India's first car-free urban zone unveiled in the town of Falzilka in Punjab, on the Indo-Pakistan border.
All motorised transport has been banned from the town centre for 12 hours each day, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to move about freely in what is already India’s safest urban area.
In a study of the trial, published by the Institute of Transport Planning and Traffi c Engineering at the University of Vienna, Austria, over 60 per cent of respondents found an improvement in air quality and over 95 per cent reported a reduction in street crime.
The study also found that social understanding increases when motorised vehicles are removed because of the direct contact between passersby and traders.
