No Room for Street Vendors on Model Roads

Ending a long-simmering debate over the proper place for street vending on eight "model roads" the city is building, the Municipal Corporation of the Indian city of Ahmedabad this week determined that "hawkers," as street vendors are called there, would not be allowed on the new roads. Instead, they will be moved to special "hawker zones."

Cities throughout India are revamping their major roads to address the crippling congestion that has come from increased private vehicle use, and in the process struggling with the best way to design for pedestrians, cyclists, and, well, everything else that is not a car on Indian streets. Advocates of the model road project tout the pedestrian-friendly features of the project (primarily crosswalks and sidewalks, which in the past have often not been built on major thoroughfares), as well as innovations like marked on-street parking spots. Hawkers, however, did not fit into the mix.

The project has a Facebook page with photos of one of the implemented projects here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.194625757293819.44757.185296824893379&type=3

Thanks to Rachel Proctor May