Pune could well be called the Cycle City again

This city has more bicycles than cars and a lesson for India 

Here is a lesson Indian citizens and authorities must learn for a better present and a sustainable future.

At a time when people living in all major cities of India are suffering traffic jams and heavy vehicular pollution on a daily basis, here is a lesson Indian citizens and authorities must learn for a better present and a sustainable future. The traffic congestion problem in Indian cities cannot be solved merely by constructing new roads or flyovers, for the number of vehicles continue to rise along with the rising income of people.
Being the second most populated country in the world, India would have to have to promote alternative, less polluting means of transport, especially for travelling short distances. Bicycles are the best means of transport in this regard. India needs to build infrastructure to make Indian city roads bike-friendly and the country can learn a lot from Copenhagen, which beat Amsterdam to become the world’s most bike-friendly city last year.

What is pleasantly surprising is the fact that more people are now using bicycles to enter Copenhagen city than those by cars. An article on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website quotes bi-annual Copenhagenize Index as revealing that 265,700 bikes entered Copenhagen in the last one year, while the number of cars entering the city during this period was 252,600. This is for the first time when the number of bikes entering Copenhagen has become more than cars since the city authorities started counting in 1970.
The change had been possible because of several factors. Not only people adopted bikes as their most preferred mode of transport, there has also been $143 million investment to make the city more bike-friendly. According to WEF, 56% of people living in the city use their own bicycles, while 20% rely on public transport. Only 14% people drive cars daily.
Not only Copenhagen, there are several other cities where people have accepted bikes as their most preferred mode of transport. According to the Copenhagenize Index, the city is followed by Amsterdam, Utrecht, Strasbourg and Eindhoven in the top five most bike-friendly cities. Some popular cities in the top 20 are Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Vienna, Paris and Montreal.
It is ironic that no such attempt has been made in India to promote bicycles. Maybe it is time both people and authorities should start doing this to fight vehicular pollution and traffic congestion.
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