Every person has the right to walk. Choosing to move on foot—to work, a child’s daycare, or the market—should be safe and easy for urban residents. Yet city streets are increasingly being built for high-speed, personal vehicles, with hazardous intersections and narrow or nonexistent sidewalks. Simply getting anywhere quickly and safely by foot has become dangerous: more than 5,000 pedestrians are killed on the world’s roads each week.
ITDP works around the world to ensure safety and accessibility for all road users, including the most vulnerable. Pedestrians, wheelchair users, children, and the elderly deserve the right to walk safely and comfortably to their destinations. Reshaping our cities to encourage walking is part of building a sustainable future, and avoiding the high costs to build and maintain urban highways. Better sidewalks saves lives, emissions, and money.
Become an ITDP Member or Monthly Giver today and support the Right to Walk. With your help, we can make safe and clean cities, where no one is afraid to walk down the street.
In Chennai, India, nearly 6 million trips are made by foot and bicycle every single day. That’s nearly a third of all trips in the city! Until recently however, providing protection to these residents was merely an afterthought. The city lacked even basic sidewalks along large portions of the city’s busiest streets.
With ITDP’s help, the Chennai government adopted a pedestrian-friendly policy with ambitious goals: by 2018, Chennai will have safe and continuous footpaths on at least 80% of all streets. This is a major step towards their inspirational goal of totally eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
ITDP’s work around the world – in Mexico, China, Brazil, and across Africa – promotes the safety and priority of those on foot. It’s time to put pedestrians front and center.