Posted on Friday, September 21, 2012 - 08:33 pm:

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Interesting class. There are always some ppl who are hardened by the realities of Indian public life, and don't think anything new is possible. But in any group of officials there are also those who are genuinely keen to change things, and respond well to the right motivations. This class was also somewhat educational
for me, speaking specifically to traffic police about their role in imagining the city.

Broadly, these points emerged. One, traffic police staff need to understand the city SPATIALLY. Each officer needs to know WHERE in the city he is located, and how the mobility pattern of the city at large intersects with mobility in his local area. Two, each police station must have an understanding of the 'priorities' for mobility management established in the city, and the implications of those in his area. Ideally, such priorities should be established in a direction-oriented way, like we have done with Big10.

Third, each station official must understand the importance of DESIGN in the way public spaces are developed. Therefore, during each project in the station limits, he should go talk to the engineers on the ground, and ensure that key design elements are in place that will help walkability, safety, bus usage, etc.

Four, focus on the bus and the pedestrian. On a purely bang-for-buck basis, helping thousands of ppl travelling by bus is a lot more useful than anything else that the police can do.

Five, get the local citizens involved. The goal of every public servant should be not merely to solve local problems, but to also INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE SOLVING PROBLEMS. If we do that, we'll have a democracy. Otherwise, we'll only have administration.

I thought these ideas were received well by a lot of the attendees. I promised to visit a few police stations in the coming days and look at some of their local issues, and see how these ideas can be applied to tackle them.

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