Car-free Tuesday sees lesser number of vehicles on Gurgaon roads

Ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa and joint commissioner of police Saurabh Singh led a cycle rally on Tuesday from Huda City Centre Metro station to Golf Course Road, with at least 50 other cyclists, to promote car-free day in Gurgaon

Ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa and joint commissioner of police Saurabh Singh led a cycle rally on Tuesday from Huda City Centre Metro station to Golf Course Road, with at least 50 other cyclists, to promote car-free day in Gurgaon.

Joint commissioner of police Saurabh Singh and golfer Jyoti Randhawa in Gurgaon on Tuesday to promote car-free day. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The rally began at 8 am from the metro station and crossed Shiv Nadar School where children were made aware of using other modes of transport like school buses and carpooling. They were encouraged to speak to their parents to reduce the use of personal vehicles. Several schools are getting actively associated with the car-free day initiative, asking students to use school buses or carpools.

“Schools can help the most in bringing down the number of vehicles plying on streets. Most schools have an extensive bus network and can encourage students to use them instead of using personal cars and causing congestion outside schools,” said Saurabh Singh, JCP (traffic). He added that each car that drops a single child can save four trips every day-two while coming and going to drop the child and two while picking up.

After halting at the school, the cycle rally moved to Genpact along the Golf Course Road where a cycle stand was inaugurated. Supporters also signed a pledge at the American Express building supporting the car-free movement.

Meanwhile, vehicular movement remained smooth on all four identified roads. Car-free day is observed every Tuesday on four IT corridors — Netaji Subhash Marg, Electronic City in Udyog Vihar, Golf Course Road and Cyber City. This Tuesday was also a government holiday on account of Valmiki Jayanti.

Major junctions such as Subhash Chowk and Shankar Chowk that are usually congested, even on car-free Tuesdays, saw less traffic.

On-street parking was also strictly regulated and cars parked on roads were towed away. The road in Udyog Vihar and near Unitech Cyber Park remained desolate as no cars were parked along pavements.

Auto drivers, however, had to be monitored since most drove on the temporary cycle tracks made for cyclists. Urban planners have suggested making these tracks permanent and penalising offenders, including autorickshaw drivers and anyone else driving motor vehicles on tracks designated for cycles.