The quality of a city’s urban environment is determined by the kind of open pedestrian plazas it has created for its citizens. Calcutta, by the way, has none. Whether new towns like Rajarhat or Dankuni will have it is anyone’s guess.

Pedestrian plazas are places where the citizens interact with the city. These are meeting grounds for people with its built environment and a bond grown between them.

Tokyo, one of the most crowded cities in the world, has some of the best pedestrian plazas you can ever come across. A new town called Tama, near Tokyo, has a series of pedestrian plazas. The plazas start from the edge of a sloping street in front of the railway station and a concert hall.

The second example is Hoog Catharijn, Holland. This hardscaped plaza is part of the redevelopment plan of Utrecht in the 1960s. The redevelopment plan could not be realised in totality as a large number of citizens preferred conservation of the historic streetscapes and minimal intervention by the town planners. The citizens prevailed as they were in a majority and had the courage to voice their opinions.

The predominant colour combination of muted greys and browns of Utrecht were maintained in the new developments. As a result, the contemporary buildings merged seamlessly with the old fabric of the city. The vast expanse of the pedestrian plazas became the connecting thread between different zones. The paving is in grey stone, reflecting the colours of the buildings with subtle variation in texture and pattern. The trees add the necessary punctuation to a receding vista.

The next two examples are from Dusseldorf and Hanover in Germany. The shopping streets of these two cities are neatly paved with inexpensive materials, which are easy to maintain. The cold climate demands a lot of sunlight in the outdoor spaces resulting in limited areas of tree planting to soften the harshness of the hard-paved plazas. The slow movement of the pedestrian traffic combines well with the colourful signage, well-designed street lamps and pedestrian shelters.

These pedestrian streets have been made possible by the city authorities by careful planning where the focus is clearly on the pedestrians. The cities in the West have now understood that they are for the people and a majority of them are pedestrians. By making people-friendly streets, the city comes closer to its citizens.

In Calcutta, redesigning the vehicular roads can still pedestrianise many areas. The average speed of the vehicular traffic will increase if cars are restricted to certain roads with minimum tapping from other streets.

On-street car parking spaces can be combined with the pedestrian streets in a judicious manner for maximum efficiency of the vehicular streets. It will create well-defined pedestrian districts, which are urgently needed in the city.

What is most unfortunate is the fact that none of our new towns has explored the idea of pedestrian districts to reduce traffic congestion in public areas. A high percentage of roads will not only increase the cost of infrastructure but also add to unnecessary traffic flow within the city core.

(The author is an architect and urban designer)