Does Kolkata Cycle? 

Kolkata has always been a city of walkers, jaywalkers, and people cycling across its streets, lanes and neighbourhoods along with using a number of other vibrant public transport options like the cycle rickshaws, metro, the yellow taxi, public buses or the tram. The ‘cycle-riding bhadralok’ has been used in popular culture to revv up the nostalgia, a part of the city’s inherent charm. But don’t be fooled by stereotypes. Observe the streets of the city, and you will find the milkmen, the newspaper vendors, delivery persons, and an entire section of the population that depends on cycles for their livelihood, to reach work, schools, homes, offices, to deliver stuff, the list goes on. Needless to say, cycling is more of a necessity for this section, rather than a choice. Then there is a thriving cycling community in the city that rides with passion. You can find them riding in groups or solo, purposely making cycling a lifestyle choice whether it is for health reasons, for the environment, or simply for the joy of cycling.

A Blanket Ban
All of these people were at a loss when in 2008, the Kolkata Police released an order sealing  38 streets  for cyclists.  Matters went worse when the cycle restrictions were increased to 174 roads in 2012.

The authorities cited that bicycles caused traffic to slow down and was a safety concern which needed to be curbed immediately.

But there were consequences. The section dependent on cycles for their daily wages was hit the most, also those whose only means of transport was cycles. Choosing another means for transport meant spending extra money on public transportation without any increase in their income. Environmental impacts such as poor air quality and congestion were natural. Over a period of time, it seemed like a blanket ban on cycle users. 

Cycle Satyagraha

The cycle ban and the reasons cited for it seemed largely arbitrary. In 2013, cyclist groups and people whose livelihood depended on cycling, started peaceful demonstrations to make the state authorities and Kolkata Police take note of their grievances. 

Holding onto the truth with non violence resistance

In keeping with our core objectives of promoting the environmental cause and helping people achieve sustainable livelihoods, we at SwicthON Foundation, initiated Cycle Satyagraha, a campaign bringing together cycle lovers and the larger cycling community to collectively raise voices against the ban. For a year, we engaged and held meetings with Ministers, Secretaries of Transport and Kolkata Police. The initial response was either negative or just a cold assurance of looking into the matter again. But we persevered, and continued these engagements, demonstrations, stakeholder meets and studies like speed mapping , vehicle count for about two years, which caught the attention of the global media.

In 2014, Kolkata Police revoked the previous order and released a new notification banning cycles on 62 roads. 

Need for Clean Air and Sharing the Road

Our goal continues to be to promote cycling as the preferred mode of mobility across the city, which is closely tied with the need for clean air. Bengal Clean Air Network, thus arose as an initiative to further both these causes. Through it, we continue our work on both fronts. 

NEERI’s 2020 report citing vehicles as the largest source of Air Pollution in the city and having a devastating impact on the health of people in Kolkata,  lent more power to our voices. However, we still needed to counter Kolkata Police’s doubts, so we repeated the following studies and gathered new insights to continue our fight.

• Deciphering the average speed of cyclists: Reports show average speed of cycles in major roads during day time in Kolkata is about 14 km/hr higher than that of cars which was at 12 km/hr
• Traffic count to understand congestion: Comparing the 2013 and 2020 study, it was seen that private vehicles had doubled in count which directly resulted in increase in pollution and congestion

• Studying the status of fatal accidents and causes using data from Kolkata police
• Commuter’s perception study: showed over 95% of the participants were against the complete ban on bicycles and don’t find cyclists risky

Hence, we filed a Right to Information (RTI) to understand the logic behind the restrictions and our findings were as follows: Cycles and Non Motorized Transport (NMT) are rarely involved in accidents on the roads and hence are by no means ‘unsafe’ to others.

Current Status 

In 2020, as Covid struck, authorities were compelled to allow cycles back on the streets. But as Covid restrictions eased out, the ban was conveniently effective again with the addition of 9 more roads in the list, making it a total of 71  banned roads by 2021. 

We are now working towards complete scrapping of the ban and promoting walking and cycling. Our campaign, Bring Back Cycles, which we started with the earlier revision of the order, was an extension of Cycle Satyagraha. We wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister urging her to lift the ban on cycles from the streets of Kolkata. The cause was supported by noted celebrities, campaigners and public figures such as Amitava Ghosh, Ruskin Bond, Usha Utthup, Aparna Sen, Rahul Banerjee, Prof. Saugata Roy, Anand Patwardhan, Mohandas Pai, and many others. Physical events involving children, schools, public and private writing to the police commissioner were part of the campaign where children demanded the right to cylce to school and removal of cycle restrictions.