Back to Basics: Why Every Student and Professor Should
Ride a Bicycle on a University Campus
If you happen to visit Paris next time, try cycling
across the Paris city using the bicycles offered by Velib, an initiative run by
Paris Town Hall since 2007. This is a big bicycle sharing facility in the world
with 20,000 bicycles at your service 24/7. You can move around the entire Paris
city with bicycles available in 1800 bicycle stations at every 300 meter
distance [1]. With growing vehicular congestion, rising fuel costs and choking
pollution, sapiens are now increasingly drawn to the good wheels. There are
many cities in the world which are bicycle friendly such as Amsterdam,
Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris in Europe and Boulder, Chicago, Davis,
Ottawa, Portland, San Francisco in North America, Beijing in Asia, Cape Town,
Bogota and Perth in Australia [2].
London city in the United Kingdom has implemented a
bicycle sharing scheme known as Barclays Cycle Hire or BCH in 2010. In 2012,
BCH had about 8000 bicycles with 570 docking stations [3]. Barcelona?s new
transport system, known as Bicing has more than 400 bike stations placed
strategically near bus stops and metro stations [4]. Many North American cities
are actively promoting increased use of bicycles as an alternative mode of
transportation through large public campaigns and by investing in bicycle
infrastructure and bicycle sharing programs [5]. In Munster, a German town with
a population of 273,000, people use bicycles more often (37.8%) than cars
(36.4%) as the main mode of transportation [6].
Despite the fact that the world is rediscovering the
wheels without fuel, India seems to be going the other way ? the automobile
style. The economic survey of Delhi (2012-2013) tells us a disturbing trend ?
the number of households in Delhi owning a bicycle has come down from 37.6 % in
2001 to 30.6 % in 2011 [7]. This is either because India is advancing
economically letting more people to own motorized vehicles or Indian roads are
becoming notoriously the least safe places to ride any vehicle, leave alone bicycles.
Safety of bicyclists is of no concern to the road planners in India anyway
[8,9] and that perhaps acts as the biggest deterrent to the people to ?hit? the
road on their bicycles.
Not hearsay ? It is scientific:
While you do not have to be a rocket scientist to realize
that using bicycles for transport in place of fuel based vehicles has vast
benefits in terms of health and environment, there are indeed systematic
scientific studies to quantify such paybacks. A contemporary scrutiny in New Zealand
using the data available in the urban settings shows that a mere shift of 5% of
the distance travelled by vehicles to bicycling would lead to a reduction of
approximately 223 million kilometers travelled by vehicles each year. This can
result in a saving of about 22 million liters of fuel and therefore a reduction
in the transport-related greenhouse emissions [10].
A number of investigations also confirm the individual
and population-level health benefits of using bicycles. A recent analysis of
Swedish children, conducted over a period of 6 years, has shown that those who
used bicycles to commute to the school have improved their cardiorespiratory
fitness more than those using passive modes of commuting including walking
[11]. Bicycling has also been shown to reduce the cardiometabolic risk factors
leading to a potential prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus and
cardiovascular disease (CVD) [12]. Bicycling leads to less weight gain
particularly among overweight and obese women [13].
But where are the safe roads for bicycle riders?
A study of bicyclists in the Portland, Oregon
metropolitan area has shown that well-connected neighbourhood streets and
bicycle specific infrastructure have encouraged more adults to bicycling for
utilitarian purposes [14]. Safe roads are, therefore, an essential
pre-requisite for popularizing bicycle usage. Changing the Indian road
landscape to make them bicycle friendly is not in our hands as individual
citizens. The best we could do is to create awareness and bring pressure on the
policy makers to act. Like many other peaceful public campaigns or agitations,
we never know how long it would take for public pressure to succeed in bringing
such changes to make the Indian road bicycle friendly. We, however, cannot keep
waiting eternally. But, as individuals and small communities consisting of
students, staff and faculty in Universities and higher educational institutes,
can we do something to bring the bicycling back into our lives?
If you leave out the treacherous Indian roads and
highways, are there any safe roads in India where we can use bicycles for short
distance transport? Luckily, the answer is yes. The best places to start such
initiatives could be the campuses of Indian universities and higher educational
institutes where a large population of students, staff and faculty live and
commute on campus. Why not make a beginning on these campuses and showcase it
as a model to emulate by the rest of the society? There are many North American
universities which have successfully implemented campus bicycle sharing
programs [15] and they compete with each other in promoting such programs.
What about accidents even on campus roads?
Road users in India excel in disregarding the traffic
rules. Even bicycle riders need to respect the road rules! Cyclists are
frequently prone to accidents, particularly if they are seen as a minority on
the roads jostling for space. Most accidents involving bicyclists occur at the
road intersections. However, there is now strong empirical evidence to show
that the chances of a bicyclist involving in a collision with a motor vehicle
are inversely proportional to the number of people bicycling on the roads ? a
pattern that has been shown to be consistent across the cities and countries
around the world [16]. Motorists adjust their behaviour and reduce their
vehicle?s speed when they see a large number of people bicycling on the roads
[17]. This is another reason why more people should be using the bicycles on
their campuses.
Are there any Indian initiatives?
Unlike in the American universities, which are rated for
their pro-active bicycle sharing programs by the League of American Bicyclists
[15], campus bicycle initiatives are not yet popular in Indian educational
institutes. An interesting initiative in Bangalore city called ?Namma Cycle? is
worth to take notice of by all the educational institutes with large
populations on their campuses [18]. The objective of the Namma Cycle concept is
to raise public awareness about environmental friendly transport options for
easy connectivity. In Kannada language, ?namma? means ours. In the place of ?my
bicycle? or ?your bicycle?, the ?our bicycle? concept is expected to encourage
the idea of community sharing and community ownership of bicycles. Indian Institute
of Science (IISc), Bangalore is the first top Indian educational institute
which has adopted the Namma Cycle model with a modest beginning of 150 bicycles
and four bicycle stations. IISc plans to soon scale up this experiment by a
dding additional
bicycles and bicycle stations. We need more such examples. Student-led bicycle
initiatives are bound to succeed since they are in a majority on any campus.
We have no road space in our campus. What can we do?
Existing campuses may not have enough road space to
create dedicated bicycle specific tracks and it is easy to brush away any
suggestions for introducing bicycle initiatives claiming it is too difficult to
implement. In such cases, there are other options available such as ?sharrows?
or shared lane markings to provide guidance to both the bicyclist and motorist
by means of signage painted on the road. Sharrows will also minimize the
wrong-way of bicycling by encouraging the bicyclists to confine themselves to
the shared part of the road. The sharrows are often colored, like in the
Stanford University, to alert the motorists that they are expected to share the
road with the bicyclists. Creation of a combination of (i) sharrows on narrow
roads, (ii) contiguous bicycle specific tracks on wider roads, (iii) safe
intersections or round-abouts to minimize conflicts between bicyclists and
motorists, (iv) secure bicycle parking spaces to minimize thefts, (v)
appropriate road safety s
ignage and (vi)
24/7 bicycle repair stands should still be a possibility in old campuses.
Remember that Amsterdam did not have a bicycle initiative before 1970?s and
commuters used only motorized vehicles. However, a sustained effort by the
policy makers and the commuters has now resulted in making the city a
bicyclist?s paradise in the world.
When we build new educational campuses, the regulatory
authorities should make it mandatory for the Universities to create the best
bicycle infrastructure including dedicated bicycle paths and vehicle free zones
where only bicycling or walking is permitted. Appropriate laws and policies
should be in place to prevent any new higher educational institute from
building their campus without such a commitment.
Proactive measures are the key:
The perceived opinion of others about you using a bicycle
does not really affect your decision to use a bicycle. The factors that
influence the use of a bicycle depend on awareness, direct trip-based benefits
and safety factors [19]. To create public awareness on the usefulness of
bicycle usage, electronic media and newspapers should encourage such efforts by
giving a wide publicity. Bicycle manufacturers, cycling communities and
administrators of the University campuses should join hands in bringing the bicycles
back to the center-stage by creating bicycle friendly campus transport
infrastructure.
Proactive support from administrators of educational
institutes would play an important role in encouraging bicycling. They need to
work out policies which support and sustain bicycle infrastructure, road usage
planning and restrictions on motorized vehicle usage. They need to study fresh
ideas, examine alternate options suitable for the specific needs of their
campuses and implement them to increase the bicycle usage. Many studies have
shown a close link between proactive interventions by the administrators and
increased usage of bicycles [20]. The bicycle is no longer only for the poor
who cannot afford to have an automobile. It is a must possession for everyone
in a futuristic 21st century which will see a sizeable proportion of the world
population living in congested cities.
What are you waiting for?
If you are a campus living lucky person, stash away your
car keys in the cupboard or avoid using the campus bus transport and leap onto
your bicycle. Ride your bicycle with the conviction that you are bettering
yourself and the planet that sustains you. Get started. Do it today. There is
no time to hold your fire for tomorrow.
REFERENCES:
5. J. Strauss, L. M.-Moreno, D. Crouse, M. S. Goldberg,
N. A. Ross and M. Hatzopoulou, ?Investigating the link between cyclist volumes
and air pollution along bicycle facilities in a dense urban core,?
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol.17, pp.619-625,
December 2012.
6. C. Juhra, B. Wieskotter, K. Chu, L. Trost, U. Weiss,
M. Messerschmidt, A. Malczyk, M. Heckwolf and M. Raschke, ?Bicycle accidents ?
Do we only see the tip of the iceberg? A prospective multi-centre study in a
large German city combining medical and police data,? Injury-International
Journal of the Care of the Injured, Vol.43, pp.2026-2034, December 2012.
8. G. Gururaj, ?Road Safety in India: A Framework for
Action,? National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Publication no
83, Bangalore, 2011. http://www.nimhans.kar.nic.in/epidemiology/bisp/rsi2011.pdf
9. G. Gururaj, ?Road traffic and disabilities in India:
Current scenario,? The National Medical Journal of India, Vol.21, pp.14-20,
2008.
10. G. Lindsay, A. Macmillan and A. Woodward, ?Moving
urban trips from cars to bicycles: impact on health and emissions,? Australian
and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol.35, pp.54-60, February 2011.
11. P. Chillon, F. B. Ortega, J. R. Ruiz, K. R. Evenson,
I. Labayen, V. Martinez-Vizcaino, A. Hurtig-Wennlof, T. Veidebaum and M.
Sjostrom, ?Bicycling to school is associated with improvements in physical
fitness over a 6-year follow-up period in Swedish children,? Preventive
Medicine, Vol. 55, pp.108-112, 2012.
12. L. Ostergaard, L. A. B. Borrestad, J. Tarp and L. B.
Andersen, ?Bicycling to school improves the cardiometabolic risk factor
profile: a randomised controlled trial,? BMJ Open, Vol.2, Article Number:
e001307, 2012.
13. A. C. Lusk, R. A. Mekary, D. Feskanich and W.C.
Willett, ?Bicycle Riding, Walking, and Weight Gain in Premenopausal Women,?
Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol.170, pp.1050-1056, 2010.
14. J. Dill, ?Bicycling for Transportation and Health:
The Role of Infrastructure,? Journal of Public Health Policy, Vol.30,
pp.S95-S110, 2009.
16. P. L. Jacobsen, ?Safety in numbers: more walkers and
bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling,? Injury Prevention, Vol.9, pp.205-209,
2003.
17. L. Chen, C. Chen, R. Srinivasan, C. E. McKnight, R.
Ewing and M. Roe, ?Evaluating the Safety Effects of Bicycle Lanes in New York
City?, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 102, pp.1120-1127, 2012.
19. E. Heinen, K. Maat and B. van Wee, ?The role of
attitudes toward characteristics of bicycle commuting on the choice to cycle to
work over various distances,? Transportation Research Part D ? Transport and
Environment, Vol.16, pp.102-109, 2011.
20. J. Pucher, J. Dill and S. Handy, ?Infrastructure,
programs, and policies to increase bicycling: An international review,?
Preventive Medicine, Vol.50, pp.S106-S125, 2010.
Tomorrow's Professor: Back to Basics: Why Every Student and Professor Should Ride a Bicycle on a University Campus
