Bicycle the first Love Affair of Human is Back On the Street

A bicycle is perhaps every human being first love yet the first experience of motorbike often make most of these love story ends up in junkyards and there are many reasons. On a global scale, some cities are years or even decades ahead of others in the breadth and vitality of their cycling communities. The word ‘cycling city’ to most people will immediately elicit mention of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The common denominators between these cities are clear, the realization of the potential of cycling as transport, investment in infrastructure and a desire to make cities better. Conversely, a city like Bhubaneswar doesn’t exactly echos “bicycle friendly” and likely won’t for a while yet.
All over the world, citizens are rediscovering the benefits of cycling while Cities are responding by building the infrastructure to serve and keep them safe. This rush to increase cycling levels and improve the quality of city life is the greatest movement in global urbanism. Of course, not all cities are equal. Some charge ahead, while others lag.
For almost a century, urban planners have only asked one question about transport “How can we send more cars down this street?” but in today’s age of booming urbanisation, modern cities have changed that tired question to, “How can we send more people down this street?” The answer includes robust public transit and walking infrastructure and, of course, a heavy dose of bicycle.
But what is it that makes some cities so attractive for cycling, while others lag behind? What unique qualities do cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam possess that the rest of the world’s cities are at varying levels of effort struggling to emulate?
Well, bicycle began its journey way back in 1816 great summer when temperatures had plummeted around the world, because of the eruption a year earlier of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora. It was among the most violent eruptions on Earth in recorded history, and the fallout of dust and sulfur caused crop failures across Europe. As horses died of starvation, the German inventor Karl von Drais came up with an idea to replace horses, a contraption with two wheels but without pedals. It was the predecessor of today’s bicycle.
Today, it’s known as the most efficient method of self-powered transportation by far but despite being clean and green, cycling remains popular only in few countries because of potential accidents, the lack of a cycle-friendly infrastructure and worries about rain, heat wave and cold keep many from hopping on a two-wheeled horse. Perhaps the main factor that keeps cycling rates low in Bhubaneswar, as well as many cities, is that most people are not comfortable sharing space in streets with fast moving cars, autos, two-wheelers, buses, and trucks etc. As most modern cities are designed for the car. Whether it’s the driveways into homes or parking spots lining the roads of city centers, everything is designed to make traveling by car as easy as possible, with little thought of cyclists.
On average, around half of all car journeys in Bhubaneswar are shorter than ten kilometers. Which means an intelligent city transport system would have been focussed towards cycling, walking and public transport rather than cars by accommodating inefficient, polluting, dangerous modes of transport systems. Yet over years, Bhubaneswar added more roads & space for cars than Bicycles so do the city is choked with cars and their parking land.
In Bhubaneswar for instance, roads have no separate cycle lanes, let alone a specially designed bicycle network of the kind one would see in Amsterdam or Stockholm or Barcelona or even in Colombian city of Bogota built more than 300 kilometres of such ‘greenways’ or protected bicycle routes separated from roads by trees by showcasing that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally important to one in a $30,000 Car.
When discussing the subject with people who are less optimistic about the bicycle’s urban mode share potential, there is usually one and only one reason cited for cycling’s enviable success in Amsterdam and Copenhagen those cities are flat and weather wise suitable. While the topography of a city undeniably impacts a bicycling community, it doesn’t make or break it. People who want to ride will ride, hills or no hills. What matters isn’t whether or not one going to get a little workout on daily commute but whether one going to be safe, supported, and comfortable on a ride. Bhubaneswar is mostly flat when it was planned but its expansion brought some terrain beyond its urban core. But one would be loathed to call Bhubaneswar a cycling city by any stretch of the imagination.
Sometimes often the question arises why people don’t cycle to the workplace in cities like Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Cuttack, Rourkela, Puri etc. Yes, the excuses often almost ready with reasons such as pouring rain, heat wave, humidity is not as practical or as fun as cycling to work in mild, dry weather, winter. Amsterdam has, on average, 187 days of rain per year. Copenhagen hovers around or below freezing for three months of the year, with plenty of snowfall to make things all the more difficult. Whereas Bhubaneswar’s maximum phase of weather is summer like situations than of winter.
Wet or summer or cold weather, while it may impact ease of cycling, certainly doesn’t make it impossible. With a few adjustments to gear and wardrobe, one can feasibly bicycle commute year-round in even the least agreeable of climates. Similarly, if the climate was what mattered the most for bicycling, then Bhubaneswar, Puri, Berhampur would have been the most bicycle-friendly city on the planet. But anybody who’s ever tried to get across Bhubaneswar on Bicycles will tell that’s a far cry from reality.
Around thirty percent of commuters both formal & informal bicycle to workspace in Bhubaneswar, one of the highest cycling mode shares in India and that city is no more enjoys cycling weather, despite its worst temperatures and heavy rainfalls, has one of the highest mode shares in the India and a vibrant urban cycling scene even throughout the long summer.
Similarly, some do argue the best cities in the world for bicycling do have a very important thing in common from Sydney to Stockholm and Amsterdam to Barcelona, the unifying feature that catapults a regular old cycling city to world-class status is the ability of its residents to travel by bicycle safely because of good infrastructure. Which included bicycle lanes not just lines painted on concrete but interconnected networks of barrier-protected bicycle lanes.
Copenhagen has invested $150 million into bicycle infrastructure over the past decade and has 16 new bicycle and pedestrian bridges currently in the works. Barcelona has expanded its bicycle infrastructure by 20 percent since 2015, and has plans to invest a further $40 million in building out the network. Utrecht is in the process of building 33,000 bicycle parking spots at its Central Station, in addition to its current 12,000.
In addition to on-street infrastructure, cities that considered high as Cycling City often have wider infrastructural elements to complement their road networks like. bicycle parking, bike-public transportation connectivity, and thoughtfully designed signage and traffic signals for way-finding and ease-of-use.
If Bhubaneswar wants to take its commitment to cycling seriously, then it has to throw its weight behind bicycle infrastructure and build bicycling into every facet of the urban transportation system.
One of the least tangible but perhaps most important elements of building a truly great bicycling city is having the support of the wider community. The political will to push cycling projects through is absolutely critical to the city’s success, same time administrative will to ground political dreams but if it comes at an enormous political cost because the majority of voters don’t support bicycling, then those projects will likely be halted when that party loses the next election.
Similarly, bicycle lanes are limited in their usefulness if drivers park in them, turn through them without looking, or actually just straight up drive in them. Copenhagenize’s criteria for selecting the world’s best bicycling cities relies on few indicators, three of which are Perception of Safety, Politics, and Social Acceptance.
These three are, unfortunately, what keeps many in Bhubaneswar off the list. If advocates have to fight tooth and nail to build a bicycle passage is not heard properly, if people were asked to wear a helmet for less than one kilometre ride into informal market, if people go to gardens in morning or evening then found their bicycle is actually theft, if people go into star hotels only to know Bicyclist are not allowed inside nor they have any parking provisions for Bicycle, if people going to work space on a bicycle but the workspace doesn’t encourage, if people driving cars are either careless or outright hostile around people riding bicycles, then bicycling will remain a strange or non starter. Hence before investing in Cycles Lanes, civic bodies need to understand where the shoes are likely to pinch otherwise a large investment will have no massive response.
However, things are changing for the betterment of Cycling as for the first time in history United Nation Designated June 3rd two days ahead of World Environment Day as International World Bicycle Day, by adopting a resolution on April 12th, 2018, during the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly, in New York City. The resolution was adopted by a consensus of 193 member states. The declaration invites all Member States and relevant stakeholders to celebrate and promote awareness of the World Bicycle Day.
The declaration encourages the Member States to devote particular attention to the bicycle in cross-cutting development strategies and to include the bicycle in international, regional, national and subnational development policies and programmes.
H.E. Ambassador, Aksoltan Ataeva, Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan to the United Nations, introduced the draft resolution, co-sponsored by 56 countries, to the General Assembly for the vote. The Assembly adopted the resolution, declaring June 3rd as World Bicycle Day.
Its a great moment for many who advocated for Bicycle Day with United Nation but a Bicycle Day may not ensure all respect and right of cyclists. However, its a first step in that direction vetted by leaders of the world, further this small step will redefine Democracy, Peace, and inclusiveness in our society that was long due
The Bhubaneswar city under the smart city mission is planning to build 140kms of exclusive Bicycle Lane, introduce Bicycle Sharing Programme etc are some of the steps are in the pipeline to bring back Bicycle mode of transport into the city. Perhaps cities across the globe from New York to Sydney and Vienna to Mysuru etc all are working on bringing the benefits of non-motorized transportation to the wider public.
The best part of the bicycle-friendly cities is that it’s no more a bigger challenge to convince the city decision makers to get on board as the 21st century is itself pushing towards greener living and more sustainable transportation has resonated, and there are very few municipalities that haven’t adopted at least some of these bicycle friendly philosophies. What has been most striking is that there is excitement there among city leaders to make their streets more livable, walkable and cyclable. Same is that city no longer do need to spend so much effort trying to convince people that this is a good thing rather people are returning to Bicycle much faster than imagination.
It seems like the days are not far when city highways will be traded off for bicycle ways just like Seoul, Maastricht, London etc have done may soon be visible in Bhubaneswar when children’s will again return to school using bicycle and we can look forward to the years when more and more cities in India will be added to the list of the world’s best bicycling cities.