Midblock Crosswalks

Supported by Parisar, Other CSO’s and PMC NMT Committee members.

As part of Pune Road Safety Campaign announced by the then Mayor Hon'ble Mrs. Mukta Tilak, Pune Municipal Corporation has agreed to build Mid-Block Pedestrian Crossings on 100km of divided arterial streets to improve safety of pedestrians while crossing at mid-blocks in the city of Pune. Parisar is working with Pune City administration PMC to help design and execute safer midblock crossings.

Why is the project needed? 

As per the MoRTH report of 2019, pedestrian deaths in the country in 2018 were 22,656 and in 2019 with an increase by 14.13% were 25,858 in the last year and the number of deaths on junctions are 39,728. 

A street design proposal for Nehru Road in Ramgarh Jharkhand under SUMNet Ramgarh Walkability Project. 

Nehru Road in Ramgarh Jharkhand is narrow mixed used road comes under Ramgarh Cantonment connecting two major city roads and highways thus attracting vehicular traffic of mixed type both private and commercial. Since the road is narrow and not designed, having an influx of pedestrians due to residential zone as well it is becoming unsafe for the people on foot walking and cycling. 

The strict lockdown that was imposed during March 2020 had hit markets across the world, including in Pune's old core city. Laxmi Road, the usually congested market street in the core city area, is a compact space that sees huge congestion of mixed traffic on regular days.This was badly hit due to its compact space constraints during the lockdown period. 

Globally cities found safer unlock solutions from the lockdowns. As the unlock process proceeded, it seemed difficult for this central core-area market street to be allowed to return to its compact, congested earlier form, in the fear of infection spread. There was a need to regulate the high pedestrian footfall here, despite there being a big space constraint. 

We proposed a tactical intervention based on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India Advisory on COVID-19 for Laxmi Road, that offers safety to both customers and traders. The plan serves to revive commerce on this busy street and offers a safe shopping experience for all visitors.

During the COVID19 pandemic, all the public spaces and services were largely affected by its traumatic lockdown conditions and physical distancing norms in the fear of spread of infection. In the process of unlocking there were challenges to make public spaces and its services safer at its operations with minimizing the spread of infections. We thought of designing some public spaces which are usually bound to attract congestions so that the spread of infections could be controlled.