For everyone’s sake, make cycling safe

Rahul Bedi

The death of information technology wizard and avid bicyclist Avtar Singh Saini after being hit by a speeding taxi as he biked in Navi Mumbai last week came as a personal blow. The hit-and-run case brought home once more the vulnerabilities and inherent dangers bicyclists face.

As an ardent cyclist for more than two decades — pedalling 35-40 km in Delhi and Chandigarh daily — I am well aware that all bikers run this formidable risk at all times, be it from two-wheelers, tempos, cars, buses or trucks. Conversely, many drivers consider cyclists irksome irritants, treating them little better than dispensable entities.

In the absence of any cycle-friendly infrastructure across the country, like dedicated lanes, bicyclists remain vulnerable even whilst riding in extreme left lanes. Vehicles invariably give them little or no quarter to manoeuvre, or even honk to alert bikers to their menacing presence, often with disastrous consequences.

Even when roads are relatively traffic-free, like during early mornings, the risk of cyclists being hit remains high, as some vehicle drivers travel on the wrong side and finding the streets deserted and unpoliced, also tend to overspeed. During these early hours, they rarely stop at red signals, further endangering unprotected and defenceless cyclists, who have to be dexterous and alert at all times to dodge even a glancing blow, which can be fatal.

The manner of Saini’s sudden death only reinforces the startling findings of a recent study by the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi that the per-kilometre ‘fatality risk’ for cyclists in the federal capital was 40 times higher than for car occupants. A multiplicity of cycling experts and road traffic analysts, however, concurred that these alarming odds were broadly analogous to most, if not all, Indian cities, where the exponential and unchecked growth of vehicular traffic had largely rendered bicycle riding across urban India akin to playing the Russian roulette.

The latest official statistics of cyclist fatalities, numbering 961 across India in 2021, led to widespread disbelief, with a cross-section of cycling professionals and enthusiasts expressing scepticism over such low recorded numbers. Based just on anecdotal accounts, they collectively asserted, the number of cyclists killed by speeding vehicles across India was ‘markedly and significantly’ higher.

Besides, numerous cyclist accidents, like Saini’s, on highways and smaller roads in urban areas either remain unreported or often go unrecorded by the local police.

Instances of cyclists getting killed or injured in accidents, it seems, are too trivial to merit police investigation. It took a celebrity biker like Saini to be killed to flag this stark shortcoming and intrude on public consciousness.

But in all this overarching bicycling gloom, Chandigarh justifiably stands out as India’s most biker-friendly city, with more than 200 km of dedicated cycling tracks, which are continually being extended. This unique phenomenon of earmarked, smooth and wide cycling pathways — on which motorised vehicles rarely, if ever, stray — is being duplicated across the adjacent townships of Panchkula and Mohali. With deft navigation, it’s possible to safely crisscross long distances between these tri-cities unencumbered by traffic, even during rush hours.

Besides, unbeknownst to many city residents, Chandigarh also has a designated band of traffic policemen whose sole task is to regulate vehicular traffic for cyclists at busy intersections during rush hours.

According to the Global Bicycle Index, formulated by the Paris-based Luko digital insurance company, nine European cities topped the list of the world’s 90 bike-friendly places. Configured on six indicators — the weather, bicycle usage, crime and safety, biking infrastructure, cycle sharing opportunities and awareness events — Utrecht in the Netherlands headed the top 10 list. It was followed by Munster, Bremen and Hannover (Germany), Antwerp (Belgium), Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Bern (Switzerland) and Malmo (Sweden). The only non-European city in this index was Hangzhou in China; around a third of its 12.52 million residents are bikers.

Tokyo surprisingly was ranked 24, while the only US city to be featured in the list of 90 cycle-friendly places was San Francisco, placed at a lowly 39.

Cycling’s burgeoning popularity as a recreational activity across India, especially during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, remains in inverse proportion to incorporating measures to render it safe. After all, as the aphorism goes, biking is a part of the future, as there is something wrong with a society that drives a car to go to a gym. Or, as the Irish writer Iris Murdoch rightly declared, the bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to man, as other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart, she said. For everyone’s sake, let’s all try making cycling safe.

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