[sustran] Re: Boom Time for Indian Bike Industry

[Jojo Guevarra]

i'm in gurgaon (delhi) at the moment and all i'm seeing is cars and more cars...mostly small cars. i live in singapore and while it's true that bicycles are not ubiquitous or shall i say easily seen but there's more awareness now and people are taking to it - more for recreation though rather than for work or small trips...i feel there's growing awareness in the region and my group in the philippines has just recently put a bike rental system in the country's leading public university...and it has been quite successful in its first run...

been a lurker here but thought i'd put my 0.02...cheers!

jose 




________________________________
From: Zvi Leve <zvi.leve at gmail.com>
To: edelman at greenidea.eu
Cc: LotsLessCars at yahoogroups.com; Sustran Resource Centre <sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:39:11 PM
Subject: [sustran] Re: Boom Time for Indian Bike Industry

And as a counterpoint to this - a recent article in the Jakarta Post about
bicycle usage tumbling throughout Asia:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/13/bicycles-could-disappear-asia-experts-warn.html

Bicycles could disappear from Asia, experts warn

*Adianto P. Simamora* ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bangkok   |  Thu, 11/13/2008
10:29 AM  |  Headlines

It is likely bicycles will have disappeared from China's and India's streets
within the next decade, unless governments of the world's two most populous
countries make a U-turn in their transportation policies.

A joint study by the Netherlands-based Interface for Cycling Expertise
(I-CE) and Indian-based Transport Research and Injury Prevention Program
(TRIPP) was conducted in China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh to measure each government's attitude to cyclists.

"Today, China and India still have a lot of bikes but we are not sure if
they will exist in the next five or 10 years as the governments' policies
are not bicycle-friendly," I-CE resident representative in India, Anvita
Arora, said during the Better Air Quality workshop here Tuesday.

In India alone, the study -- covering 19 of the country's medium and large
cities -- showed a sharp decline in bicycle journeys over the past two
decades.

"In New Delhi, only 5 percent of trips were made by bicycle in 2000,
compared with about 20 percent in previous years," the study said.

"The major shortcoming of almost all development proposals in Indian cities
is that the bicycle tracks have not been planned as an integral part of the
road networks."

In Taiwan, home to 23 million residents and known as the kingdom of bicycle
manufacturing, the government has long neglected cyclists.

"There has been a growing dependence on private motorized transportation, as
evidenced by the presence of 5.7 million cars and 12 million motorcycles,"
the study shows.

Taiwan is currently trying to encourage cyclists to take to the road again.

"In Singapore, you don't find bicycles at all and there is less policy
support for them," Arora said, claiming the declining trend was affecting
all Asian countries.

"Everybody is talking about the impacts of climate change and air pollution
but the number of bicycles is going down in Asia. It is very worrying."

But Indonesia has made some progress in promoting the use of bicycles in the
past three years, according to Transportation Study Institute (Instran)
director Darmaningtyas.

"There is a rising number of cyclists in Indonesia, mainly since the 2005
fuel price hike. Regional administrations, including Jakarta, Surakarta
(Central Java) and Ngawi (East Java), are actively promoting the use of
bicycles," he said.

I-CE executive officer Tom Godefrooij said the main challenge for Asia was
reversing the decline in the number of bicycles.

"There are lots of programs to make it happen, including by stopping plans
to provide roads (only) for cars. The road must be a place for all users,
including cyclists," he said.

He said the Dutch and Danish governments had maintained the proportion of
bicycle trips at 20 to 25 percent of the total.




On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory
<edelman at greenidea.eu> wrote:

>
>      Boom Time for Indian Bike Industry
>
>

"Interesting" times we live in.... ("may you live in interesting times" is
reputedly a Chinese
curse<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times>
!)

Zvi
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