Every day , about 28 lakh cycle trips are made on Delhi's roads--roughly the same as the number of car trips, but though cycles seldom venture onto the arterial roads, a cyclist is killed every eight days, on average. Last year, 43 cyclists were killed in accidents in Delhi.
In Mumbai, only five died.
The high cycle usage as well as the cyclist fatality rate reflect the need for more cycling infrastructure and space in the city. But so far, there are only a few disjointed cycling tracks, and even these are heavily encroached. The govern ment's cycling init i at ive s have at best been half-hearted, and have found few takers. The Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand BRT has one of the longest cycle lane stretches but only 7-8 people use the cycle rental service on it every day . The reason: the cycle corridor does not connect to any other main road. It ends abruptly, leaving the cyclist at risk of being run over by vehicles zipping past. Safety concerns also keep cyclists off the tracks provided for them along almost all arterial roads in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area.
Is there a future for cycling in the city? Experts say the excitement around initiatives like Raahgiri proves that there is a latent desire to improve city design and infrastructure for non-motorized transport (NMT). "People want active transportation, better health and livability. This should reflect in the way we design roads. Countries that are way richer than us like Denmark have realized this and are building for their people. This would mean safe walking and cycling zones and no push for signal-free corridors or flyovers that do just the opposite," said Anumita Roychowdhury, head of Clean Air programme at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
She said cycling lanes alone won't draw people. "Speed of vehicles within the city has to be curbed. The speed limit in most pedestrian and cycling-friendly cities is about 30kmph and roads are not constantly widened." Strict enforcement of laws to prevent encroachment of cycling lanes is also needed.
Most European countries cracked this problem many years ago. The Copenhagen city council, for instance, is offering a free bike repair service to get even more people to cycle. In Dutch cities the roads have been made narrower since the 1970s and one-way systems have been dismantled. Bogota in Colombia shuts down 120km of road length for vehicles once a week.
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