Dedicated zones to come up in city

CHENNAI: They say the nature of a city can be determined by the way it treats its pedestrians. Chennai's performance on that count can be summed up in one word - abysmal.There is not a place in the city that has continuous pavements for unrestricted movement of pedestrians. Wherever there are no hawkers on the platforms, there would be a tree or a plant cage, a light post, an electricity or a telephone junction box, a garbage bin or even traffic lights to hinder the movement of pedestrians.According to world standards, pedestrian passage should be continuous and free. And, after having lost millions of lives on the road, the city managers in Chennai seem to have taken the message. They have decided to incorporate a clearly drawn up space for the pedestrians.Comfort, continuity and safety would be the governing criteria for the design of pedestrian facilities.The pedestrian zone would be a continuous space for walking, clear from any obstructions and at least two metres wide. There would be clearly demarcated buffer zone for street side activities along the row of shops in a commercial area. Besides, the pavement could be separated from the carriageway by a narrow strip of space for landscaping, bus stops, putting up traffic signs and lights.Chennai City Connect, a platform for planning and developing urban infrastructure with stakeholders, with support from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, has kicked off the project. Right now, the Chennai Corporation's engineers are being trained to build their capacity for such designs.The design prototype, developed by architects invited by the Chennai City Connect, mainly Kavitha Selvaraj, Director, CR Narayana Rao Group of Architects, has been distributed among the Corporation engineers as a baseline study. The engineers, in turn, will have to come out with their own design tailor-made for each street and corner. This is only a small step towards providing Chennai with well-designed roads. Road users in the city will perhaps have to wait to enjoy the fruits of this initiative.