India Cycle4Change: Transforming India for a Greener Commutation

Rapid Urbanisation has ensured myriad of transformations across components responsible for urban overhaul and transportation is not an exception. Cycling which took a gradual back seat ever since motorisation started to advent, cycling witnessed a revival in the mid 2020, when the Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs (MoHUA) of Government of India announced of India Cycle4Change mission. The mission is not only bringing in gradual surge in cycling trends and practices in the country but is also creating impacts in Indian cities environmental parameters. Poulami Chakraborty of BW Businessworld explores.

Earlier in 2020, when the central government announced lockdown owing to covid 19 pandemic situation and city transportation has been put to halt, citizens across the nation took to cycling as a means to access essentials and services and even as form of physical activity, which in a way triggered the need to make our streets and cities safe for cycling.

Identifying the need to make our cities and streets safe for cycling, MoHUA launched the India Cycle4Change Challenge, wherein 107 Indian cities embraced the initiative. The cities engaged its citizens at the centre of a new approach—working with them to test solutions, learn from these experiments, and then scale it up across the cities. Earlier this year, MoHUA shared list top performing 25 cities which where shortlisted for this campaign. The Jury comprising of renowned national and internationals transport experts shortlisted 11 top performing cities who will be awarded an amount of INR 1 crore each to scale up their cycling initiatives and infrastructure.

Recently, the Ministry announced top performing 11 cities out of these 25 cities who are awarded the title of India’s Top Performing Cycling Pioneers and will be awarded an amount of INR 1 crore each to scale-up their initiatives and cycling infrastructure. BW Businessworld dived deeper to explore the depth of this mandate of the Government with inputs from cities who received special mention for their initiatives in testing the pilot project and way forward. 

The Journey So Far

Some of the best rewards that our society accepted and experienced is in 2020, when the Government of India launched a number of healthy and good initiatives to enhance sustainable lifestyle among citizens. The India Cycles4Change Challenge not only leveraged cycling not only for promoting healthy living but also is bringing in a ripple effect of positive impact on environment and other dynamics of city lifestyle. This campaign inspired over 100 cities to become India’s best cycling harbours in sync with the National Urban Transport Policy (2006) which boosts cities to adopt greener modes of transport like cycling, as they are widely adopted in our country for easy accessibility in a safe and affordable way.

This shift in trend to a greener method of commutation, is hopeful of bringing in an annual benefit of 1.8 trillion to the national economy, and reduce traffic congestion and pollution. 107 cities signed up for the India Cycles4Change Challenge wherein, they adopted a new mandate of citizen engagement and testing innovative, inexpensive and quick ideas in this greener direction of commutation. As a matter of fact, the participating and performing cities have converted the national campaign into a city-led but community-driven movement.

As we speak with the performing cities in a bid to understand their journey towards this transformation, Chetan Nandani, Deputy Commissioner Rajkot Municipal Corporation and CEO, Smart City Rajkot explained to say: “Rajkot built a cycle track in 2012 but it was never used. Thereafter a need was felt to create a cycling culture in the city, hence we started organising cyclo-funs and also started giving subsidy of INR 1000 on every new bike bought in the city, which in a way boosted adoption of cycling culture in the city. When Cycle4Change was launched we got a structured programme to follow, which showed us direction for bring out this shift in trend.” He further added to say that the city urban administration started a public bicycle sharing programme.

He further added, “We have built few cycle tracks and started supporting all local cycling groups for any support they need. We have also plans to upgrade and upscale public bicycle sharing and also introduce local cycle rentals. As a part of our Government initiative, all government employees in Rajkot commute to workplace on cycle, every Friday. This has motivated other private organisation also to follow the same.”

Another city which has received a special mention for their cycling initiatives during first phase of the awarding top cities, Chandigarh holds the densest Public Bicycle Sharing system in the country. Speaking to us, Kamal Kishor Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh and CEO, Chandigarh Smart city Limited mentioned, “One of the most prominent initiatives envisioned for the city includes India’s largest and densest PBS system with 617 stations and 5000 bicycles, for which a pilot of 25 stations and 250 bicycles was tested during the challenge phase. The city urban administration authorities have taken initiatives to further improve the existing cycling infrastructure in the city and make it safe for women, children and elderly by illuminating the cycle tracks to ensure better visibility in evening hours.”

Yadav further emphasized on collaboration with various cycling groups, RWAs to hold events in the city to enhance awareness about the city’s participation in the challenge. He further added, “Intensive and impactful campaigns were launched on Chandigarh Smart City Lmited’s social media pages to engage citizens and align them to the city’s vision.  Testing of Pop-up cycle lanes at Sukhna Lake was a learning curve with respect to ROW management and enforcement.”

Yadav further emphasized that the Cycle2Work campaign by the city officials further motivated the citizens to adopt the same. Adding further to the convenience of citizens, dedicated cycle parking bars were added at major markets, institutions and tourist areas.

Impacts of the ‘Challenge’

The impact of India Cycle4Change challenge is visible from a variety of aspect. Not only has the challenge bringing in impression towards a greener tomorrow and healthier lifestyle but is also inspiring communities for a bigger transformation for coming years. While 50+ cities conducted events to build community support, 400+ kilometre of main roads identified for transformation and 3500+ kilometres of neighbourhood streets identified for transformation.

Nandani of Rajkot Smart City Limited further highlighted: “Presently, we find people are using cycling not only for health but for local commuting, thus bring in themselves a change in the mind-set, which has enabled them to bring in the shift in trend for a greener commutation method.”

He further added, going forward the transformational campaign is going to bring in visible impact on the environment.

Yadav of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation added on to say, “Chandigarh’s terrain being flat has its own advantage further driven by its urban planning which facilitates short trips within the city. The challenge gave us an opportunity to introspect and conduct infrastructure gap assessment and resolve the pain-points.”

He further added, “ The major impacts observed includes increase in work-related trips on cycles, creation of a safe cycling environment for women and children ,  Increase in collaborative cycling events, decrease in cyclist related accidents and buzz around cycling on citizen’s social media, thus adding on to enthusiasm and positive mind-set among citizen to change trends.” 

Challenges and Mitigation

One of the most common challenges for the campaign was to bring back the lost trend of cycling to life in an era, dominated by motor-cars and modern methods fast and comfortable modes of commutation.

Though Cycle tracks were rolled out much ahead of time and concept, however, their usage remained unknown to most citizens. Echoing his support towards this, Nandani, further asserted: “The cycle tracks were assumed to be for parking, encroachment and other non-cycling purposes. Also there was little respect for cyclist on the road. We could mitigate them by enforcement, showing our commitment to cycling and also creating a culture. Creation of culture is most important.”

He further added on to say that there shall be cycle policy which will upscale cycle sharing, and create safe parking for cycles. “This will encourage cycling culture by publicly felicitating cycle commuters. Other tactical interventions as and when needed”, added Nandani.

With respect to Chandigarh’s perspective, the biggest challenge faced was enforcing lane discipline and ensuring safety of the cyclists. “Another major hurdle was to educate the working class who are the regular users of cycling infrastructure. We would like to sincerely thank the Traffic police for their constant support in ensuring the safety of the cyclists. The ‘Cycle Safety Squad’ added to our initiative of enforcing lane discipline and promoting safety of cyclists along with educating the cyclists about their rights. The Road Safety month was used as a platform to mitigate the challenges faced”, added Yadav from Chandigarh Smart City Limited.

The periphery and industrial areas to be connected to the urban area of the city. The work for industrial area is already underway. The Chandigarh Master Plan 2031 also envisages dedicated cycle tracks on the sector-dividing V4 roads, which will give a big boost to cycling in neighbourhoods. 

“A model junction with cyclist-friendly infrastructure is being planned which can be replicated throughout the city in phases. The PBS system for Chandigarh will be expanded in phases and will cover 617 docking stations with 5000 bicycles by April 2022”, asserted Yadav. 

The draft cycling policy envisions incentives to employees and citizens who are prioritising cycling as their regular mode of transport 

Conclusion

Going forward, in the phase 2, the cities will use their learnings to continue to prioritise cycling beyond the Challenge. Presently, cities will work towards a vision for “Healthy Streets”—integrating walking, cycling, and public transport to make streets safe and convenient for all. Through sustained Healthy Streets programmes, cities will develop short- and long-term cycling plans that go beyond physical infrastructure to include policies, campaigns, and community initiatives. They will transform themselves into lighthouse cities, leading the way for the rest of the nation.

“We need to link Public Bicycle Sharing with public transport, for example public bicycle sharing stations near BRTS bus stops or normal bus stops, thus, ensuring availability of cycles at various busy places. Thus, ensuring proper cycle service facilities are available and ensuring roads are safe for cyclists”, asserted Chetan Nandani from Rajkot.

A smart urban lifestyle should involve cycling not only for leisure and fitness, but as the most preferred mode of last-mile connectivity. According to Yadav, “Our cities further needs to envisage creating the most durable and desirable cycling infrastructure through both physical and policy reforms, unparalleled to any other city in India. Going forward, we would like to develop a significant shift in modal share.”