2 Project background

This book is the product of my first-hand experience working in the Ejipura ward in Bangalore. At the start of my thesis, I was excited to experiment with QGIS and OpenStreetMap data to create visualizations of Bangalore’s roads, streets and bus stops. However, my guide, Lakshmi, encouraged me to take a step back and consider what I was missing. I realized that while analyzing large-scale data was relatively easy, it was important to also consider smaller neighborhoods and the unique factors that contribute to walkability.

Figure 2.1: Buildings of Ejipura.

That’s when I decided to use Ejipura as my lab and started exploring what makes a place walkable beyond conventional ideas of walkability. Over the next few weeks, I fell in love with the neighborhood’s tightly wound lanes, bustling shops, and vibrant buildings. Despite the language barrier, the residents were eager to contribute to my research, and I learned to use their insights to conduct detailed descriptive analyses of the neighborhood. As I delved deeper, I also realized that the issues affecting walkability were complex and intertwined with social identities, accessibility to public transport, and differing impacts on various groups of people. Rather than trying to assign a numerical value to the walkability of the neighborhood, I found more satisfaction in understanding and analyzing the complex factors at play. The rest is covered in the next few dozen pages.