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Why building elevated cycle tracks won't make Delhi roads safe

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Amit Bhatt
Amit BhattMay 03, 2016 | 11:52

Why building elevated cycle tracks won't make Delhi roads safe

The Kejriwal government first needs to understand how such a plan will impact the capital's cyclists.

India's first attempt at vehicle restriction, the much-debated odd-even scheme, has highlighted the link between transport and air pollution, and that the rising use of private vehicles can never be a sustainable option for urban transport.

While the jury is still out on the success of this initiative, high compliance rates suggest that if provided with safe and convenient options, people will take to public transport. The Delhi government is perfectly poised to raise the level of the urban transport debate, and transform Delhi's notorious car-centric culture into one that is more sustainable.

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Facilities

First, there is an urgent need to increase public bus ridership by at least 2.5 times over the next five years. The government's announcement to have 10,000 buses in Delhi is, therefore, a welcome and timely move.

Second, the city needs to preserve and increase the share of walking and cycling, which has been on a steady decline over past few decades. In 1957, Delhi's cyclists accounted for 36 per cent of trips - the highest amongst all modes. In 2008, the share was a mere four per cent. The biggest reason for this decline is lack of road safety. While much needs to be done to improve safety and encourage more people to cycle, the government's intention of building elevated cycle tracks needs to be questioned.

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The proposed plan for an elevated cycle track would not meet the needs of any of the three categories. 

Before going into the pros and cons of such a plan, we first need to understand who Delhi's cyclists are. Broadly, they fall into two categories. The first is the daily commuter cyclist - people who cycle to their places of work; a majority of whom are solely dependent on their cycles to travel around as they can't afford any other mode.

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The second is the recreational cyclist - people who cycle early mornings, or on weekends, and do long-distance rides on their customised bikes with lights, helmets, and other safety gadgets, who easily do over 100km at a stretch.

I belong to both of these groups. I cycle to work once a week, and cycle recreationally on weekends, sometimes up to 400km. There could be a third category, the tourist cyclist - people who visit the city, and would be happy to use cycles to move around and see the city, but can't owing to the lack of facilities.

When I travel abroad and facilities are available, I always use the public cycling system for commute and recreation. This is the best way to see a new city. Each of these groups has differing needs. While the minimum requirement for all cyclists, especially the daily commuter, is safe road infrastructure, recreational cyclists who ride in excess of 25kmph need long stretches of roads, for example, NH8, or the Noida Expressway.

Tourists don't own cycles, and need bicycle sharing systems connected to key activity nodes in the city like markets, historical places, hotels and restaurants.

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Proposal

The proposed plan for an elevated cycle track would not meet the needs of any of the three categories. The 10-12km segment would be too short for recreational cyclists, too small a network and unconnected for tourists, and the limited entry and exit points would make it too cumbersome for the daily commuter.

Such tracks, however, are not a new concept. In fact, one such elevated track, the California Cycleway in Pasadena, was built in the 1900s with similar intentions - providing a point-to-point route from Pasadena to Los Angeles. This lasted for a few years, and ended up being dismantled and sold as scrap.

Another example is the 19km-network of elevated cycle paths proposed by architect Norman Foster above London's train tracks. This idea garnered criticism from several quarters as it was said the track would segregate and thereby isolate cyclists from the street level, and was priced at $365 million for the initial 6.5-km-trial-stretch. The Rio Cycle that cost $12.6 million collapsed when it was hit by a huge sea wave, killing two people.

Examples

One of the few successful examples of elevated cycle tracks is Copenhagen's Cykelslangen, or "cycle snake", completed in 2014. It is a 235m-long track winding over the harbour above a busy waterfront shopping area, at a cost of $5.74 million.

This route connects the Bryggebroen pedestrian-and-cycle bridge to other parts of the city beyond the waterfront. The plan targeted a specific problem area, forming a missing link that earlier forced cyclists to use the stairs or make a huge detour around the shopping centre.

As we can see from examples around the world, building elevated cycle tracks have failed if they were built in isolation rather than to provide connectivity to a larger network. What Delhi needs is safe infrastructure at-grade for cyclists in the city via a network of dedicated tracks.

Intersections like those at AIIMS, Dhaula Kuan and others that are nightmares for cyclists need to be redesigned accordingly. Parking continues to be a huge problem for cyclists. Public buildings, Metro stations, and streets should have dedicated, safe parking facilities if we are to increase modal share.

Therefore, while Delhi does need to promote cycling, we need to recycle the existing infrastructure, and make it safer, before investing in new, expensive highways that are likely to fail.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: June 02, 2018 | 14:19
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