What Mobility Projects See Citizen Engagement?

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What happens when residents help design their own commute? From Bengaluru’s hotly debated bazaar pedestrianisation to nationwide ‘streets for people’ pilots, citizen voices test‑drive sustainable transport plans. Which lessons from these talks, trials, and temporary takeovers could steer India’s future mobility toward smarter, fairer city travel tomorrow?

Source: Nagrika

One of the learnings of the last two decades is that citizen engagement forms an integral element of sustainable urban mobility planning. It encourages people to own ideas and, at the same time, lets the urban authorities incorporate local expertise and feedback into their work to achieve the best possible outcomes. A participatory approach can enhance urban mobility and can help in ensuring cost-effective models in transportation planning.

Recently, there has been significant focus on citizen engagement in urban development through the Smart City Mission. Participatory approaches are being used for a variety of mobility projects in many cities across India, like the Streets for People Challenge and India Cycles for Change. But even before these, there have been multiple initiatives for involving citizens in mobility planning, usually as pilots carried out by proactive civic bodies and governments. Such projects usually have had specific targets like resolving issues of congestion, encouraging green practices, socio-economic upliftment, public safety, etc. As a result, most citizen engagement initiatives are local and area-specific in nature.

Another space that has seen citizen engagement is areas where there is conflict of interests among stakeholders. Citizen engagement becomes a mode of interaction between citizens and the government and can help in building common consensus.

For example, locals opposed the Gandhi Bazaar Pedestrianisation project in Bengaluru, fearing that banning vehicles will reduce accessibility for residents and customers. The Government of Karnataka has been conducting regular discussions and encouraging public dialogue to choose a preferred scenario that is agreeable to all stakeholders. Therefore such political interactions help in improving the legitimacy of the planning process and also enhance local democracy.

Through a rapid assessment of mobility projects that have involved citizen participation, we find that they can be categorised based on typology, scales and extent.

On the basis of typology, mobility projects which involved citizens were within three broad areas, namely- public transportation, street design and public safety. Although public transportation is a shared utility, transportation planning is often considered too technical, and consultation is reserved for experts. Direct citizen engagement was found to be more likely in programmes that involved the redevelopment of streets, which are the largest public space in a city. These projects have further been articulated for specific impacts like promoting green mobility. Improving public safety has been a critical component in many projects.

Participatory planning processes have been carried out at multiple scales, i.e. at the neighbourhood or ward level, city level and state and national level. There have also been differences on the extent of citizen engagement, i.e., at what stage of the process does the programme involve citizens? These have been initial consultations for identifying issues, choosing sites for implementation, consultations during the planning process or establishing a feedback system.

Similarly, projects can be categorised on the basis of approach, either as top-down or bottom-up. Citizen engagement can be a component of planning which is carried out by the implementing agency. For example, the CITIIS programme under the Smart City Mission is rooted in the participatory planning approach and mandates it for each project. On the other hand,  citizen engagement has also been a process in which civic bodies and citizens organise themselves to influence and inform decision-making through participatory planning.

Mobility projects with citizen engagement components can be permanent or temporary in nature. Some, like those involving street redevelopment, are permanent, while others, like open street days and campaigns to generate awareness, are temporary. The latter are generally designed to influence citizen perceptions towards permanent changes. For example, through the Streets for People challenge, Ujjain permanently pedestrianised a market street in the city. 

Source: Nagrika

Lastly, the nature of citizen engagement can also differ on the basis of agencies that facilitate it. These agencies include ULBs, state and national governments, NGOs, private agencies, transport authorities and departments, etc. They vary on the basis of spaces they use or create to allow citizen engagement. These factors have been further articulated in the following articles of the series.