Crisis Warriors and their Cities
By: Being Pedestrian
Tags: Cycling, Tactical Urbanism, Urban Planning, India, Covid 19

The COVID-19 pandemic has cost us countless lives, but the crisis has again proven that our collective strength lies in our friendships, faith, resilience, and compassion. When our elected representatives indulged in whataboutery, the responders to the most affected were laypeople. In this piece, I talk about Relief Riders of India, a volunteer initiative that covered massive ground on cycles to deliver essentials to vulnerable populations in twelve Indian cities. I ponder about the ways in which the cities we are building can scale up the systems set up by civil society to respond to crisis and go further than remembering their service by rewarding them with improved infrastructure

Relief Riders:

Over 850 volunteers — all cyclists — from many cities across the country came together as ‘Relief Riders’ to provide essentials (food, groceries, medicines) for the elderly and other vulnerable groups. Organising themselves through a relay method for longer distances, the Relief Riders worked around the lockdown situation providing timely and efficient deliveries.

Relief Riders completing deliveries during the lockdown. Picture Courtesy: Relief Riders Team

Over a telephonic conversation, Felix John, Chennai’s Bicycle Mayor, spoke about the daily deliveries accomplished by the 119 relief riders across the city. He acknowledges the heightened safety he experiences while riding during the lockdown with fewer vehicles on the street, and stresses the need for vehicular speed control, respect for vulnerable co-commuters, lane discipline, and holistic cycling infrastructure as important for safety of cyclists post lockdown. John along with his cycling advocates endorses the ongoing ask for a protected cycling network in Chennai.

The municipal government of Chennai Adopted the Non-Motorised Transportation (NMT) Policy in 2014. Truly progressive on paper, the policy mandates a minimum of 60 per cent of the Corporation’s transport budget to be allocated to construct and maintain NMT infrastructure. In the seven years that followed the policy adoption, the city has barely measured up to rebuild its broken pedestrian networks without reclaiming much from motorised vehicles, and its efforts to build a holistic cycling network has remained insignificant. Similar to most Indian cities, non-adherence to traffic rules, varying right of way concerns, the overburdened public transportation infrastructure, and lack of alternative transportation options leads to an increase in private vehicle usage and thereby adding to the congestion. In a classic chicken and egg situation, we remain short-sighted on the future we would like to build for Chennai.

With the city spreading its arms to embrace NMT through the Mega streets project and now the Singara Chennai 2.0 initiative, it is up to the Corporation to show intent through action. Tactical resources and initiatives are not new to Indian cities anymore with several springing up with the guidance of ITDP’s Streets for People and Cycles 4 Change competitions. At least there has been some spotlight on cycling, albeit for fitness and leisure from celebrities. With Chief Minister MK Stalin cycling on ECR, the city’s DGP C Sylendra Babu a cyclist enthusiast, and film personalities like Vijay cycling to his electoral poll booth and Trisha pedalling her way to fitness, the city has garnered some unintentional support to paving the way for those who cycle for their livelihoods.

Through the pandemic, doctors globally have encouraged citizens to choose cycling as a viable and safe mode of transportation. India has been a country that was built on pedestrians and cyclists. John highlighted that in the last four years the number of cycling trips documented in Chennai by using the Strava app has quadrupled. While data collected through the app only speaks for one section of the population, the number of occupational cyclists in the city will increase the margins further. With an upward scale in petrol prices, it is time we capitalise on the trends to create a sustainable city.

Moreover, in 2020, Chennai was ranked the highest and accounted for 10.2 per cent of total road accidents reported in India. Only standing second to New Delhi in the total number of fatal accidents, therefore the implementation of NMT infrastructure is an urgent necessity. Prioritising pedestrian and cycling networks in dense cities have proven to significantly reduce travel speeds, thereby making city streets safer for all. Cities world over resort actively to Vision Zero missions that target reduction in road fatalities and hope to nullify them in the near future.

Picture was taken in April 2020 in Adyar, Chennai — Cyclists taking the centre stage on city streets during lockdowns. Picture Courtesy- Author

In India, Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune have been the front-runners in planning for NMT mobility infrastructure projects. And in a hopeful future, on the other side of the crests and troughs of these viral waves, we hope our Indian cities acknowledge the work of those silent warriors helping their cities and communities at the hour of need, owe them decent infrastructure, and build on the tools they have used to create a safe, healthy, and sustainable future. We have much to be thankful for in the communities we live in. We are constantly looking to thrive and support those around us. Perhaps, this is the best advantage of high densities. However, we also have an impending long battle to make our cities and non-cities a better place for all of us and for the generations that follow. The garb of Smart Cities has the potential to create sustainable cities and forge us forward. It is after all us, everyday people, that is choosing to settle with what is provided to us.