“Riding my motorbike to work and navigating my way through heavy traffic was the most stressful task. I would invariably be late for the morning meetings. But my travel has become less tiresome in the last six years after I ditched my motorbike for the humble cycle,” said Bhavesh Jardon, a software professional.
Mr. Jardon has been riding his cycle every day from his home at Marathahalli to Cessna Business Park at Kadubeesanahalli, a distance of 5 km. Like him, many other working professionals in Bengaluru have started hopping on their cycles and riding to work, while their cars and bikes stay at home.
Main reason
For most of these cyclists, manoeuvring the city’s traffic has been the biggest reason for making this shift. “It would take me over half an hour to cover a distance of 5 km on my motorbike. Now, it hardly takes me 15 minutes. Also, as a cyclist one never feels stuck in the traffic. Even if there is a jam, I carry my cycle over to the footpath, walk for a while and hop back on where the traffic is free-flowing. The frustration of waiting in jams is no longer felt,” said Mr. Jardon.
For others such as Kuruvilla Choolackal, poor health led him to make this as a lifestyle change. Mr. Choolackal rides 18 km one way from Kothanur to HAL Airport Road every day. “I was 40 and I was overweight and had a lot of health issues. I didn’t get time to exercise. I decided to try cycling and enjoyed it a lot. I have not used my car to travel to work in almost two years now and feel active through the day, and my health is much better,” he said. Mr. Choolackal, who has a start-up, has been encouraging other people in his company to start cycling and has even made a facility for showering in the office.
In the recent year, a lot more awareness about cycling as an alternative mode of transportation has been created with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) organising Cycle Day in different neighbourhood and the Bicycle Mayor for the city encouraging concept of cycling to work. Cycling clubs have also noticed a growing interest. Bangalore Cycling, a Facebook community, for instance, has over 7,000 members. “In the recent past, we have been getting a lot of join requests. The interest is there, but we are very selective in adding on only those who are serious about cycling,” said Suraj Swamy, group founder.
But the cycling ecosystem has a long way to go in terms of reaching out to a large number of people. “The concept of Cycle Day is good, but right now it is targeted at a very small population. The DULT should look to scale it up and have these cycle days along the IT corridor to encourage more people to take to cycling,” said Murali H.R., a cycling enthusiast and activist who has been involved with several bicycle projects in the city. He cycles every day from BTM Layout to Basavanagudi to work.
Infrastructure
Cyclists also highlighted the need for creating cycling infrastructure in form of lanes. Also, companies need to make investments such as bathing and change room facilities to encourage people to cycle to work. This would also encourage many more women to cycle to work as well, they said.
“While we wait for the government or companies to make these changes, we need to encourage more people to cycle. Only when more people take to it, will there be a political will to work for cyclists. Also, other motorists need to be sensitised about cyclists on the roads,” said Mr. Choolackal.
(This is the second of a five-part series on cycling, in conjunction with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport.)
