Photo by: locket479
The delight in Europe has a great deal to do with clean air, non-interfering people, healthy food, great shopping centers, winter style for women, etc. But one of the most important elements, lest it be forgotten, is that most of them are ‘walking cities’. Almost every city in Europe has pedestrian walks and cyclist’s lane alongside the main road. ‘Walking cities’ are easy to cover on foot, usually there is a single centre located in every city, well connected by roads and efficient public transport systems, therefore the sprawl of the city as such is hardly much.
On the other hand in the United States, especially cities like New York, the distances between two parts are vast, but these are covered by a very efficient metro system, that runs 24/7 come sleet, come snow storms, thanksgiving or Christmas. This is also true for all buses which run on schedule and make it easy for those waiting to time themselves accordingly. In New York, there exists a single swipe card which works for both bus rides and metro rides. These can be purchased for a nominal price every month/week/annual depending on needs.
Recently, Chennai, India, saw the visit of Enrique Peñalosa–former Mayor of Bogotá, who works for the institute for transportation Development and Policy. According to him, “the biggest difference between the infrastructure of an advanced and a backward state is its footpaths and not its highways. The quality of footpaths determines the quality of life in a city.”
Delhi does not have too many footpaths yet there are numerous pedestrians. There are no cyclist lanes. The roads are spacious, but they seem to be shrinking everyday. There are separate bus lanes but very often the bus systems do not keep to them. Yet, one can see stupendous efforts to make Delhi dependent on public transport. The metro construction is going on 24/7 to meet the challenge of the commonwealth games. Numerous highways/flyovers are being designed with the aim of reducing bottlenecks in key areas and wherever new roads are being built a pedestrian lane is provided. In fact, some parts of Delhi have also started the Swipe card system for buses as well. New Delhi cannot hope to become a ‘walking city’– its impossible to imagine anyone walking from South/East Delhi to the Center (Connaught Place). However, greener spaces, parks, an efficient and reliable transport system and more sidewalks will help both Delhiites and foreigners explore parts of this gorgeous city and hopefully make it a delightful experience as well.
Weconscious has come up by combining two words “WE” & “CONSCIOUS”. Thereby meaning, we the people who ought to be conscious about our rights & duties. We Conscious is a pious effort to highlight, show, and educate people of the various monsterheads of corruption, moral degradation and gross civic negligence that are rampant in our society. It’s an effort to highlight the illegalities we suffer on day to day basis.
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