Walkable Pune
Walking is the most fundamental form of mobility. It is also the most rightful form, since you don’t need a license to walk! Therefore SPTM gives the highest priority to the convenience and safety of pedestrians.
We are working on several campaigns and projects to make sure that Pune is a walkable city and pedestrians are safer in Pune. Click on a button below to learn more.
पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!
What is the campaign about
The objective of this campaign is to reduce pedestrian fatalities in Pune, by using a safe habit to cross roads, which had lowered the pedestrian fatalities by a whopping 50% in Angamali, Kerala.
Sticking your hand out while crossing a street makes a pedestrian easily visible to drivers of oncoming vehicles. It also helps pedestrians assert that a road is a commodity that vehicles must share with pedestrians.
This campaign is especially important since Pune has seen nearly double the pedestrians deaths in 2023, than there were in 2019! It can potentially save ~60 lives in Pune, annually.
What are we doing
We are reaching this habit to all of Pune. Given that Pune is a large city, we intend to reach out to one demographic group at a time, and we have started with school children. In subsequent phases, the campaign will reach office goers, collegians, senior citizens, low income groups and other demographic groups.
We are using and plan to use an array of methods for this outreach.
Education/awareness
A video starring popular Marathi actors explains the habit effectively.
Engagement with schools
With cooperation from the Prinicipals, we explain the technique to some teachers of the school, who then explain it to students. This approach is very effective since students, especially young ones, hold their teachers in extremely high regard.
Public engagement
We engage with college students as well as volunteers from the corporate world, to urge people to try out this technique on busy roads. People who use the technique once immediately understand the benefit and pledge to use it every time they cross a road.
Timeframe
We envisage that the campaign will need ~3 years, since conveying the technique to different groups will need time.
Latest update
We started the campaign with schools of Maharashtriya Mandal, and have refined the process to reach out the technique to students and their parents.
Related videos
The first two videos made by SPTM explain the technique.
In the next two videos, Principals of schools of Maharashtriya Mandal share why they think it is essential that all school students must learn this technique.
Pedestrians Infra
What is the project about
Pedestrians must be able to safely walk along and cross roads everywhere in the city. In today’s situation, a signalled intersection offers the best bet for people to cross roads safely; but this basic infrastructure is missing even there.
Clear and conspicuous zebras and stop lines, along with working and properly programmed pedestrian signals will encourage everyone to understand that the intersection is shared by pedestrians and vehicles. In turn, it will induce responsible behaviour from vehicles as well as pedestrians.
What we are doing
We are working with PMC to ensure that all signalized crossings have the following basic infrastructure to help pedestrians cross roads safely.
- Zebra stripes and stop lines, refreshed at least twice a year.
- Working pedestrian signals, providing sufficient time to cross the roads as per the IRC:93 guidelines.
Data, data, data!
We have conducted surveys to gather data on the status of this infrastructure at several intersections in Pune. This helps us estimate the quantum of the work involved.
Interaction with PMC
We regularly interact with PMC’s Electrical Department to fix the pedestrians signals and with the Road Department to get the zebras painted. We wish to intensify this interaction by increasing our bandwidth, so that the improvements are much more noticeable and lasting.
Sensitizing Drivers
What we are doing
We want to make drivers aware that a license merely gives you a permission to bring a vehicle on the road.
We plan to do this thorough various avenues: Interacting with RTO and driving schools, running social media campaigns.
Why are we doing this
A false sense of ‘right on road’ is what makes drivers drive without any regard to other users of the road. This is what is making the roads of our cities unsafe compared to not only the developed world, but also many developing countries.