The stationary bike at Kala Godha
This city is huge and cannot be conquered by a bicycle. Its probably not even fast enough considering how we are in a hurry. But when I do a time-travel back to my time in Helsinki, I realised it was one of the best things I did during the Finnish summer. I cannot rave enough about the Finnish Transportation System which connects Helsinki superbly: buses on time, linked with GPS that fed information to the online website and you would know your potential waiting time, LED screens at the bus stop telling you your waiting time, bicycle lanes, metro, trams…
The main core of Helsinki was simply connected with bicycle lanes- they were wide and provided bicycle parking. Mostly it is what you learn while you cycle: you notice your surroundings cause you have to be alert, you realise that tarred pathways are way better than bumpy paver block systems, you don’t necessarily run over pedestrians, you get creative about how to lock your bike, planning your ride makes you plan your day, you bike with other cyclists (and maybe you make new friends)…
Of course, there are the added benefits of racing heartbeats and fat-burning, and in the big scheme of things: your carbon footprint of the travel is almost nil…
but mostly, it is the experience…
the experience of it all…
One of the reasons people don’t use cycle lanes is because the design of it doesn’t work!! In India, it can possible be-If you give people something functionally good and get Aamir Khan to endorse it, they will definitely jump on board!
If a significant percentage of people start using cycles, other road users, govts. and everyone else would start respecting their place on roads( Kavita, we need to conspire something about this!). I remember a security guard who used to cycle 32 kms in Delhi to come to his workplace…he was having a hard time doing so but he said he couldn’t afford the bus or metro! People in lower income groups do use cycles but nobody cares about them!
Also I ve found most of the cycle lanes are unused and cyclists prefer the main roads(are they doing this for kicks!) in Delhi and Ahmedabad!