“Excluded” Cyclists and Pedestrians Demand Fairer Share of the Road
BANGKOK, THAILAND, November 13, 2008: Eight out of 10 students in Hsinchu Technopolis – the Silicon Valley of Taipei,China -- have a bicycle. But, for the short distance to school, half the students travel by car or motorcycle, while the other half walk or bike.
In contrast, most children walked or cycled to school 30 years ago. The proportion of those who walk or bike has shrunk partly because, “with increasing road traffic, many parents are concerned that walking and cycling are unsafe,” said Hsin-Wen Chang, an assistant professor at Chung Hua University.
The fact that many roads in Asia are built for motorized vehicles -- and often exclude the interests of non-motorized traffic such as cyclists and pedestrians -- was one of the issues discussed at the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 workshop in Bangkok this week.
“The major obstacle to cycling is the lack of safety from accidents,” said Geetam Tiwari, who helped conduct a study on non-motorized transport in Asian cities for the Indian Institute of Technology.
Walkers also have a safety problem – they often have to walk on the road because there is no pavement or footpath.
As a schoolgirl in Hyderabad, Kanthimathi Kannan used to walk 1.5 kilometers to the bus stop for school. “I walked to and from the bus stop and never thought of taking an auto rickshaw,” she said.
Today, she is shocked that children in Hyderabad routinely use auto rickshaws to go to school. She partly blames the absence of footpaths. Pedestrians have to walk on the road -- and avoid being hit by cars. “We just hop, skip, and jump,” she said.
According to police statistics, five people are killed and 40 are injured every week in road accidents in Hyderabad, which has a population of six million.
Three years ago, Ms. Kannan had enough. She petitioned the local government for failing its legal duty under the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act of 1955 “to take measures for the safety of pedestrians.” Her suit came to nothing. This year, she continued the fight by starting the Right to Walk Foundation.
Advocates discussed in Bangkok this week strategies to persuade government policy makers and planners to give cyclists and walkers a fairer share of the road.
They are calling for a more equitable allocation of space for all road users, with a focus on people rather than vehicles. They want separate lanes for pedestrians, bicycles, two-wheelers, cars, and buses.
Because most people cannot afford a car or a motorbike, Asia remains largely a cycling continent. Bicycles or cycle rickshaws are still the main form of transport in many areas, yet their share of traffic has been in continuous decline.
“Trends in all countries, including China, show that cycling is in decline. That is something to worry about,” said Ms. Tiwari.
The point is reinforced by Anvita Arora, a representative in India for Interface for Cycling Expertise, a worldwide organization that promotes cycling. “As cities grow in size, population, and income levels, we see the shift towards motorization,” she says.
In the smaller cities, bicycles’ share of traffic is between 30% and 80%. In the bigger cities, however, this share drops dramatically to 5% to 20%.
The solution is to make provision for cyclists, who generally travel distances ranging from three to 10 kilometers. When cycling is discouraged, people tend to use cars for short trips– and such trips cause much of the urban congestion.
The problem, says Ms. Arora, lies in the mindset of many Asian governments. “The image the larger cities want to project is that of modernization,” she said. “Policy makers and planners do not really see non-motorized modes of transportation on the roads. They think one way of discouraging them is by not giving them infrastructure.”
But encouraging cyclists has a beneficial climate on climate change. “Increasing the number of cycling trips by 5% will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10%,” says the Clean Air Institute for Asian Cities Center’s Sudhir Gota, who is conducting research on transport in India.
“The issue is that, culturally, non-motorized transport is not valued. Bicycles are not seen as images of the good life,” said Luc Nadal, of the New York based-Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
In the developed world, by contrast, non-motorized transport is encouraged – and is increasing.
“There is a shift back to cycling in the first world. It’s increasing exponentially in Denmark and the Netherlands and is spreading fast in other parts of Europe,” said Mr. Nadal.
“In the Netherlands, cars have limited access into the city whereas bicycles can go into the city. Bicyclists have space and infrastructure and feel welcome,” said Tom Godefrooij, of the Interface for Cycling Expertise. “Cycling in the Netherlands has nothing to do with poverty, it is promoted as good for health and air quality.”
Organizations like Interface for Cycling Expertise and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy are partnering Asian cities to counter the dominance of the automobile.
“The livability of cities and the neighborhood is under threat, said Mr. Godefrooij. “Cars bring good things but also bad things like air pollution. Cars also erode livability when kids cannot play on the road.” Cycling, on the other hand, is good for air quality and health.
Unfortunately, concerns raised over the safety of cyclists led some Asian planners to oppose making provision for them. “They argue that if you provide infrastructure for cyclists, more will use it and there will be more fatalities,” said Ms. Tiwari. But, in fact, the opposite is true. ““The experience of the Netherlands shows there is safety in numbers – the more cyclists there are, the safer it is for them.”
Advocates agree that a campaign in Asia needs a two-pronged approach. Governments need to be pressured to provide infrastructure for cyclists -- and cyclists should be encouraged.
“What we need is a campaign to tell minority car drivers that they are not the majority. And we have to tell the majority cyclists that they are not the minority,” said Mr. Godefrooij.
Encouragingly, Ms. Tiwari notes, India, China, and Taipei,China have policies to encourage cycling.
To advance cycling, the CAI-Asia Center is developing guidelines for cycling inclusive planning. “We feel that, until and unless non-motorized transport is improved and linked to better public transport, Asian cities will become increasingly unattractive to live in,” says Bert Fabian, transport program manager of the CAI-Asia Center.
“The main aim is to sustain cycling or stop the decline. If we do nothing, cycling in Asia will become marginal in a few years’ time,” said Mr. Godefrooij.
Media enquiries:
Carmela Fonbuena, media@cai-asia.org
