Parisar survey: Most pedestrians in Pune complain about non-availability of footpath

Residents from three municipal wards — Vadgaon Dhayari-Suncity, Ambegaon Dattanagar-Katraj and Bavdhan-Kothrud Depot — said they feel unsafe while walking on the city roads, according to the survey. Incidently, these are the same wards that have least number of footpaths in the city.

Parisar interviewed 1,000 pedestrians in 41 municipal wards of the Pune Municipal Corporation with a minimum of 15 pedestrians from each ward. The survey carried a questionnaire for pedestrians — those who were walking on the streets or waiting at a bus stop — in objective and open-ended formats.

At least 20.6 per cent respondents from Janata Vasahat and 17.6 per cent from Vadgaon Dhayari-Sun City pointed at unavailability of footpaths, followed by Bavdhan-Kothrud Depot and Dhankavadi-Ambegaon Pathar.

According to the survey report, parking on the footpath remains the top reason preventing many from using footpath while taking a walk. This was followed by other reasons like obstructions on footpaths, hawkers, overcrowding and incomplete and unevenly built footpaths.

In response to one of the questions, 50 per cent respondents in Mayur Colony-Dahanukar ward said they do feel unsafe, followed by 43 per cent from Janata Vasahat-Dattawadi ward, 33 per cent Ambegaon-Katraj and 25 per cent from Bavdhan-Kothrud Depot. Most respondents pointed to ‘high speed of the vehicles’ as a reason for their fear for walking on city roads, followed by fear of accidents, high traffic on roads and drivers not following rules.

Ranjit Gadgil, programme director at Parisar, said though the city has a pedestrian policy in place for a while now, “no real efforts have been taken by the municipal body” due to lack of a “vocal demand” for better facilities from pedestrians.

“Although the findings of the survey about problems faced by pedestrians are in line with what we as activists have been demanding, the real purpose of the survey was to know why pedestrians aren’t vocal about these issues faced by them. An overwhelmingly large section of respondents told us that they will participate in the activities if there were a forum that takes up the issue. This is the reason we have launched a forum for citizens,” said Gadgil.

The survey findings were released at the two-day National Pedestrian Conference on the Right To Walk, organised by Parisar, which concluded on February 29. The conference saw participation from former PMC commissioner Mahesh Zagade, Sujit Patwardhan from Parisar and Avaneesh Akhoury from AXA Business Services.

At the event STEP (Steps Towards Empowering Pedestrians), a citizen pedestrian forum was launched with an aim to bring pedestrians together in an organised manner to demand their right to walk in the city.

“The forum will engage with people all over the city to bring about awareness of pedestrian rights and advocate for change on ground through people’s participation,” said Gadgil.