People-friendly roads

While the rest of the world is embracing the concept of ‘streets for people’, Kathmandu is not.

Contrary to the ever-evolving streets of Kathmandu in the past, the advent of cars and motorbikes has pushed the city towards becoming a dull, monotonous place of motorable roads. While the rest of the world is embracing the concept of “streets for people” rather than “streets for cars”, Kathmandu lags behind. In addition to the reluctance of city officials to welcome new concepts, lack of public awareness, infrastructure, and supportive policies have created a vicious cycle of the dominance of cars over people. Researchers have identified a possible solution to break this cycle, popularly known as tactical urbanism or street experiments.