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Clean,
Cheap,
Healthy
|
| There are more cycles than cars. And they
transport more people everyday than all other means of transport. Incredible, but true.
Why don’t we use more cycles in our daily lives too. |
To,
Gobar Times
New Delhi
Dear Editor,I have realised that air pollution is dangerous and is increasing
every year. We should plant more trees as it reduces air pollution. I have decided that
when I become big I will prefer to ride a bicycle rather than a polluting, horrible
vehicle.
Jaideep Jethra, Pune |
T hough we hardly realise it, most
of the human transport need is met by human power rather than by vehicles. Bicycles
outnumber cars by two to one. Worldwide, there about 850 million bicycles to about 500
million cars.
Do bicycles really have many advantages over cars? Let’s see. They are healthier
for the user, one of the best ways of getting physical exercise in an urban lifestyle.
Hardly any extra infrastructural cost such as maintenance of separate roadways or rail
tracks or stations or airports is required. They emit no gases, therefore causing no air
pollution and all its associated problems. They are inexpensive, costing just 2% of the
cost of running a car. In urban peak hours, the average speed of a bicycle, 15-25 kmph, is
often faster than cars and buses. A cycle requires just 8% of the parking
space required by a car. Bicycles are about 5 times as space efficient as automobile
traffic.
B I C Y C L E S |
Can you see
which means of transport carries the most people, fastest? |
mode of transport |
speed (kmph) |
no. of persons
carried |
| Cars in mixed traffic |
15-25 |
120-220 |
| Bicycle |
10-14 |
1500 |
| Bus in mixed traffic |
10-15 |
2700 |
| Suburban railway |
45 |
4000 |
| Surface rapid rail |
35 |
9000 |
| (Number of people per
hour a 1 m wide road can carry) |
There’s more. Bikes require fewer resources to manufacture. Bicycle
manufacturing is a low polluting industry and helps employ more people than car
manufacturing, reducing unemployment. Being less expensive, they are often the only means
of transport the economically deprived can afford-a bicycle goes a long way in reducing
poverty and isolation for a poor owner.
A bicycle trip that is taken in place of a car trip benefits the environment. Short car
journeys are the most polluting per kilometre and can be done so most easily — eg.
going to a friend’s house or to the local market. Most journeys within a radius of 5
km can be easily done by both children and adults on bicycles.
Less than 1% of the population in the Third World countries can afford an automobile.
In spite of this, urban planners usually plan cities keeping in mind the motorised
transport. This leaves many commuters with no choice but to travel by foot, limiting their
access to jobs and other opportunities.
Cycling is still seen as option for those who cannot afford other means of transport.
It is an attitude that exists in all societies. Even when they can, how many times do your
mom or dad take the bicycle to go for local shopping? They don’t even consider this
option, even though their cars get stuck in horrendous jams.
FUNDUNG
 |
Only a few countries have included cycling in
their transport policies. China and Japan have a large number of cyclists, so the
governments plan for them. Several West European countries promote bicycling as an
alternative for work-related journeys. For the rest, however, cycling is not part of the
official policy.
A pro-bicycle policy need not be automobile
unfriendly. The ideal situation is a system where they complement each other. The
Netherlands, for example, has amongst the world’s highest densities for both cycles
and vehicles, while China, with too many cycles, has cycle jams! A balance is perhaps the
best option.
While some countries have a surprisingly high
number of bicycles per person, little use is made of them in commuting. The US has seven
times as many cycles per person as India, but as every one in two Americans has a car too,
compared to 1 in 500 Indians, bicycles play a much smaller role in US transportation.
The world already has infrastructure where cycles
can play a larger role. Nearly 100 million cycles are made each year, three times the
number of automobiles. Active government policy and more importantly, a change in attitude
can easily lead us to a cleaner and healthier environment through cycles. So what’s
stopping us??
BICY
Champion cyclists
The Netherlands balances auto transport with bicycling, public
transportation and walking as a national policy goal. Car parking is prohibited in many
Dutch cities, while ‘pedestrian only’ streets and reduced speeds are common.
Residential streets are often transformed into a ‘woonerf’ or a living
yard. The road becomes a paved courtyard and though all means of transport are allowed,
cyclists and pedestrians have priority and cars can enter only as ‘guests’.Denmark, too, actively encourages cycling. In 1983, 32% people travelled to
work by bicycles, while another 9% went to rail stations on bikes on their way to work.
75% of all major Danish roads have attached cycle tracks. Danish rail
stations have parking space for hundreds of cycles. To top it all, poems glorify the cycle
and sculptures of cyclists are common.
 Cycles as self-driven
taxis in the Netherlands. You can hire these and ride them to your destination and someone
will come and collect it for you and bring it back to a central depot, as this person is
doing. Easy
|
TAKE ACTION
Just feeling bad isn’t enough!
Its time you took some action. You can write on a postcard and shoot off to some of
the people who can make a difference. Get your family, neighbours and class/school-mates
to sign on as well. Include your own
experiences in the form.Addresses:
The Director
Indian Institute of Petroleum
Mohkampur, Dehradun 248005
The Director
Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM)
India Habitat Centre Core 4B, Zone IV Lodhi Road
New Delhi 110003
The Minister
Ministry of Environment and Forests
Paryavaran Bhavan, CGOComplex Lodhi Road
New Delhi 110003
The Minister
Ministry of Surface Transport
Parivahan Bhavan, Sansad Marg
New Delhi 110001
The Cabinet Minister
Ministry of Industry
Udyog Bhavan,
New Delhi 110001
The Director
Central Pollution Control Board
Parivesh Bhavan, CBD Complex
East Arjun Nagar, Shahdara
New Delhi 110032
You can also write to your State Pollution Control Boards |
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A
Down To Earth Supplement
