovative designs which can be used to lean against and sort-of-sit-on, while at the same time not occupying much by way of space.

That’s that as far as the brief outline goes. What follows next is Darryl’s take on a couple of pertinent issues and his response specific to Mumbai in particular, as well as some rumination on what we might take from this for Walking Classes Unite (he was thrilled with the name, incidentally; did a sort of verbal double take and then guffawed happily, repeating “walking classes, eh?”).

As far as vendors are concerned, the middle class in Mumbai presents no opposition worth mentioning, to the municipal authority’s policies. While I was in Mumbai, I went through the papers pretty diligently, and more than one article mentioned the BMC’s having trebled the forces to stop illegal hawking and confiscate their goods. If one’s ever seen one of these raids, one knows how proficient the hawkers are at vanishing along with their goods when they get tipped off about a posse’s arrival.

While hawkers do need to be cleared out from particular spots, I came across at least one example of unjustifiable anti-vendor policy implementation. Vendors have been cleared off the whole sidewalk in the British Council area, only to be replaced by plants in bulky pots cemented to the pavement, which take up more space than the vendors ever did, and are an unnecessary nuisance. Darryl agreed that it’s a tough answer to come up with – how does one monitor the proliferation of hawkers in any given area? He did side with its not being a self-regulating mechanism, but unlike our friend the City Commissioner, he was convinced a ban isn’t the solution.

My own feeling is that WCU needs to come up with a pretty compelling argument as to how to make sure that particular areas don’t get cluttered up and become congestion belts due to excessive influx of vendors while at the same time not imposing a ban on their presence. Of course, a reasonable solution is to mark out spaces for them, but not with the current model of urban development being followed, which restricts them to certain hawking zones and, as our friend the Commissioner would have it, puts a blanket ban on hawkers anywhere else. In Mumbai, the BMC is dead bent on doing away with the guys selling “Chinese food” and quick bites on the street. I’m not too sure if that includes the sugarcane juice sellers (whose carts, incidentally, have a kind of uniformity in Bombay), but I doubt it, because that certainly would cause an uproar!

Coming to the question of skywalks: well, I picked up a paper that same last day of May, and there was an article talking about plans of at least half a dozen of them that are going to come up soon. The first of these is at Bandra East, and Darryl & co. will be working to ensure its proper alignment etc. He said they’re organizing a suburb level meeting with the MLA present. As long as the people have a say in the location and the implementing arm gets the alignment and construction right, he was quite clear on the idea being OK in principle.

Of course, that’s for a city like Mumbai, and even there, it’s only in its initial stages of execution. One thing I did pick up from the papers is that the costs of construction are conceived of as being met by revenue generated through auctioning off advertising space on both the inside and outside of the skywalks. That was quite a revelation! One wonders how they’re handling the financial aspect in Chennai, with the new no-hoardings regime. One thing for sure – there certainly aren’t any plans of introducing escalators for these skywalks in Mumbai.

That brings us to the end of my conversation with Darryl. Before we signed off, however, he did say to be in touch via email and to keep him posted on how things go.

a work in progress

sometimes, when life has wrung you dry
and there’s nothing to smile about,
it doesn’t hurt to try a wry
pass of pate: it’ll all work out

eventually. eventually
it will. it always does and tends
to. even frost’s fence, neighbourly,
breaks with the spring, and friendship mends.

but of the time that’s in between,
when stones are blocking apples off,
and yearly monsoons being lean
there is no real reason to laugh -

what of this in-between, when all
there is to clutch at is a page?
when the stone wall is standing tall
and frozen ground-swells take an age

to loosen up the creaking joints
and wear the stones out; all the while
straining that a smile may anoint
the stony face – what of this time?

this time is silent struggle. this
time is frustration. this is what
they tell you builds character. this
time is all we have ever got.

let me relate to you a tale
of one such silent struggle that
took place. before the news is stale
and our enthusiasm flat.

it happened in a hot, hot town
some call it a world class city,
this metropolis does go down
as one that is rather pretty.

the ripon building houses our
unique chennai corporation -
flyovers (the call of the hour
when officials seek commission)

are sanctioned and authorised by
folks whose higher-ups work in here,
except for some. i know from my
own tries that some shirk work, i fear.

or else they’re much too busy. take
our dear city commissioner:
four trips in vain we had to make;
it made us a whole lot thinner.

the magic of bureaucracy
helpful PAs with strict orders
who with artful hypocrisy
draw procrastinating borders.

is this how hope is kept alive
or is this how it’s led astray?
anyway, on to trip number five
when we finally had our way.

the buffoon in a squeaky voice
said “sustainability means
the middle classes make the choice
of driving five miles to get beans.”

or maybe he said onions. it
escapes my mind for now, because
what he said next, the little twit,
made much more sense towards our cause.

“you’re doing too little, though well-meant.
make noise – we need you to protest!
see, department to department,
public institutions are best

off not getting in each other’s
way. i can’t tick off the EB.
we departments are like brothers,
branches of the government’s tree.”

on the one hand, he seemed to think
we were doing too little. but
on the other, the little fink
said to focus on “just one rut.

iron out all the problems there,
do a case study, a model,
and bring citizens’ demands here.
that gives me some kind of handle.”

so said our dear commissioner
to a bunch of us volunteers.
the urban studies professor
tried allaying our newfound fears.

“don’t chase all the hawkers away”
she said with calm and great aplomb,
“make urban spaces theirs to stay”
she might as well have dropped a bomb.

the fellow in the comfy chair
seemed to find this a tad naive
he stroked a hand through thinning hair
and hit back with his pet reprieve:

“you don’t understand what i said.”
neither did we; especially
not the “driving five miles” gambit
to pick up simple grocery.

we upped and went knowing quite well
that we would be pushing such chaps
to do their work. it’s hard to tell
why the brave must always brave traps.

we are a platform and we call
ourselves ‘walking classes unite’,
the kind that will help you walk tall
not be walked on or shunned from sight.

we do not have funding as yet
and yet we are going great guns
the sun burns us, rain makes us wet
but our time to walk has begun.

“where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high,” tagore said.
one-third of all commuters stand
victims of its inverse instead.

“the pavement’s so high, it’s too hard
jumping on and off with my load
it’s broken every other yard
you know, i’d rather walk the road.”

the spastic society finds
students with that much common sense,
so does power make people blind
or are officials really dense?

we at PedAccess tried our best
did audit walks with SPASTN
and with the Anna Nagar West
ERW Association

we got in the odd press release
called meetings with the officials
an exhibition gave new lease
of life to public attention

from morning walkers to the chief
election commissioner (state)
whether their visit long or brief
wrote of how highly our work rates

as groups go, a similar one’s
doing a study hand in glove
with the city corporation
as was commented on above

their funding comes from CII
the top industrial lobby
i don’t know about you but i
do not want that model copied

we don’t have any office staff
to go running around for us
the funds we’re seeking are enough
to let us go about by bus

what i have learnt, what i have loved
is seeing chennai in this way
cycling, walking and getting shoved,
most of all, DOing what i say.

we had a show launch yesterday
it’s remarkable how well it went,
what hit home most was the street play
and the commissioner – absent!

to do a thing and do it well
has its own quiet little joy
anything else would ring the knell
on being me as when a boy

it bothers me that some of these
things are a lot of uphill work
for just a few. so won’t you please
come help us clear out the murk?

when everyone has clear sight
of them, these issues speak aloud
- that is their beauty and delight -
enabling it’s what we’re about.

Bicycles, Trains and Children

Early Saturday morning, my 11-year-old son and I rode our bicycles in
the middle of Market Street , once the most automobile-congested
street in the country.  Of course, we could not do it without over a
hundred fellow Newarkers, who joined the Brick City Bike Tour.

“That’s how it feels in a city without cars,” my son exclaimed.  Most
riders in the tour must have also shared this pleasure, in addition to
another two overwhelming feelings.

Since the 1930’s, to accommodate an increasing number of suburban
automobiles, the city has widened most streets, often by narrowing and
even eliminating sidewalks.  On many streets, curb-cuts serve cars for
the Bayonne Boxes, but not wheelchairs and bicycles.  Before we even
started this pleasant “family event,” parents and children in front of
City Hall had to witness a heated match of obscenity and middle-finger
waving between two road-masters with swift cars fighting for a lane.
During the tour, red-faced escorting police officers had to shout at
un-yielding automobile drivers.  Last year, Prevention magazine ranked
Newark at the very bottom of 100 cities nationwide for its
“walkability.”  Bicycle riding is dangerous in this city.

Organizers of the tour thoughtfully arranged the route through many
city historic sites.  However, the most profound streetscape,
particularly in Downtown Newark, is sprawling empty garages and
surface parking lots lying under the sunshine of this peaceful
Saturday.  After World War II, the city rapidly lost its power of
manufacturing, together with its once economic engines, the seaport
and the airport.  Along went almost half of its vibrant population.
With over 60 percent of its properties exempt from local real estate
taxes, the parking tax has become the most significant individual
contribution of the affluent suburbanites to the city’s revenue.  Even
with crude oil at over $140 a barrel, many private and public Newark
institutions are still enthusiastically planning for new parking
facilities.  For instance, a leading developer, on record, claimed
last year that the central business district’s future depends on
another 5,000 parking spaces.  Rutgers University  is still busy
“creating at least 3,500 additional parking spaces” on the city’s most
valuable land (see the city’s Request for Expressions of
Interest—Broad Street Station District, p.18), while possessing 2,800
parking spaces (a figure from 2000, Newark Campus Master Plan, p.60)
for its 10,500 mostly commuter students.  A Rutgers-Newark professor
who makes $70,000 annually pays only .001 percent ($70) of his income
for parking, the rest subsidized by poor Newarkers.

Two years ago, my children went to watch Al Gore drawing a doomsday
scene of the world in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  My son held
my arm tightly, sobbing from fear.  After that, they made the decision
to take the daily trip to their school by train from Broad Street
Station.  During the train ride, we have made friends with train
conductors and learned about the history of New Jersey ’s mass
transit.  My daughter started a new collection–our monthly train
passes.  Riding with them, I often thought about the words of
Alexander Dumas:  ”How is it that little children are so intelligent
and men so stupid?  It must be education that does it.”  Education?
Yes.  I also cannot forget a conversation with the leader of a Newark
public university.  He told me in defense of his parking expansion
plans, “I am an urban person, who also rides the train (from New York
City ) to work.  However, I have no choice but to add more parking.
You can’t expect one person to change the world….”  Change the world?
As if taking over the poor city’s extremely limited ratable for
parking suburban cars, one has not changed the world.  As if ignoring
our children’s fear for their own future, the educator has not
violated their humanity.  Mayor Booker said about the Brick City Bike
Tour:

” Newark has a long celebrated history as a center of competitive
bicycling.  We are restoring that tradition as we revitalize Newark ,
and at the same time, providing our residents with recreation programs
that improve health, unite families, and manifest excellence.”

I am sure, if by chance our mayor reads this piece, he will forever
abandons his now-famous new black SUV, and ordinary Newarkers will
just approach him anywhere during his bicycle riding.

http://dailynewarker.com/2008/06/30/bicycles-trains-and-children/