WALKWAYS ……

The fluidity in planning of any town, village or suburb belongs is its effortless
connection between the Architectural environment and the built up masses. The
transition from one structure to another public place should be such that there has to
be no lag or abruptness. It should be seamless, enough to link people to its common
spaces.
Connecting people to its neighborhood should be through a well-planned web
of paths or the walkways. These walkways definitely echo a community well-being,
enhance the social bond between people and show a long term and profound
relationship with its built up Architecture.
In today’s scenario, certainly there is a gap in linking the built up environment
with the public spaces or the roads or the infrastructure. This missing link needs to
be elevated. Structures which are mushrooming from everywhere have the only
identity to the streets they are aligned with. There is hardly any interrelation between
spaces.
Not to forget that with the advent of the automobile industry, it has become
mandatory to fabricate a wide network of roads and to upkeep them. At the same
time the pedestrians remain totally forsaken. People are left to navigate through
these automated creatures thus risking the safety of people and children.
We can clearly recognize that man is positioned below the machine. With the
absence of walkways evaporates the freedom of walkers for a hazard free
movement. Walkaways need to be provided everywhere, as they connect the users
with its surrounding environment, thus integrating spaces through softer but
structured accesses.
When there were no road networks, paths were generated naturally through
constant eroding of ground, thus carving an existence for them and their users. Now
when roads are constructed, a dedicated and structured walkway is required for
those users, slow movers, children to carve way for their safety.
A walkway creates an untold advantage, to forbid vehicle owners to freely
park their vehicles alongside the compound wall and channelize the drift of people to
a more secluded and safe space. A walkway can assist in segregating vehicular and
pedestrian traffic. They create boundaries for the walkers and discipline them too. A
walkway should be unobstructed but well connected to all spaces of the vicinity to
make them easily accessible and reachable. They not only add to the foreground of
any structure but also bestow a character to its surroundings.

A pedestrian travel route is clearly the need of the hour today. Lack of
walkway is a lack of infrastructure. With so much importance given to road

networking, this small but evident necessity should draw attention of the people who
manifest as roads only as a necessity.
In a metro city like Mumbai where there are enough flyovers, painted walls
and even adorned trees, life of an individual should be respected along with its
Architecture. This would try to retain the charm of the old city, nurture a bond
between people, its construction, design and environment.
Today, compare us to all the mega cities globally and it is a realization that a
walkway is the chief requisite of any infrastructure, if provided should be free of the
hawking zone and abruptions if any…