Delhi can make cycle-sharing work; heat, air pollution are just excuses
NEW DELHI: From Marrakech in
Morocco to Medellín in Colombia,
success stories have proved that
excuses of extreme summer heat
and air pollution don’t wash when
it comes to running urban cycling
systems.
What Delhi is lacking is a political
will to implement a public bike-
sharing system and a master plan
with clearly defined objectives and
infrastructure to meet these.
Luca Lo Re and Ivan Delalanza of
the World Resources Institute, both
researching PBS systems across
the world, were in Delhi to discuss
their findings at the recently con-
cluded ConnectKaro, WRI’s annu-
al conference. The event was also
attended by several bike operators
from Bhopal, Mysore, Pune and
other cities where both docked and
dockless systems are being imple-
mented. What Delhi lacks, accord-
ing to WRI experts, is a bicycle
master plan that can be integrated
with its public transport network.
Having a PBS on its own just, so
that people can ride for leisure,
will not be successful. They also
4
observed that Delhi should first lay
down what kind of a modal shift it
expected from PBS.
First- and last-mile connectivity
Luca cited a research study by
King’s College, London, which
concluded that people in Delhi
should cycle for more than five
hours a week for the pollution risks
to outweigh health benefits. Short
cycling trips will not help. “Cities
with hot weather conditions, such
as Medellin, Marrakech and Dubai
already have bike-sharing sys-
tems in place, coupled with other
programmes to promote urban cy-
cling. Statistics show that people
in these cities generally plan their
bike trips early in the morning and
in the late afternoons to avoid heat
peaks. On the other hand, statistics
from cities that have colder and
wetter weather patterns, such as
Copenhagen (Denmark) and Am-
sterdam (the Netherlands), have
also shown that people cycle even
when it’s raining and cold. Pro-
vided there’s a safe urban cycling
infrastructure, it is just a matter of
(good) habits, will and ability to
choose the right gears to face the
weather conditions,” Luca said.
Safe PBS infrastructure
Luca and Ivan feel that the Delhi
Integrated Multi-Modal Transit
System (DIMTS), along the BRT
corridor, may not have taken off
because people were not confident
about safety and bicycling infra-
structure. “The density of PBS
stations may not be enough too.
It’s a natural reaction of people to
give up if they