Engineering The Cycling Culture in India
Before you start reading, let me ask this question.
When was the last you cycled?
A week ago? A month ago? A year ago? More than 10 years ago? Hold your answers.
Now, read this.
This is the question I usually ask while addressing the audience in events and not to everyone’s surprise, there are only a handful of raised hands on the first option- A week ago and most hands raised on the last one- 10 years ago!
Because who cycles these days?!
We got activa or motorbikes during our higher secondary days or at max colleges days. Later, we escalate ourselves to buying a car as this is the sign of our “success” in societal terms. And then the vicious circle starts, compromising our health and the health of the city.
Cycling made a comeback in my life as a whip of fresh air at the time when city roads are infested with vehicles, rising pollution and congestion level.
Gruelling in the Engineering College
I did my engineering from SVNIT in Electronics & communication field. I studied religiously in my first semester and scored 9.2 GPA. And that was it. I started exploring everything in the college from Entrumeet, Freshers event, Mindbend, Techfest, Joyfest, NCC B & C certificates(those NCC training camps I attended were the most memorable ones and more so because I made lifelong friends there), IIT B Techfest Robotics, Environment Secretary for Hostel, Mess Secretary and many more.
They say that you get gruelled in Engineering College. I tried many things and after that, I realized that I get joy in creating things, be it embedded circuit boards in Robotics or participating or convening Joyfest for 3 years or creating new campaign ideas for issues and causes or managing people in Teams or Hostel, except writing codes(wait for it…).
But as the time came, I took up a job to use my engineering learnings to achieve those societal milestones. A job at German MNC as an Instrumentation & Controls Engineer over any higher education. Electronics field didn’t have much core jobs at that time in India and people ended up with IT jobs and rest went for MBA or masters to get core jobs outside, some people like me, got core jobs but in Instrumentation ( which had hardly anything related to core electronics that we studied).
But life had something else for me in the store.
Gratitude to that flyover-in-making
A flyover-in-making changed my outlook towards life. That flyover made me take the road less taken!
During the first year of my job, I walked to my office which was nearby. In the second year, I was planning to buy a two-wheeler and meanwhile was using auto-rickshaws, friends car or two-wheeler to go to the office and then there was a flyover-in-making on my way to work which made all the trips taking more than 20 minutes for 4 km of commute by all the above modes. It was 2014, I planned to cycle to work and borrowed one from my friend and that made my commute time less than 15 minutes and direct benefits included healthier, happier and productive me. The same road, the same street looked different with so much life happening on it. I saved money for gyms, money for a new vehicle and monthly fuel and most importantly saved time and saved the environment in some way.
Finally, I bought my own bicycle after 2 weeks and then it all started. And to my utter surprise, it created a ripple effect in my office. Half a dozen of my colleagues got cycles in just a couple of months. And more than 50 others wanted to cycle but they had their own inhibitions and excuses.
That was an “outlier” moment for me as at that time everyone in my MNC office was buying fancy motorbikes and cars and I was cycling. From the company’s security guard to family members all would say- why are you cycling, you work in such a big company?. It was not easy to convince them so I simply used to smile and peddle away.
Germination of Cycling Cities Movement
While cycling to work and for my various trips for errands I used to see a good number of people on cycles and I realised that there were many “invisible cyclists” who commute daily but they have been pushed to the edges struggling with obstacles & encroachments. Unfortunately, our cities prioritize cars over people. Sad, but true.
I also joined cycling clubs in my city, went on a few weekend rides with them for recreation (because you know what dry state has to offer :-P ). On rides, almost everyone was on a fancy cycle with all the gears, helmets, lycra clothing and some of them even got their cycles in the car to the start point and then cycled from there. And all this made me think why is cycle either a fitness means (new golf) or a poor man’s vehicle?
A work trip to Germany also added to the thought process that cycles in Europe are conveniently used for short trips, solo trips and in combination with public transport. They cycle because it is fast and fun unlike popular belief for the environment. There is no social stigma attached to it and cycling infrastructure is also adding to the accelerated bicycle usage and adoption. I came back and started working on “Cycling Cities” as a movement to bring back cycling culture in Indian cities through a mix of technology, nudging and activation on the ground.
It started with an idea to create a platform to solve the immediate queries people have to adopt cycling in their lifestyle- Why cycle? Know your cycle? Which cycle to buy? Try a cycle? Where to buy a cycle? Buy and sell used cycles? News & events around cycling with motivational stories to give that final nudge to people to pick upcycling.
In nutshell, a city’s livability conditions depend on the quality of good walk, cycle, public transport and public parks.
What did it take to make CYCLING CITIES into reality?
They say initiating is the most difficult thing but in my case, it was the opposite. It started with ease and the difficulties grew bigger as I moved ahead. Cycling was the easiest part but building the mass movement & a tech-enabled platform around it was challenging.
The vision was set right- to get more people to cycle and make them part of this journey in increasing ridership where 1/3rd of all trips are done by bicycle.
With a committed team, Cycling Cities covered a lot of ground in terms of initiatives at the city level. The major ones and the impact it created-
TRING (TRy CyclING) Pilot project in 2016 at Linde Engineering, German MNC to involve professionals in cycling for fitness and for cycle to work.
Gift a Cycle where people donated their used cycles which were refurbished by Cycling Cities and were donated to needy students.
Baroda By Cycle Heritage cycle rides were conducted for three years in the cultural city of Baroda on various occasions of World Heritage Days and Sundays.
Ride in Cinema — First World Cycle Day first World Cycle Day declared by the United Nations on 3 June 2018 with the first of its kind Ride in Cinema to watch “Cycle” Marathi movie open-air with support from ONGC Vadodara.
Special Rides for Community building Corporate Cycle Ride, Food Rides, Mango Farm Rides, Baroda Rides for Cycle Tracks , Republic Day, Independence Day Bicycle Parades to talk about cycling safety and demand for cycling constitution and many other seasonal rides
Launch of Pilot Cycling Cities Mobile App Mobile App was launched during the Car Free September Campaign in 2018.
Becoming 1st Bicycle Mayor of India representing Vadodara
For all my 2 years of efforts on the ground , in May 2017 I was appointed as a Bicycle Mayor of Baroda, the First Bicycle Mayor from India by ‘BYCS’ an Amsterdam based NGO whose mission is to increase cycling ridership across the world. They are running this Bicycle Mayor Leadership Program with a goal to have ‘Worlds 50% of commute on a bicycle by the year 2030.
I was also invited to the Netherlands for First Bicycle Mayor & Leadership summit and then in 2018 was invited as Speaker to world’s largest cycling conference in Brazil and then to Australia for Australian Walking & Cycling Conference.
Engineering a business idea.
After almost seven years of a corporate job, I have finally taken the plunge to pursue my passion for creating a dedicated platform for cyclists. Cycling Cities, a fitness app to accelerate cycling by rewarding every kilometre of cyclists & building & nurturing the cycling ecosystem.
I believe in addition to the social marketing of cycling, technology can be a stronger enabler in bringing cycling to the mainstream for short commutes. More often we see people take up cycling and after a few months they switch off, but with the app, we manage to keep them engaged as a long term approach. We made a beta testing app in Sept 2018 and it clocked 5lakh+ kilometres and many users redeemed the CC coins at nearby cafes and stores.
We are now working on MVP of the app with various other social and hygiene features other than incentivizing cyclists. It will bring all the stakeholders on a common platform like cyclists, cycling clubs, cycle shops, government, smart cities mission, brands and businesses for a common goal of making Cycling Cities a reality.
Never shy away from taking a road less travelled! Journey matters, not the destination alone.
We are also forming a team and also looking for some enterprising developers (you saw above that I am really poor at coding :-D )and what best to work with alumni of the same institute. To connect and be part of it, follow us on :
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About the Author: Nikita Lalwani founder of Cycling Cities and First Bicycle Mayor of India. She cycles to work and works on making cities friendly for cyclists.
