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Cycling on verge of extinction in India

27 December 2007 - 12:11am — asj
The West is promoting cycling increasingly but in India many small cities like Pune and Banglore are making it extinct.
The picture below says it all.

Also check the video showing how Cambridge has maintained its culture of cycling even in the 21st century: Link to youtube video
Its important to remember that in all cities (including London) average commutes are 8-12 km and cycling is the fastest mode of transport on otherwise gridlocked roads.

Cheers,
ASJ
tsubba's picture

cycling

tsubba - 27 Dec 2007 - 9:16am
congratulations Dr J!! Wiki Article on Factors Influencing Cycling And related issues
shas3n's picture

Cycling

shas3n - 27 Dec 2007 - 3:16pm
I think many of the Indian cities' citizens would find cycling an attractive option if facilities like these are made and safety of cyclists is ensured. It is indeed heartening to see the simple ideas that are implemented in Cambridge and rest of UK for encouraging cycling. Here are some more photos from Cambridge which show the relevant facilities for cycles. Some are covered in your video too. PS: The lady with child in your video is riding on the pavement most probably due to any of the below reasons. a. There is no pedestrian/cycle crossing from where she started b. Since she has a baby on the tow (that is a baby carrier) she wants to be safe c. Since she will be slower than the other cyclists, she does not want to obstruct them It is apparently illegal to ride cycles on pavements unless there is a marked cycle lane, but I guess such victimless violations are allowed. -Shastri

-Shastri

abhi's picture

Cycling in Bangalore

abhi - 28 Dec 2007 - 3:21pm
Cycling in India is making a comeback, slowly but surely. You can check out http://cycling.bikeszone.com to see the number of people in Bangalore who would like to make a difference over the past few years. BikesZone and the community is trying to increase the number of people who take up cycling as a means of recreation and more importantly a means of commuting. Be it to work, meet friends, shop etc. its always easy to do it on a bicycle.
balnu147's picture

Cycling - manipal

balnu147 - 28 Dec 2007 - 3:34pm
Almost whole of india is averse to cyling but I sense a wind of change.. i passed out of manipal this year and all motor vehicles have been banned in the campus.. also MIT has given cycles to each and evry student who has taken admission there.. so the revolution has started in India.. its only a matter of time before more people take to it!
asj's picture

Cycling on pavement

asj - 28 Dec 2007 - 3:50pm
Shastri, Hi! Lovely pics, thanks for sharing. The lady with the kid - the video did not pick up clearly - but she was on a cycle lane on the pavement on the opposite side. In London a lot of cyclists do get on to the pavement. They do so when there are no cycle lanes. Oft these are people who are still gaining confidence. It can be scary as traffic in UK moves at 30miles/hour (48km per hour). I agree, I do not mind cyclists using pavements provided the pavement is wide enough and the given cyclist is ensuring safety of pedestrians.

www.driving-india.blogspot.com

asj's picture

cycling on increase in India

asj - 28 Dec 2007 - 3:54pm
The above comments make me feel better. Indeed it is good news if cycling was finding its way back. But we are a long way off. The comparison between Pune station (where we see onnly motorised 2 wheel drives) against Cambridge station (jam packed with cycles) shows how big a task this is. More people will take up cycling when Authorities make a proactive effort as well in providing the required infrastructure.

www.driving-india.blogspot.com

City.Zen's picture

Cycling at IISc too !

City.Zen - 28 Dec 2007 - 6:58pm
The century-old, IISc, aka Tata Institute campus is also full of cycles used by the 2000 students as well as the Professors. However, most cyclists of IISc do not venture to cycle outside the campus on the scary Bangalore roads. City Zen
City Zen
tsubba's picture

Cycling

tsubba - 28 Dec 2007 - 7:29pm
Arun had compiled this presentation http://www.slideshare.net...
balnu147's picture

Is it something to do with universities?

balnu147 - 29 Dec 2007 - 2:26pm
U mentioned Cambridge (university town?) and oxford too (has cycling culture) but you won't find such a culture in non-university towns.. the exception is in Japan where people cycle to office because of parking problem / space constraint! Bangalore is a huge place.. though I would love to cycle to office every day.. the size of the city dissuades me!
asj's picture

Nothing to do with Universities

asj - 29 Dec 2007 - 9:30pm
I saw the very old to the very young (primary school age) on cycles, nothing to do with University. The fact that so many cycles are parked outside the station suggests that people travel long distances. I used the train for 5 days going to Cambridge from London. Eeach day, there were dozens of people on the train with their cycles (full size bikes not folding ones). Bangalore / Pune seem big, but even in London (as in Pune) the average commute is under 8 miles. Not everyone can switch, but those who wish to often fail to do so due to lack of safety on the roads (the chaos on our roads, its cut throat), further there is a complete neglect when it comes to providing pavements, cycling tracks, cycle parking facilities....Did you know that in Pune 50% roads are without footpaths? Bangalore I understand is not very different from Pune in many ways. Both I believe also are known for their long associatio with academic culture of Institutions and Universities. 20-30 years ago, cycling was far more common in these cities, not any more (since advent of 0% loans for 2 wheel drives). AJ

www.driving-india.blogspot.com

balnu147's picture

wow.. thats cool.. didn't

balnu147 - 30 Dec 2007 - 2:37pm
wow.. thats cool.. didn't know all that thanks for sharing.. I was planning to buy a bike for my commute.. now u made me think of cycle as an alternative!
tsubba's picture

need a hercules

tsubba - 30 Dec 2007 - 7:33pm
bal.. i agree with your initial guess. cycling as means of transit works only in "university" kind of environment. safety, slow speed, low volume motorized traffic, small reach, terrain etc etc are essential. most of mysore used to be liked that. a lot of bangalore used to be like that much earlier. as things stand in bangalore cycling is risky, unless you are thinking of bylanes of your layout.
murali772's picture

promoting cycling

murali772 - 31 Dec 2007 - 1:20pm

Sometime back, I had suggested the following to a group of cycling enthusiasts in the city, with a view to promoting cycling:

  • get the government to block off the inner-half of the ring road every Sunday (from 6AM to 6 PM) exclusively for cycling atleast twice a year,
  • organise 'tour du Bangalore' race along the ring road, possibly sponsored by TI or Hero.

But, obviously, this pertains to leisure cycling. I am not sure I would want to venture out on a bicycle to the main roads on a working day in today's kind of traffic. But, certainly, this can happen within local neighborhoods, even today, and should be what the city should be targeting eventually.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
tsubba's picture

cycling

tsubba - 31 Dec 2007 - 7:58pm
agree with murali. the thing about cycling is a lot of things have to fall in place before pedal power can raise the flag of revolucion - infrastructure( paths, lighting etc etc), driving discipline, rationalization of fuel costs, city layout, pub trans, change in attitude etc, etc... one thing that can happen is as long as gandhinagar doodes are singing in europe they might as well sing cycling through the exotic lanes of amsterdam, a few thrillers where the hero cycles through jams to catch the baddie and then beat the thulp out of him, without breaking a sweat, you get the drift... romanticize cycles, make it cool again. with alt fuels prolly in the horizon, the best pitch is prolly health benefits.
abhi's picture

Infrastructure needs Vs Cycling

abhi - 31 Dec 2007 - 8:09pm
I think for cycling specific infrastructure to be available, there needs to be a critical mass of cyclists to make use of it. Its I guess like learning to swim. Without knowing how to swim, people don't get into the water and without getting into the water, you'll never figure out how to swim.
silkboard's picture

Edited post to fix the IE problem

silkboard - 1 Jan 2008 - 10:52am
edited the post to link to the youtube video. Embedding the video was making the page crash in IE. This page should now open fine in IE. Folks, use firefox as much as possible :)
City.Zen's picture

Critical Mass of Cyclists

City.Zen - 1 Jan 2008 - 1:32pm
I tend to agree with Murali and Tarle. Cycling-specific infrastructure must first be ready and the critical mass of cyclists can come later. This is because Bangalore roads are too unsafe now. Achieving critical mass may not be that difficult - A few hundred thousands of garment factory workers are there for whom the factories can gift cycles as Diwali bonus in lieu of a cash bonus. Or, maybe the cycle companies can workout with the factory managements for loan options. I once saw a garment factory worker, a new mother, literally running home in the noon sun to feed her child. Nearly a KM distance between her workplace and home. City Zen
City Zen
abhi's picture

Donating cycles to garment workers?

abhi - 1 Jan 2008 - 1:37pm
So, your point only looks at empowering people who do not have means of transport to have them. This would not bring down the congestion on the roads or help reduce pollution. What I was speaking about, and which is the bigger problem, is to convert people using fossil fuels and jamming up the roads to convert to cycles.
City.Zen's picture

You are right, Abhi !

City.Zen - 1 Jan 2008 - 2:10pm
You are right, Abhi ! My point only addressed achieving the critical mass needed to justify cycling-specific infrastructure. The bigger and more urgent problem of traffic congestion and reducing fossil fuel consumption needs to be addressed as early as possible. As already commented on these pages earlier, the best way, IMHO, is to raise the taxes for new registrations, introduce exhorbitant congestion tax to existing vehicles and use the tax collection to subsidize public transport by reducing fares and increasing frequency to say every 5 minutes. A small example why raising taxes for new registrations -- a techie who finished studies recently joined Texas Instruments and within a few months bought a new car. It seems TI has a soft-financing policy under which its staff can buy cars which will be registered in the company's name and the company will also provide 50 litres of petrol per month. I don't know if other IT companies too have similar schemes. I understand that every year some 75,000 new IT jobs are taken up, which means that much more congestion. With the release of Tata 1-lakh car, the scenario will certainly worsen even further. - City Zen
City Zen
raviranjan.kumar's picture

IT Compnies

raviranjan.kumar - 16 Jul 2008 - 3:09pm

Other IT Compnies also have the similar kind of schemes. I also went and talked to my HR Manager about it, and they said that they can hardly do any thing, as this is driven from the Market's salary policy. Then i also talked about promoting bicycle as another mode of transportation, as ITPB does not allow Bicycles to be parked in the guarded parking area, but nothing has worked out as yet.

Regards,

~ Ravi

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