The Human City

About the EpisodeWhy do Indian cities keep repeating the same mistakes? Despite decades of policies, billions spent on infrastructure, and one of the world's fastest-growing metro networks, our cities continue to struggle with congestion, pollution, flooding and poor public transport. In this episode, we unpack why that happens. From the National Urban Transport Policy to metro rail, master pl...

About the Episode Every year, thousands of people lose their lives in fire incidents across India. Yet despite detailed regulations, fire NOCs, and modern buildings, fires continue to occur in homes, malls, hospitals, offices, and high-rise apartments. So what are we getting wrong? In this episode of The Human City Podcast, fire safety expert Sandeep Goel breaks down the real reasons behind recurr...

About the Guest: Helle Søholt is the former CEO and co-founder of Gehl architects, the internationally renowned urban design and strategy firm founded alongside Professor Jan Gehl. She has spent nearly 30 years advising cities, governments, and organizations around the world on creating healthier, more inclusive, and more livable urban environments. Guest Links: Connect with her on Linkedin: https...

About the Guest: Joe Berridge is an internationally recognized urban strategist, city planner, and co-founder of Urban Strategies, a global urban design and planning consultancy based in Toronto. Over the last four decades, he has worked on major city transformations and regeneration projects across cities including Toronto, New York, London, Manchester, Belfast, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and w...

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:09 The Evolution of Urban Transport in Bangalore 04:51 Challenges in Public Transport Planning 06:27 Coordination and Governance in Urban Transport 07:33 The Impact of Urbanization on Traffic Congestion 08:51 Public Opinion and Political Will in Transport Policy 10:01 Did the CMP Become Just a Funding Document? 11:08 The Disconnect Between Plans and Implementation 1...

Chapters: 00:00 The Urban Transport Dilemma in India01:03 Urban Transport Shift in last two decades03:04 Implementation Challenges: Theory vs. Reality04:44 Capacity Building and Rapid Urbanization07:18 Project vs. System: The Urban Transport Debate07:55 Why People Centred Projects Remained as Pilot?09:06 BRT: Successes and Failures10:04 Governance Evolution in Urban Transport11:21 Indian Cities be...

About the Episode: Have you ever walked down a street and felt like you were constantly in the way? Like the footpath just... ends? Or the sidewalk looks great on paper but leaves you with barely 90 centimetres to actually walk? That's not an accident. That's a design choice. In this episode of Human City Podcast, I'm talking to Nuria Forqués Puigcerver — urban designer, co-founder of...

About the Episode: Why do Indian streets feel so dangerous? It's not bad luck. It's not culture. It's design. In this episode I speak with Jullietta Jung — urban mobility strategist, former project lead at the Global Designing Cities Initiative, and someone who has worked on streets in Sydney, Pune and cities across four continents. She came to India to help build better cycling and walking infras...

What if traffic isn’t the real problem? For decades, cities have been designed to keep vehicles moving—not to help people live better lives. In this episode of The Human City Podcast, we unpack why our transport systems fail so many people, even when they seem “efficient.”From car-first planning to invisible inequalities in everyday travel, this conversation challenges everything we assume about m...

About the Episode: What does it actually take to take space away from cars — and give it back to people? In this episode of The Human City Podcast, I sit down with Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá — the city that built the world's first world-class Bus Rapid Transit system, 300 kilometres of bikeways, and transformed its streets not by adding more road capacity, but by rethinking who t...

About the Episode: What does it actually mean to build a city for people, not around them? In this episode of The Human City Podcast, I sit down with Amanda O'Rourke, Executive Director of 8 80 Cities — the organisation built on one deceptively simple idea: if a city works for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old, it works for everyone. We talk about what that looks like in practice. And the gap b...

About the Episode: After 40 years leading India's biggest urban missions—JNNURM, Smart Cities, AMRUT, metro projects, and the transformation of Ayodhya and Banaras—Durga Shankar Mishra has seen it all from the inside. His answer isn't what you'd expect."There were so many failures. A lot of adhocism in the system. We have capability—but there is no motivation."In this unfilte...

About the Episode: Cities don't expand randomly—they expand based on incentives, power, and neglect. And when cities appear out of control, it usually means someone else is controlling the outcome. In this provocative conversation, Patrick Lamson-Hall dismantles some of urban planning's most sacred assumptions. From Mumbai's building code (2,000 pages long and "totally impenetrabl...

About the Episode: Indian cities are growing fast but are they safe and designed for children? In this episode of The Human City, Ruchita Bansal speaks with Tim Gill, global expert on child-friendly cities, urban mobility, and independent childhood, about why modern urban planning may be failing children. We explore:- Why Indian cities feel unsafe for kids- Car-centric planning and its impact on c...

About the Episode: Can cities be redesigned so everything you need — schools, shops, parks, healthcare — is within a 15-minute walk or bike ride? Carlos Moreno, creator of the 15-minute city concept, joins Ruchita Bansal to discuss how Paris transformed 300 streets into mini-parks, why housing should be a right not a business, and what it takes to break free from car dependency and social isolatio...

About the Episode: Why do we treat density like it's a problem instead of a solution? Architect and urban designer Naama Blonder is here to challenge everything you think you know about how cities should grow. In this episode, Naama breaks down why single-family homes don't belong near transit, how we're wasting golden opportunities with bad planning, and what it really means to design...

About the Episode: Why do our cities feel like they weren't built for us? Because they literally weren't. Join Ruchita Bansal in conversation with mobility expert Marianne Weinreich as she reveals how transport systems were designed for male commuters—ignoring the complex trip patterns of women juggling care work, school runs, and errands. Discover the Danish city that increased cycling 20...

About the Episode: Pakistan: 60 years, ZERO recessions. India vs Pakistan growth rates? Identical. Economist Matthew McCartney reveals data that challenges everything you think you know about South Asian development. WHAT WE COVER:- Pakistan's hidden economic stability- China's infrastructure strategy (CPEC impact)- Why Special Economic Zones succeed in China, fail in Africa- Industrial po...

About the Episode: Cities across India, Africa, and South Asia are exploding with people but not creating jobs. Politicians profit while infrastructure crumbles. Economist Matthew McCartney spent 25 years on the ground uncovering who really benefits from broken urban systems. This is Part 1 of a 2-part conversation. In this episode, we explore:- Why cities are growing without jobs—the urbanization...

About the Episode: Do Indian cities actually work for the people who live in them? Urban economist Kyle Farrell reveals why our cities feel broken and what we can do about it. WHAT WE DISCUSS: Why zoning laws are killing Indian cities The case for mixed-use development (live, work, play in one place) Why GDP doesn't measure what actually matters to people How cities are planned WITHOUT public...

About the Episode: Cities were never designed for everyday life. They were designed for commuters, cars, and convenience — not for care, safety, or how people actually live. In this episode of the HumanCity Podcast, urban planning pioneer Eva Kail — the woman who changed how Vienna designs its streets, housing, and public spaces breaks down how gender-responsive planning reshaped an entire city. F...

About the Episode: What if safety isn’t about protection at all but about freedom? In this episode of The Human City, urban sociologist Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, challenges how cities across India and the world define women’s safety. From CCTV cameras and panic buttons to lighting and surveillance, we’ve built cities that prioritise control — not belonging. Kalpana argues that wh...

About the Episode: Cities are not shaped only by plans, projects, or infrastructure. They are shaped much earlier by conversations, assumptions, and what we collectively accept as “normal.” In this episode of The Human City Podcast, Ruchita Bansal speaks with Reena Mahajan, architect, urban planner, and founder of Studio Divercity and StreetSmart, about how the way we talk about cities quietly det...

About the Episode: In this episode of The Human City Podcast, we explore a radical but deeply practical idea: children as co-designers of cities. My guest, Ruchi Varma, is the founder of @humanqind, a social innovation initiative that has worked with children to redesign school streets and public spaces across Delhi. From the “250 Metres of Happiness” project to city-wide collaborations with gover...

About the Episode: Indian cities are building metros, announcing clean air targets, and celebrating infrastructure milestones. Yet for most people, everyday mobility is getting worse — unsafe streets, overcrowded buses, polluted air, and long exhausting commutes. In this episode of The HumanCity Podcast, host Ruchita Bansal is joined by Anumita Roychowdhury (CSE) and Amit Bhatt (ICCT India) to dis...