Mumbai: Six cyclists to ride on city roads for equal rights

Always ignored and literally 'pushed to a corner' on the road's of the city, six cyclists will pedal around the city with a replica of a car seeking equal rights, respect and space on the roads on Friday as part of Road Safety Awareness.

This initiative is being made by Firoza Suresh, an avid cyclist and Founder of the Smart Commute Foundation in association with the Mumbai Traffic Police, as well as a leading cycle manufacturing company.

"The number of cyclists in the city is increasing rapidly and so is the number of people who are now opting to ride to their place of work. For the first time in several decades the Mumbai Traffic Police is vocally talking about the safety of cyclists and is including this growing community into their road safety awareness programme but, the problem is that there is hardly any respect or concern for the cyclists or their safety by fellow road users," said Firoza adding that there have been several instances of cyclists getting hit by cars in the recent past and with this campaign they wanted to sensitise automobile drivers and urge them to share the road equally with not only cyclist but pedestrians too.

As part of the campaign, the six cyclists will be divided into a group of two and will be riding with a replica of an actual car navigating along with moving traffic along south Mumbai, western suburbs and eastern suburbs thus covering the entire city. "The campaign will run for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening and will be flagged off by Amitesh Kumar, Joint Commissioner, Traffic from Mumbai Traffic Police Headquarters at Worli on Friday 9am," stated Firoza.