Why Indian Cities Aren’t Walkable: The Forgotten Side of Urban India
A Nation on Foot, Yet Not for Walkers
In India’s crowded and chaotic cities, walking remains the most common mode of transport — yet the least respected. Every morning, millions of Indians take to the streets to reach schools, offices, markets, and bus stops. But these same streets, meant to connect people, often endanger them instead.
The Quint’s documentary “Why Indian Cities Aren’t Walkable” delves deep into this contradiction: Why are cities that depend so heavily on pedestrians so hostile to them? Through interviews with urban planners, architects, and ordinary citizens, the film uncovers the uncomfortable truth that India’s cities are built for cars, not people.
A Daily Struggle for Space and Safety
One of the film’s most haunting reminders of this crisis is the story of a student in West Delhi who lost his life crossing a busy road with no pedestrian crossing. His death symbolizes a broader national pattern — where road fatalities often involve walkers simply trying to get to the other side.
Across India, footpaths are broken, missing, or occupied by parked vehicles and street vendors. Pedestrians walk on the edge of speeding traffic, dodging cars and potholes. As one urban designer in the documentary observes, “If you take a picture of any Indian street, you’ll see people walking on the edge — because sidewalks, when they exist, are not continuous and are full of obstructions.”
The film’s message is clear: while urban India grows vertically and economically, its most basic infrastructure — the footpath — remains neglected.
Roads Built for Speed, Not for People
The Quint’s investigation exposes the root of the problem: urban design priorities. City planners, under pressure to “decongest” roads and modernize transport, have favored motorized vehicles for decades. Wide roads, flyovers, and signal-free corridors have come to define “development,” while the humble pedestrian has been pushed to the margins.
Experts in the documentary argue that the bias towards cars has distorted public spending. “When budgets are made for road projects, most of the money goes to vehicle lanes,” says one architect. “The edge conditions — footpaths, cycle lanes, crossings — are left as afterthoughts.”
This design bias not only endangers pedestrians but also feeds a dangerous cycle: the less walkable the city, the more people rely on motor vehicles, which in turn worsens congestion, pollution, and accidents.
Disconnected Infrastructure: A Patchwork of Neglect
Another key insight from the film is that walkability is not about isolated improvements — it’s about networks.
A well-paved sidewalk on one street means little if it ends abruptly in a ditch or merges into a high-speed highway without a crossing. In many Indian cities, footpaths appear and disappear without warning. In older neighborhoods of Mumbai or Kolkata, remnants of colonial-era planning offer some continuity, but as cities expand into new suburbs, walkability vanishes.
“The infrastructure exists in patches,” notes the film’s narrator. “You can walk comfortably for a few hundred meters — and then suddenly, you’re in the middle of traffic.”
This broken connectivity discourages walking altogether, particularly for women, children, and the elderly. For many, walking isn’t unsafe just because of traffic — it’s unsafe because of isolation, poor lighting, and lack of accessibility.
The Cost Myth: It’s Not About Money
One of the documentary’s most revealing points challenges a common excuse — that India cannot afford pedestrian infrastructure.
Experts estimate that rebuilding non-motorized transport systems, including sidewalks and cycle tracks, costs between ₹15–20 crore per kilometer. However, if the basic road already exists, the cost can drop to as little as ₹8 crore per kilometer — a fraction of what’s spent on flyovers or elevated highways.
“The bottleneck isn’t money,” says a transportation researcher featured in the film. “It’s vision and political will. We simply don’t see walking as transport.”
The film suggests that reimagining streets as public spaces — rather than vehicle corridors — would not only save lives but also make cities more vibrant and inclusive.
Equity and the Footpath: Whose City Is It?
Beyond infrastructure, “Why Indian Cities Aren’t Walkable” raises a deeper moral question: Who are our cities built for?
For the wealthy car-owner, the city is a network of roads and parking lots. For the poor — the hawker, the schoolchild, the domestic worker — it’s a web of dangerous crossings and crumbling sidewalks.
The film notes that India’s most vulnerable citizens are also its most frequent walkers. They rely on public transport, bicycles, or their feet. Yet urban planning policies rarely account for them. This is why one planner in the documentary makes a powerful statement:
“The depth of democracy is decided by the width of the footpath.”
A city that prioritizes walking is, in essence, a city that respects equality.
Why Walkability Matters: More Than Just Mobility
Walkable cities are not merely about convenience — they are about livability. When people can safely and comfortably walk, local businesses thrive, air quality improves, and communities become more cohesive. The street transforms from a place of danger into a place of interaction.
The documentary points out that India’s walkability crisis also has environmental implications. Short trips that could be walked or cycled are often done by car or scooter, adding to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As India pledges to reduce its carbon footprint, improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure could be one of the simplest, most effective steps forward.
Moreover, walkability plays a major role in shaping the urban tourism experience. Travelers and residents alike engage more deeply with a city when they can move through it at a human pace — exploring its smells, sounds, and rhythms up close.
Cultural and Behavioral Barriers
The problem, however, isn’t only physical. Cultural attitudes towards walking are also part of the issue.
In many Indian cities, walking is seen as a sign of economic necessity, not choice. Owning a vehicle is a marker of social status. The result? Even short distances are covered by scooters or autos, and walking becomes stigmatized.
Urban designers in the film argue that this mindset must change. “If we want Indian cities to be liveable,” one expert says, “we must start celebrating walking again — not as a compulsion, but as a right.”
A Call to Reimagine Indian Cities
The Quint’s documentary closes on a hopeful note. It argues that India doesn’t need futuristic technology or massive budgets to make cities walkable. What it needs is a shift in perspective.
Simple interventions — continuous sidewalks, pedestrian signals, shaded trees, well-lit crossings, and mixed-use neighborhoods — can transform how citizens move and experience their cities.
Walkability, the film suggests, is not just a transport issue; it’s a question of public life and human dignity. When people can walk freely and safely, they connect more deeply with their surroundings, local businesses flourish, and cities become more humane.
The Road Ahead
India’s urban future cannot be driven entirely by engines. If cities continue to prioritize vehicles over people, they will remain polluted, unsafe, and socially fragmented.
As “Why Indian Cities Aren’t Walkable” reminds us, the true measure of progress is not how fast we move, but how comfortably we can stop, stroll, and share space. The walkable city is not a luxury — it’s a necessity for a sustainable, equitable, and livable India.
Or, as one of the documentary’s experts so aptly puts it:
“You can judge the health of a city by how easily a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person can cross the street.”
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