But if you take a closer look at our city backyard, you'll find that it's not just the famed dabawallas who are taking to the streets on their bicycles.
Ask Mumbai's small but growing band of cyclists who have bid adieu to their cars and motorbikes
It's easy to dismiss images of famous and important personalities like the French President Nicholas Sarkozy perched atop a bicycle — which our newspapers and magazines carry with unfailing regularity — as yet another Western fad. But if you take a closer look at our city backyard, you'll find that it's not just the famed dabawallas who are taking to the streets on their bicycles. The city's cyclists are trying to reclaim road space and respect.
Anoop Rajan, 24, decided to forgo his "need for speed" urge when he sold his motorbike and opted to cycle to work every day. The move was dictated by his green conscious that pricked every time he revved up his bike. "I felt guilty inside. I didn't want to go around polluting the air. So, I got myself a Firefox cycle," he says. Rajan spends more time travelling, but the satisfaction of pedalling his man-powered vehicle from Malad to Andheri and back goes beyond time schedules.
Actively fighting for cycling rights, Sheetal Ratwani has started a community for Mumbai's cyclists on the social networking site, Facebook. Impressed by the extensive use of bicycles in Paris, Sheetal wants Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to create separate lanes and signals for cyclists in the city.
"In France, the president himself encourages cycling. He has arranged for bicycles that can be picked up for as little as 1 Euro a day from any of the parked bicycle stations." She goes on to describe how Paris has special small lanes and small signals (just below the signals for other vehicular traffic) on both sides of the road only for bicycles. "It is convenient as cycles can be picked up from any of the stations and can be even docked back at any of the stations. Plus, you never have to face traffic because of the separate lanes," she says. She's hoping to get the government to initiate a similar system here.
But the fight for cycling rights is not a new movement and started a few years ago when a group of 25 cyclists went pedalling around the Azad Maidan, Fort and Marine Drive areas to be part of the International Critical Mass Movement. They called themselves MumBikers and cycled together to spread the importance of going green.
With civic authorities sidelining cyclists when it comes to infrastructure, Paul D'Souza, secretary of the Amateur Cycling Association of Bombay Suburban District feels that Mumbai does not have any infrastructure in place for cyclists. "We used to train children and professional cyclists at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Worli, but after it was demolished for redevelopment, we lost another track," he says.
And it's a loss many cyclists are still ruing. Cycling champion Rajendra Soni, 36, can only dream of participating in the Tour de France. The only cycling stretch that Soni can practise on is the 10-km long Palm Beach Road, which is known as the Marine Drive of Navi Mumbai.
But with more and more cyclists taking to the road, this small but growing group, believe that a change for the better is at hand.
m_irani@dnaindia.net
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