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Monday Musings: Put in every effort to make Pune Bicycle Plan work
Very clearly, Aundh smart city cycle lane needs barricades to protect cyclists
At the outset let me say that everyone associated with the Pune Bicycle Plan- from the Ministry of Urban Affairs down to Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar, the project consultants and executors- need our fullest support.
As reported by Hindustan Times on September 13, the Bicycle Plan (https://punecycleplan.wordpress.com/) is a massive project of an estimated ₹300 crore to create cycle tracks and cycle lanes, neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood across Pune. A consortium of professional consultants and citizen-activists such as Sanskriti Menon (Centre for Environment Education) and Ranjit Gadgil (Parisar) are closely associated with this project.
Unlike in the past when the PMC undertook massive cycle track projects in various parts of the city, this time around, there is greater citizen participation in the project. Look at the project plan on the website and you’ll realise that it is ambitious and massive as it aspires to cover the entire city with cycle tracks and cycle lanes. The objective is to enable citizens to cycle short distances of 5-km to 7-km in their neighbourhoods - or, longer distances, across the city.
The plan looks good on paper but can also be easily trashed in minutes, especially because previous cycle track projects in the city have been still-born and have wasted public funds by the crores of rupees. But, if you take a positive view, there’s a lot of good that this project can do for the city and for citizens.
Agreed that cycling won’t be easy in the denser parts of the city, on the busiest roads, or in areas where the roads are very narrow. But in many other parts, away from the city core, cycling on well-protected cycle lanes would not be difficult at all. None can contest that cycling is good for health, especially in this day and age of widespread lifestyle diseases. Further, Pune stands blessed by the fact that cycling has been a glorious tradition of this city, till it was killed and snuffed out by thoughtless politicians and civic planners.
Look at the Pune Bicycle Plan as an opportunity to revive cycling in the city. Individuals and groups such as cycling clubs in support, need to make their support known publicly through social media or better still, through support rallies and cycling events.
Having said all of us, let us now look at the first of the spanking new cycle lanes that has come up on the smart city road from Bremen Circle to Parihar chowk in Aundh. When the Hindustan Times photographer brought in pictures of blatant encroachment of the red coloured lane just two days ago, a sense of déjà vu sank in.
Here were early signs that this cycle lane is headed for failure. There is just a red patch running along the length of the Aundh road, with no barricades to prevent encroachment on this lane by sundry vehicles. This is what killed cycle tracks in the past and here is live demonstration of it happening again.
India is not Europe and Pune is not Berlin where cyclists and their safety will be given priority by other motorists. All the more reason why barricades are necessary to segregate cycle tracks especially on narrow roads, such as the one in Aundh.
abhay.vaidya@hindustantimes.com