With the recent spate of flyover constructions in Chennai, pedestrians and bicyclists have been swept out of the main thoroughfares as if they don’t even exist. The same pattern can be seen in other Indian metros, as an ubiquitous obsession with cars overtakes the country.

It certainly does not have to be this way. Alienated from our surroundings, many of us are forced to drive to places that are close enough to walk, simply because it is safer to be in a car. Cities can be places where people have an integrated connection with their surroundings because they have been designed to ensure this through the creative use of urban spaces, which emphasises public transportation, bike paths and green areas. This kind of ‘intelligent urbanism’, which can include dedicated bus lanes, concentrated housing with convenient access to stores, and public transportation, is the new rage in numerous cities the world over. The sight of families riding bikes to work, for errands and even for pleasure, is quite commonplace there.

Paris recently adopted policies that provide bike rentals at low cost in various parts of the city. Lyon, which came up with a similar policy two years ago, has had very good success with such urban redesign. In Groningen in the Netherlands, about 40 per cent of commutes are already made on bikes. The city has dedicated bike lanes, bike parking facilities and two-way bike paths. Other European ‘cycling cities’ include Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Ghent.

This movement is not restricted to Europe. Bogota, Columbia, has one of the most extensive bike path networks, or ciclo-ruta, in the world. Curitiba in Brazil, is well-known for its integrated city planning with bike paths, dedicated bus lanes and other facilities that underscore car-free living. In the US, cities like Portland, Seattle and Tucson have many miles of bike paths. Even in a huge metropolis like Los Angeles, which has been dedicated historically to an automobile culture, bike paths and bus rapid transit are being introduced to reduce congestion and improve air quality.

Car pooling or sharing, congestion charges, dedicated lanes for human-powered traffic, separate bus-only lanes, stiff parking fees, a network of crisscrossing bike paths throughout the city intermingling with green zones, are some of the measures available. Why should Indian cities be left behind in this new model of urban development? Our metros are bursting at the seams. Poor infrastructure alone is not the problem. Increasing the width, quality and number of roads is not the permanent answer. Space is not unlimited and at some frightening tipping point, that is not too far away, people will be forced to re-imagine our cities. But why take such a circuitous route to sound development?

The growing demand for mobility within cities has been met in India through ad hoc approaches which emphasise increasing private access to mobility at the cost of mass transport. Public transport in virtually every Indian city is overcrowded, poorly maintained, unsafe and slow. State and municipal governments have promoted motorisation, often through hidden subsidies on roads, vehicles and parking, even though this has led to greater congestion, numerous environmental problems and mobility constraints for the poor. The most environmentally friendly modes, namely walking and bicycling, have been given a short shrift and are today challenged by faster and heavier vehicles.

What we need are measures which, when taken together, would essentially incentivise bicycles, buses and walking, while actively discouraging driving. This need not be a pipe dream. Even though an emphasis on bicycling and buses may appear, at first glance, impractical, it is in fact a practical solution to the innumerable problems of the urbanisation we now face. In fact most of the people in Curitiba who ride buses own cars. We have to find a solution for our cities that will accommodate more people, keep the economy booming, improve transportation for all, clean up the air, consume less gasoline and not damage our health.

China, which has been abandoning its bicycles for cars, is already discovering that sustainable economic growth demands that attention is paid to the quality of people’s lives and the environment. So if we desire the sustainable growth of our economies and cities, we need to change how we move around. And we need to do this rather quickly.

The writer is an independent Chennai-based scholar