Cycling for Urban Clusters

Cycling for Urban Clusters

Recent spate of accidents amongst our cyclist friends were flashing in our whats app groups and a pall of gloom descended upon all the members of the group. Some of the victims were lucky to escape with minor injuries, some of them nursed their injuries for a long time and some didn’t live to ride with us again.

These episodes left a very deep impact on my mind and set me thinking. It’s also just a coincidence that recently I was training my twin daughters Surbhi & Suhani to ride the bicycle. A happy moment for me, I also took a video seeing them ride all by themselves after a few days of attempting.

A cyclist or a pedestrian hardly gets acknowledged on the road. And that’s what makes things very unsafe for us cyclists. Most motorists don’t even carry the guilt of causing hurt to a cyclist. A cyclist is looked down upon as a ‘painful accessory’ on the roads who should not have been there in the first place. Snide remarks from motorists saying ‘marna hai kya?’ is something that we are used to. One of my friends on a cycle was once ‘nudged aside’ by a motorcyclist on purpose, because he was ‘blocking the way’. He had a nasty fall and spent the next couple of months recuperating from the injury while the motorcyclist didn’t even look back to check.

This brings me to the other question. Does it have to be like this?

Most people use the cycle for fitness or recreation here.  There are very few instances of people using the bicycle for actually travelling from point A to point B. We even see parents taking their cars to drop off their kids to school in a car less than a km away. Can the kids not walk or use a bicycle? Of course, she can – but the argument would be - it’s not safe. And that’s probably true.

Owning a car for most people is still a symbol of having ‘arrived’. Car is still aspirational asset for a lot of people in our country. This mindset has to change. India has ~22 cars per 1000 people while most of Europe or US has over 500. Given the economically diverse population, urban density and the nature of urbanization, this is not the metric we need to let ourselves get swayed by.

In a country of 1.3bn people, mobility can't achieved through car ownership. The solution lies in low cost personal mobility options – walking, cycling or motorcycling and good quality public transportation - buses, local trains, monorails or metro railways etc. A car occupies far too much space to justify in our crowded urban landscape. It runs for less than 10% of the time and even after that it occupies huge spaces in parking lots, roads or even residential areas making it one of the most inefficient uses of precious land in our urban clusters. In most residential societies children’s play areas are ‘lost’to residents’ cars. Footpaths face a constant issue of encroachment and there are many instances of foot paths being shrunk to expand the roads. Increasing the width of roads in our cities is mostly a futile exercise as we may never be able to keep pace with the burgeoning population of cars. This is like extending the belt to tackle obesity. A good city is not one which discourages cars, but the public transport infrastructure is so good that it’s not worthwhile using cars. Its popularly said ‘A developed country is not where the poor own cars, its where the rich use public transport’. Even in other large cities like London or Singapore or New York, despite the high car ownership, people use public transport for intra-city commute. Its frequent, well connected and comfortable. And they walk-up or cycle to the nearest bus stop or metro station.

Short distances of upto 2 kms are best covered on foot and distances upto say 15kms are appropriate for a bicycle. This is not just healthy, its efficient and green. If a demarcated cycle lane is provided, there is no reason why people will not cycle to work or for errands. Cycling and walking infrastructure however cannot be a one-off action, it needs to be a concerted effort by the city mandarins. Many cities, most notably Dutch cities like Amsterdam and Utretch have reclaimed the spaces lost to car parking lots and roads and have redesigned their urban spaces to make it more friendly towards pedestrians and cyclists. Pedestrian plazas, walking only streets and exclusive bicycle ways are now the order of the day. I have taken bicycles on hire in many cities in the world and can vouch for the infrastructure they have and the respect a cyclist commands. Similarly, in our urban areas, we need to recalibrate our priorities and invest accordingly. 

Like in many cities in the world, a lot of companies now offer bike sharing options in India. There’s Pedl, Hexi, Yuluand probably others. These are popular services at a very low cost. We ought to support the bike sharing model and make it main-stream before they wind up for the lack of adequate business. Eg: In Navi Mumbai Yulucycles have bike stations at almost every mile and the results are showing. A lot of people are opting for this and a cycling culture seems to be evolving. Give it a fillip by carving bike-only lanes and see the difference.

Civic infrastructure is only the starting point. Civic sensehas to be instilled in drivers to recognize the rights of pedestrians and cyclists. Power that a motorist wields through multi-ton vehicle leads him to ignore pedestrians and cyclists. It is one’s duty to not just acknowledge but protect the most vulnerable road users. This courtesy is sadly missing in India. 

But till such a thing happens, the father in me asks, if I did the right thing by teaching my twins to ride a bicycle. I surely believe so – it’s an essential life skill, low cost mobility and also the best way to see a new city. Will I allow them to ride alone, certainly NOT? We have a lot to do about civic infrastructure and civic sense. The eternal optimist in me tells me that things will change for the better. 

But till then cyclists are not safe. And we have to act before one of us becomes the next victim. Will we do it?

Sandeep Bangia