•The irony is that while the car owner wants to cycle for recreational reasons and spends on owning high end bicycles, the common man/woman can afford only the ordinary black bicycle and aspires to upgrade to riding a scooter or a motorcycle …if not a car.
•In the last decade India’s economy has boomed, thanks to growth in all sectors. This, in turn has lead to increased consumption. The Indian Retail industry has penetrated the economic Pyramid top to bottom and as a result the Bottom up aspiration driven capillary action is in full force. Today even the migrant construction worker owns a cell phone and aspires to own a motor bike, branded clothes and a home. And why not? It is ironic that while the car owner is becoming conscious of his carbon footprint and wants wants to cycle again (at least for recreational reasons) and spends on owning high end bicycles, the common man/woman can afford only the ordinary black bicycle and aspires to upgrade to riding a scooter or a motorcycle …if not a car.
•It is difficult, if not Impossible to tell this person that his or her aspirations are not good for the well being of this planet! That his riding a bicycle is much more sustainable than me driving my car. He Aspires to go up the pyramid And no one has the right to stop him in our free economy...
Making cycling popular is easier said than done in the Indian context.
I am not concerned about the Upper middle class and the upper class ( for the lack of a better definition in the Indian context) becoming cyclists!
It shouldn’t become just another fad or a style or an option to stay fit.
To me the challenge lies in not losing the person who is already cycling, to motorcycling or automobiling! How can we make these peoples life better, respectable, comfortable, 'cool way to go'?
I am not concerned about the Upper middle class and the upper class ( for the lack of a better definition in the Indian context) becoming cyclists!
It shouldn’t become just another fad or a style or an option to stay fit.
To me the challenge lies in not losing the person who is already cycling, to motorcycling or automobiling! How can we make these peoples life better, respectable, comfortable, 'cool way to go'?
It’s a tough ask but when I see the density of cyclists in the Netherlands (image 42 attached shot at the central rly. stn) I wonder where, along the way did India, in its race to becoming an developed nation, lose its bicycling culture?
By Janak Mistry
It would be worth looking at "development" in this context and may be find a different from general definition for it.
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