Woe unto bicycle riders

KOCHI: At a time when most cities are promoting green and pocket-friendly modes of transportation like bicycles, Kochi Corporation has the dubious distinction of not having even a single bicycle walkway. Geo Jose, environmental and social activist based in the city, is one among the few of the dwindling tribe who are still faithful to their two-wheelers.But, he too airs his fears about the extinction of bicycles.“The number of the people using bicycles has come down drastically.Today, the few who use the vehicles are migrants from Tamil Nadu or those from some other states.Even newspaper agents have replaced their bicycles with motor bikes.Paradoxically, this happens at a time when people from the developed world are switching on to bicycles.If one is to use a bicycle on our roads it is virtually a recipe for road accident.There is not even a vision to promote them in our budgets and town planning,” he said.One of the reasons quoted for the absence of bicycle lanes is the lack of wide roads and increasing traffic congestion in the city.“Even the National Highways are too congested with as many as eight lanes.Since land acquisition is a huge problem, it is not possible to have extra lanes for bicycles,” said C T Abraham, project director, National Highway Authority of India, Kochi.But, environmental activists say traffic woes can be brought down drastically if town planning promotes specially-efficient modes of transportation like bicycles as against cars and other single passenger vehicles.“A car takes up almost half the space a bus takes but often carries just one or two passengers.This is a huge strain on our roads,” adds Geo Jose.From the perspective of town planning there are a host of opportunities for the city to promote cycles.“As of now, there are no bicycle stands in any of our KSRTC stands, boat jetties or bus stands.What we need is bicycle stands at every nodal point in the city like the Edappally Bypass, the Vyttila Junction,” said K J Sohan, chairman, Town Planning Committee, Kochi Corporation.