Webinar “Active Mobility Post-Lockdown: Finding the new normal towards 24×7 Raahgiri Day”
On the day of World Bicycle Day, a webinar titled “Active Mobility Post-Lockdown: Finding the new normal towards 24×7 Raahgiri Day” was organised on June 3, 2020, in association with Jubilant Foodworks Limited and partners.
The intention was to bring forward a catalytic conversation on cycling as a sustainable means of transport in Indian cities post COVID_19 Lockdown. The session was joined by international experts and administrator to present their views, methods and examples from around the world. Participants from different parts of the world participated and interacted through questions, comments and online poll survey. Besides, the expert takeaways, the engagement was framed to induce interest in bicycling and understanding the benefits of sustainable and active mobility.
Participation from across the world
Robin Chase, who is a founder of NUMO Alliance (New Urban Mobility Alliance) forum and also the CEO of Zipcar joined as an international expert on mobility along with five other panellists, who presented their work in the webinar.
Varinder Singh Kundu, CEO of GMDA (Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority) stressed on putting the right perspective for managing city infrastructure as people are the stakeholders in the city and not vehicles.
Margarita Parra, Transportation Expert-based out of Redwood, San Francisco one of the panellists has held vital city administration positions and is a Board Director of Silicon Valley Bike Coalition that campaigns for cycling infrastructure. The webinar also welcomed Director of NIUA (National Institute of Urban Affairs) who enlightened the participants with the heritage of cycling in Indian settlements and the current infrastructure demand.
Madhav Pai, WRI India Director, quoted “This is our opportunity to go and change the street with barricades, ropes, paints to make streets look like what we want.” According to Robin Chase “We need to build now what we also want for the future.”
Manas Fuloria, CEO of Nagarro & member of the Executive Board of Allgeier SE, and Sarika Panda Bhatt, Associate Director of Nagarro& co-founder of Raahgiri Foundation, moderated the event.
271 people attended the webinar from cities all across India, and a significant number belonged to various other countries. Through an online survey, 96.4 per cent people voted to support and promote active mobility for sustainable development post lockdown.
(Recorded Webinar Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErRRZ9zntA0)
