IDENTIFYING BARRIERS TO WALKABILITY WITHIN THE HERITAGE CITY OF MYSORE, KARNATAKA, INDIA

Abstract

Historically, streets have served a range of functions, primarily those associated with shopping and social interactions. However, in the 20th century, the street design became centred on traffic movement. It enhanced the space for automobiles, while public lives were marginalized to sidewalks, not to forget the problems faced by the street hawkers, quintessential to the Street scene in India. The historic core of Mysore, a metropolitan city in the Southern state of Karnataka in India, has had various attempts to enhance its mobility but has not had much success. The paper summarises a pilot study carried out on Asoka Road in the city of Mysore to investigate its walkability. A descriptive quantitative technique was adopted, in which a random sample of respondents who happened to walk down Asoka Street were given questionnaires and surveys to complete to collect data. The results revealed that the level of comfort of the street amounted to 51.8% and that the pedestrian path was quite uncomfortable.