Tax big cars, build better footpaths: Mobility panel

Ahmedabad: From taxing bigger cars to fixing footpaths and funding core civic services, two back-to-back seminars at ‘AmdavadNXT—A Public Exhibition on City Mobility' on Sunday converged on the same message: demand management and citizen-centric planning must move from talk to targets.At ‘Getting People on Public Transport: Demand Management, Behaviour Change, Incentives & Disincentives, Quick Wins,' frequent buses, safe last-mile links, and paid parking came up as immediate levers, alongside re-balancing budgets that currently privilege wider roads over better transit. "A policy on taxing vehicles based on their size should be on the civic agenda, and prioritizing footpaths on every road stretch in the city should be a necessity," said Arjit Soni, founder-CEO, MyByk, adding that everyday convenience — not event-day fixes — wins riders. The panel also urged the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to publish an annual mobility scorecard tracking frequency, reliability, and pedestrian upgrades.At the session, "MobiliseHer: Strengthening Planning Processes to Make Them More Citizen-Centric," experts noted that app-only systems — from bike shares to ticketing — exclude women without devices, and called for alternative channels and "complete street" cross-sections.