For humans or machines?

In a country where caste is a basis for assigning quotas, I wish to present a caste / life war that is, as yet, unaddressed. I do not support the caste system, but since we are still living with it, I would like to bring to everyone's attention, a new quota system that needs to be in place.

I am a landscape planner by profession. We work on many road sytems / urban streets / public transit systems. I have been enlightened by the company of many leading professionals in India, and my friends who have been living the cause of urban spaces.

We are allocating increasing amounts of space to cars & road systems, while the amount allocated to pedestrian activities is on the decrease. We like to take out our vehicles for distances that we would have happily walked a few years ago. In the foosteps of the USA, we are becoming an automobile society.

Some statistics are so shocking, that it is insane to think how ignorant we are. A city is usually designed based on a masterplan. The plan allocates about 25-40% space for public activities from the total land pool (depending on the political / social preferences). 20% of the total land pool (minimum) is used to road systems & access! That is almost 50-80% of the public spaces!

If we have a road with a width of about 40 meters, we allocate a measly 4 metres width to pedestrians (both sides of the road included!) Talk about human rights! We are not allowed to walk. We are promoting policies that are pro-car & anti-pedestrian. Every driver believes it is his / her birthright to be able to have unhindered access to roads, where crossing pedestrians are unnecessary & should be done away with!

Recently, Ahmedabad Corporation did a one-of-its-kind experiment by closing down a part of its largest shopping district for one sunday. The place: C G Road, is a prime commercial area with heavy traffic & congestion during peak hours & weekends. When the road was closed for pedestrian activities, people started walking all over the road! The entire 24-30 meters of road width was available for pedestrian use. One could see people walking freely in groups (& not in a single line), children racing about or skating, older persons sitting & chatting with ease & so much more! All this without the noise & hindrance of vehicles. Whats more, all shops recorded 2-3 times more footfalls that day! This is because people had already left their vehicles and were walking by leisurely, finding more time for window shopping and hence stepping in more often!

The corporation had been sane enough to club this occasion with performances by schools, NGOs, traffic sense presentations, etc. The whole space became one vibrant public space. It was that day i realized that if a small 250 metres long stretch of road could hold hundreds of people with ease, who were enjoying themselves, imagine how much space we actually waste, by handing it over to the vehicles!

This brings me to an important question: are the vehicles for us, or we for the vehicles? Why should we allocate increasing space for those monsters, when we can easily do away with them, endeavor to create better public transport in the same manner as we endeavor to build better roads / flyovers. How wonderful it would be if we can leave our parking & traffic worries, enjoying the trip as well as destination!