Why we are obsessed with footpath continuity
A footpath that ends at a bus stop is not a footpath. Why a humble paver block is the most important infrastructure decision we make this year.
Tap any ten residents on the shoulder and ask what most needs fixing on Shillong's roads. Eight will say "the footpaths". Two will say "the potholes" — but those two will be drivers.
Our most-filed grievance, by a clear margin, is broken or interrupted footpaths. Our second most-filed is encroachment, which is also a footpath problem in disguise — a vendor stall on the carriageway is a vendor stall that has no footpath to be on.
So in this financial year, we are running a continuity programme on three corridors: Laitumkhrah Main, Police Bazaar pedestrianisation, and Mawlai Pdeng to Mawkhar. The aim is simple — at the end, you should be able to walk the corridor end-to-end without ever stepping into the carriageway. With a wheelchair. In the rain.
It's not glamorous. It doesn't cut a ribbon as well as a flyover. But pedestrians make 47% of all journeys in Shillong, and we have under-served them for thirty years. That changes now.
— S. Lyngdoh, IAS