Dancing groups of children, kids playing badminton, a mix group of adults and children performing activities like cycling, yoga, zumba, skates, hula-hoop, graffiti, pottery, etc. may sound like a view of a fair or playground to many of us, whereas few neighbourhoods in world witness this view on regular basis as part of Ciclovia. Ciclovia, in Spanish translates to “bike path”, refers to the permanent bike path or cycle way. However, now a days, it is referred worldwide as an event that temporarily closes streets for automobiles to provide safe space for walking, bicycling and social activities. Ciclovia was started 42 years ago as an initiative to reclaim streets by a group of cyclist in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia in 1974 and since then it has gained lot of popularity across various cities in world. In India, to promote the use of non-motorised transport, to create awareness about empowering of pedestrians and to reclaim urban street space, the Ciclovia named as: “Cycle Day” and “Open Streets” in Bangalore; “Raahgiri Day” in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Bhopal, Navi Mumbai, Dwarka and Indore; “Equal Streets” in Mumbai; are conducted since October 2013 in Indian cities on a regular basis. Streets are termed as public spaces which are to be equitably allocated to all street users. These events are organised on periodic Sundays and public holidays to convert public spaces into public places by engaging communities. However, this conversion of public space to public place in India is not a new concept and is happening since eons, largely as a part of Indian tradition in term of religious gathering for Ganesh Visarjan or Durga Puja or celebration of community festivals etc; but with the core aim of promoting walkability and cycling, it is definitely a new paradigm in urban transport.

Awasthi, P., & Parida, M. (2016). Reclaiming urban streets in developing nations through Ciclovia [Extended Abstract]. In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2016 (pp. 55-58). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2016/