Our life starts and ends on the streets. After our birth and discharge from hospital, we travel from hospital to home by street. After dying, from home to the crematory place, we travel by streets. After home and workplace, perhaps the street is the place where we spend most of our daily time.

Streets are an integral part of our life. Streets are the lifeline of mankind and indication of prosperity and mobility.

Streets are dynamic in India. They exhibit social life. We celebrate birthday events, play cricket, solemnize marriages, build religious places, hold political rallies and agitations, everything and anything on the streets.

It may seem strange to write on a topic other than the dreaded pandemic in these troubled times but it is actually related to COVID in more ways than one.

In many cities around the world, the forced distancing caused by the epidemic has seen a boost for cycling and ‘pop up’ cycle tracks leading to an increase in this mode – as much as 10% to 15% in some cases. Other innovative moves towards sustainable transport include creation of 30 Km/hr zones to ‘keep road traffic speeds down and boost so called soft mobility’.

The Rue de Rivoli in central Paris

One can find large parts of the road occupied with parked vehicles. This forces people to walk on the carriageway.

One of the aims of public planning is to provide easy access for different people such children, senior citizens, and differently abled people. The benefits that walking and walkable areas can provide include community involvement, health, and recreation all of which have positive effects. Walkability is the basis of a sustainable city. When we talk about equitable share of road space, it means giving higher importance to walkability as well.

शहरे म्हटल्यावर अनेकांच्या डोळ्यासमोर जे चित्र उभे राहते ते नेमके कोणते चित्र असते, तर मोठ-मोठ्या उंच इमारती, मोठे रस्ते, पूल, वस्त्या, शॉपिंग मॉल्स, हॉटेल्स, चकाकणाऱ्या बाजारपेठा आणि ट्राफिक इ;. शहरात या सगळ्याच्या पलीकडे एक गोष्ट असते, जी शहराला शहर म्हणून विकसित करते. त्याला मानवी अस्तित्वाच जीवंत रूप देते आणि ती गोष्ट म्हणजे, शहरातील सार्वजनिक जागा होय. शहरे विकासाची संधी देतात शिक्षणाची, नोकरीची संधी देतात, त्याइतकच सार्वजनिक जागांचे सुद्धा महत्त्व आहे. शहर विकासात सार्वजनिक जागांचे अनन्यसाधारण महत्त्व आहे. सार्वजनिक ठिकाणे आपल्या शहरांची महत्त्वपूर्ण मालमत्ता आहेत. लोकांना एकत्र येण्याची आणि समुदायामध्ये एकमेकांसोबत जोडले जाण्याच्या बर्‍याच संधी या जागा प्रदान करतात.