Bhopal A Safety Analysis Report
This Report has been prepared as part of the Project, Mobile based Safety Audits to collect data on Women Safety undertaken with UN Women. The safety audits were conducted by the volunteers from Sangini Gender Resource Centre and WRI India. We are thankful for their partnership in data collection.
BHOPAL Safetipin, is a map-based mobile phone and online application, which works to make communities and cities safer by providing safety related information collected by users and by trained auditors. At the core of the app is the Safety Audit. A Safety Audit is a participatory tool for collecting and assessing information about perceptions of safety in public spaces. The audit is based on nine parameters Lighting, Openness, Visibility, Crowd, Security, Walkpath, Availability of Public Transport, Gender Diversity and Feeling. Methodology The safety audits have been generated using two methods. First, manual audits were conducted by volunteers from WRI and Sangini organization using My Safetipin app. A total of 2599 manual audits have been conducted. Secondly, safety audits have been generated using the Safetipin Nite app. The assessment was done post sunset till 10 pm. My Cab, local taxis of Bhopal were hired for this purpose. Mobile phones were mounted on the windshield and using the app photographs of the city roads were taken. These photographs were then assessed based on the eight audit parameters to generate audit pins at each location. In Bhopal, 180 km of road length was mapped generating 4,389 audit pins. Overall, the Safety Score for Bhopal is rated 2.9/5 i.e. Fair. 4,389 Audit Pins 180 km covered Lighting measures the amount of brightness/ illumination at a place and ranges from Dark to Bright. A place can be lit with street lighting or from other sources. Openness refers to whether a person has a good line of sight in all directions. Visibility refers to how visible is one to others. It is based on the principle of eyes on the street. This comprises windows-doors of shops, houses along with street vendors and hawkers. People indicates the number of people around. This increases as a consequence of usage opportunities. Security refers to visible security offered either by the police or private security guards (for example along ATM/Bank). Walkpath indicates whether a person can comfortably walk at a place. This could refer to the quality of a pavement or space along a road. Transport refers to the ease of accessing any mode of public transport i.e. metro/bus/auto/taxi etc. and is measured in terms of the distance to the nearest mode. Gender is about diversity i.e. the percentage of women and children amongst the crowd. This increases as a consequence of safety perception.
Safety Score The Safety Score of a point is a reflection of the perception of safety at that particular location. For each audit point it is a number between 0 and 5, 0 being Poor i.e. Very Unsafe and 5 being Excellent in terms of overall safety. Indicated in the pie chart is the percentage distribution of pins in each range. The Safety Score has also been indicated in the map below. Around 41% of the audit points were found to be safe whereas 29% of the points were rated below average and needs improvement. 41% 15% 16% 15% 13% Map indicating Safety Score Rating
Parameter Ratings: Average Audit Parameters (on a scale of 3) Each of the nine parameters is rated 0/1/2/3, 0 being the poorest and 3 good. The average parameter ratings graph indicates the overall average rating for each parameter. Openness parameter has been rated the highest followed by Lighting, Walkpath and Public Transport. Security and Gender Usage are the least rated parameter i.e. Poor. The overall feeling of Safety for the city of Bhopal is rated Below Average. 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Parameter-wise Pin Distribution: The Parameter wise pin distribution graph indicates the number of points rated 0/1/2/3 i.e. the good points as positive and poor ratings as negative. The parameter of Security, Gender Usage, Visibility and Crowd have been rated poorly for the most parts of the city. Lighting and Walkpath needs to be improved in the city. Gap Impact Analysis: All parameters do not have an equal impact on the perception of safety. It is therefore useful to know how an improvement in each parameter will impact the Safety Score of the area. The Impact Bar shown indicates the extent of influence and the relative impact that each parameter has on the perception of safety. The combined length indicates the impact potential of the parameter. The parameters with the maximum combined length have the highest impact on the perception of safety and vice versa i.e. Lighting has the maximum impact and Transportation the least. The positive length (in green) indicates the extent of provision that has already been made on ground. The negative length (in red) indicates the (remaining) amount of improvement needed to increase the Safety Score. Increase in Crowd and Gender Usage is dependent on other parameters. Improving Lighting, Visibility and Security on the streets of Bhopal will result in safer public spaces. Pin Distribution for each Parameter 4000 3000 2000 1000 0-1000 -2000-3000 -4000 Gap Impact Graph Gender Usage Public Transport Walkpath Security Crowd Visibility Openness Lighting -0.6-0.4-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Lighting 1.6 / 3 Lighting in the city has been rated 1.6/3 i.e. Average. On main roads, streetlights are installed along the central median (Pic 1) or along the edge of the road on one side (Pic 3) resulting in well- lit vehicular carriageway but dim-lit footpath. Since lighting has the maximum contribution to the feeling of safety, pedestrian scale lighting is needed along the footpath. At some points, the streetlights were found to be inoperative as shown in the map on the following page. It also shows the audit points where no streetlights are installed as seen in Pic 2. Additional lights need to be installed along these points. Regular maintenance checks should be carried out to ensure that the streetlights are operational. Also, pruning of tree leaves should be carried out to avoid partial and disrupted illumination. 20% 11% 34% 35% 1 Map indicating Lighting Rating
2 Map indicating low rating (0,1) points based off inoperative or no streetlights 3 Map indicating points with inadequate lighting along the main roads
Walkpath 1.4 / 3 Walk path in the city has been rated 1.4/3 i.e. Average. Most of the city has a fair availability of footpath as seen in Pic 1. Analyzing audits that gave low ratings to the Walkpath parameter, it was found most of the audit points along the major roads have kaccha or unpaved pavement (Pic 2). Map with audit points with no pavement can also be seen on the following page. A paved footpath with proper kerb height needs to be constructed along these points. Regular maintenance checks should be carried out to ensure smooth movement of the pedestrians. At points with highly rated footpath, it was found to be obstructed by parked cars (Pic 3), signage, streetlights etc. Signage, streetlights should be installed along the edge of the footpath. Proper kerb height and bollards at the ramps should be provided to prevent cars from accessing the footpath. 15% 18% 28% 39% 1 Map indicating Walkpath Rating
2 Map indicating audit points with no or unpaved walk paths. 3 Map indicating points with highly rated footpaths but blocked by cars or other obstructions.
Visibility 1.1 / 3 Visibility has been rated 1.1/3 i.e. Below Average. Most of the audit points have been rated poorly in terms of visibility owing to geographical features of the city. The high boundary walls of the institutional and public buildings also contribute to poor visibility. Height of the solid part of the boundary wall should be reduced and maintained at 1 m. Rest of the height could be attained using uncovered grills to ensure some visibility. Map on the following page shows points with high crowd at places with zero security and visibility. At some place as seen in Pic 1, street vendors provide natural surveillance on the streets. In absence of designated space, these vendors occupy the road or Walkpath as seen in pic 1 and 3. To avoid this, a designated space for temporary shops and hawkers should be provided along the edge of the boundary walls or footpath. Proper lighting and street furniture should also be provided along these spaces. 21% 10% 30% 39% 1 Map indicating Visibility Rating
2 Map indicating audit points with high crowd and poor rating (0) in terms of Visibility and Security 3 Map indicating points with high crowd around temporary shops or road side vendors
Public Transport 1.3 / 3 Public Transport in the city has been rated 1.3/3 i.e. Average. While 44% of the audit points have a bus stop within 150 m radius, 32% of the audit points have no bus stand within 400 m radius. Para Transit stands need to be set up at these points and along the bus stops to improve last mile connectivity. As seen in Pic 1, in absence of designated space, hawkers, rickshaws and taxi occupy the space near the bus stop. The para transit stands should have designated parking space and space for hawkers along with the street furniture and public toilet facility for the commuters and drivers. Additionally, proper lighting and footpath around these bus stops should be provided. Shown in the maps on the following page, lighting at most of the bus stops is adequate, the footpath should be such that it provide smooth transition to the bus stop without any obstruction. 18% 32% 26% 24% 1 Map indicating Public Transport rating
2 Map indicates lighting rating around the bus stops 3 Map indicates walkpath rating around the bus stops
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