Supreme Court on walking: India is a nation of walkers – but its cities forgot them

Traffic jams dominate headlines and social media, pushing authorities to keep vehicles moving. In Delhi, many mid-block crossings have been replaced by U-turns to reduce stoppages, forcing pedestrians onto foot overbridges.

“People don’t just need to walk along a road,” says Goel. “They need to be able to cross it safely too.”

The result is a stark urban inequality.

In Gurugram, a high-speed arterial road cuts through busy neighbourhoods with few safe crossings. Domestic workers, labourers and other pedestrians routinely dodge speeding traffic, and many are killed trying to cross.

Only after the death toll mounted did authorities begin building footbridges.

Across India’s cities, those who cannot afford cars or motorcycles are left to risk their lives on roads that barely accommodate pedestrians.

Those who can drive claim an ever-larger share of public space, while walking becomes a leisure activity confined to gated communities, parks or gym treadmills. In a country grappling with rising obesity and lifestyle diseases, cities have turned the most basic form of exercise into something not just inconvenient, but too often dangerous.

Clearly, making people walk will require far more than a court order.

“Walking as a fundamental right should lead to pedestrian-friendly cities, not just pedestrian-friendly streets,” says Tiwari.

That means rethinking how cities are designed. Some countries have adopted default urban speed limits of 30km/h or 20mph to protect pedestrians, regardless of the type of road. Achieving that, Tiwari says, requires redesigning streets by narrowing traffic lanes, altering road surfaces and introducing other traffic-calming measures.