India’s car-first cities should prioritise walking to help tackle smog

Every winter, Delhi and dozens of other Indian cities disappear under a toxic blanket of smog. The arguments are predictable: stubble burning, factory emissions, construction sites, vehicle exhaust. Yet we ignore one of the simplest solutions: walkable cities.

Walking is already how most Indians move through cities. Studies consistently show that up to 60% of daily urban trips are made on foot, especially by members of low-income households who cannot afford cars or even public transport. For millions of Indians, walking is an economic compulsion.

However, in 2023 alone, 35,221 pedestrians were killed on Indian roads – 20.4% of all road fatalities that year, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Between 2019 and 2023, nearly 1.5 lakh pedestrians died as a result of vehicle crashes, about one in every five road deaths in that period, a Supreme Court panel audit estimated.

These accidents occurred because India’s infrastructure does not value pedestrians.

Most Indians walk. But Indian cities are built for cars.

Across urban and semi-urban India, footpaths are either missing or unusable. Where they exist, they are broken, narrowed by shop extensions, encroached upon by vendors, blocked by electric poles, billboards, and open drains or simply taken over by parked vehicles.

Pedestrians are routinely forced into fast-moving traffic. What should be the safest and cleanest mode of transport has become one of the most dangerous.

This failure makes air pollution worse. When walking becomes risky and unpleasant, people turn to two-wheelers and cars even for distances under 1km-2km. More vehicles flood in. Fuel and vehicular emissions rise. The congestion never ends.

Proper footpath infrastructure can reduce private motorised trips by 9%-29% in Indian cities where walkability improved, studies show. Fewer vehicles on the road mean cleaner air, lower fuel imports, healthier cities.

Instead, roads are widened, flyovers are built, public money is poured into car-oriented infrastructure. Traffic eases for a few months, then more vehicles take to the streets. This locks cities into higher emissions and perpetual congestion.

The problem runs deeper than engineering. Footpaths are treated as leftover or extra space: what remains after cars are accommodated. Pedestrians are marginal in planning documents and invisible on the street. Master plans speak of “pedestrian priority” and “non-motorised transport” but the implementation is token.

Fixing this cannot be left to municipal engineers alone. It demands coordination across the departments that oversee transport, urban development, public works, the police and health. Pedestrian infrastructure must become mandatory in all road projects.

Continuous, obstruction-free footpaths, safe crossings, proper lighting, traffic calming at intersections and guaranteed access to public transport must be non-negotiable design features.

Encroachments – public and private alike – must be penalised without political discretion. Budget lines for footpaths should not be the first to be cut.

But a genuinely walkable city places everyday needs – markets, schools, clinics, bus stops, workplaces – within a short walking distance. This demands compact, mixed-use urban form. Dense neighbourhoods with shops, services and homes close together naturally reduce the need for motorised travel and create the kind of street life that improves safety and social trust.

India is moving in the opposite direction. Low-density gated communities proliferate 15km-20km from city centres. Inside the walls are landscaped walking tracks, manicured gardens. Outside there is car dependence for every errand: groceries, school runs, work and healthcare all require driving. This setup forces everyone into cars, increases emissions, and splits the city between those who drive and those stuck on dangerous streets.

It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of development. Political success is still measured in flyovers, expressways, IT corridors, malls – infrastructure that serves the car-owning minority. Inclusive development would prioritise the majority who walk, cycle or depend on public transport.

Walkable streets boost local commerce, lower healthcare costs, improve workforce productivity and it is great for the environment.

The class bias is also unmistakable. Resistance to pedestrianisation – whether in India’s shopping districts or market streets elsewhere – rests on the claim that cars are essential for business. Evidence shows the opposite: pedestrian-friendly streets attract more footfall and higher retail spending. Walkable streets benefit everyone – formal and informal workers, women, children, the elderly, the poor and the elite.

Public campaigns urging people to “walk more” ring hollow when streets are structurally hostile to walking. Behaviour cannot change without infrastructure. Why will people risk their lives for clean air?

Walkability alone is not the solution to India’s pollution crisis. But without it, no pollution-control strategy will succeed. Walkable streets reduce emissions, strengthen public transport and improve public health. Most importantly, they return dignity to how most Indians actually move around.

A shift in priorities will treat pedestrians as first-class users of urban space, not intrusions into traffic flow. New fuels and electric vehicles may certainly reduce emissions, but cleaner air will become reality when walking – the simplest, oldest form of transport – is finally given the respect, safety, and space it deserves.

Rajesh Advani is a founding editor at ArchitectureLive! and Unbuilt Ideas.