Cyclists in Bengaluru gathered in front of the State Central Library in the Cubbon Park area on Sunday to appeal to motorists to keep cyclists safe on the city’s roads, ahead ofWorld Bicycle Day on Monday.
The campaign, led by Citizens for Sustainability (CiFOS) and the Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru Sathya Sankaran, also kicked off a year-long campaign that aims to spread the message of safety and push for better facilities for cyclists in the city.
“While infrastructure and good design can solve the problem to a certain extent, attitudes of people and the culture of sharing our roads is a mindset issue. This is why we are here calling for a change in the driving culture to make equity on streets a reality,” Sathya said, speaking at the event.
During the year-long campaign, CiFOS will hold discussions with bus and cab operators to sensitise them about keeping cyclists and pedestrians safe. This will include programmes for BMTC bus drivers as well as Ola and Uber cab drivers.
Bengaluru civic officials also took part in the event and reiterated the need for the city to be turned into a bicycle-friendly city along the lines of Amsterdam. “We have provided more than Rs 80 crore in this budget for bicycle lanes and more than Rs 200 crore for improving footpaths to ensure the city is walkable and bicycle-friendly,” Mahendra Jain, Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Development Department, said. He further added that cycle lanes will be built on white topped roads to add to the earlier plan of building cycle lanes in over 100 km of roads in the city.
In a bid to encourage cyclists, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had earlier drawn up a detailed plan to build cycle lanes in roads connecting metro stations from Baiyappanahalli to MG Road on the purple line of the metro, areas in Whitefield, and a portion of the Outer Ring Road. This is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.
A group of organisations including CiFOS are also building a database of working professionals in the city cycling to work. Qualcomm, Bosch and Cisco were honoured at the event for encouraging cycling among its employees. This campaign will also be extended to new offices in the city next year.