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The City that Banned Cycling.....

  • 30-09-2013 08:56AM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭✭


    Not sure it'll solve their traffic problems......


    Why has India's Calcutta city banned cycling?
    Every morning Raju Sapui cycles to his employer's home in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta.

    Mr Sapui works as a driver, but like most people in this teeming city, he cannot afford to buy a car or two-wheeler to commute.

    But things have suddenly turned difficult for Mr Sapui.

    In a surprise move, authorities have recently banned cycles - along with hand carts and other non-motorised vehicles - from 174 key roads and streets in the city during the day.

    "This is making my life very difficult . Every time I get on my cycle I am scared that I will be fined as I have to break the law and go on some of the banned roads to get to work," says Mr Sapui.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Snobbery, most likely. Those who own cars are the wealthy, and they control the reins and call the shots. Of course, like every other city on the planet, the problem is the volume of cars, not the other vehicles on the road.

    There was a similar story sometime this year I think where a city council in a very poor country created segregated bus-only lanes. The reaction from one politician was that of outrage - "why should poor people get favourable treatment, I pay a lot of money to drive my car".

    It's probably the same snobby attitude in Calcutta which has lead to this.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,741 ✭✭✭✭Squidgy Black


    Snobbery is exactly why. The huge class difference in India means that you're either wealthy, or you're poor. There is no real middle class in Calcutta.

    Basically it's the wealthy and elite that don't want to share road space with those beneath them, and they've abused their power to make this happen.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 751 ✭✭✭goose06


    seamus wrote: »
    Snobbery, most likely. Those who own cars are the wealthy, and they control the reins and call the shots. Of course, like every other city on the planet, the problem is the volume of cars, not the other vehicles on the road.

    There was a similar story sometime this year I think where a city council in a very poor country created segregated bus-only lanes. The reaction from one politician was that of outrage - "why should poor people get favourable treatment, I pay a lot of money to drive my car".

    It's probably the same snobby attitude in Calcutta which has lead to this.

    Chatting to a friend from Mumbai about this and he said it's down to safety. Cyclists wander go on motorways, cycle in the middle of major routes, wrong way on these roads, mainly the extremely poor who live day by day and it is next to impossible educate them to proper road use as they have no way to reach them, no t.v., internet, low literacy rates etc. He said it would be a regular occurrence for these cyclist be killed and their bodies never claimed as they have next to no way of identifying them or locating their families. I guess it's hard for us to understand the type of existence these people live.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    I'm sure it's under the guise of safety, but that's not it. If the poor are "impossible" to educate, then what good is a cycling ban? Surely that requires education? :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,614 ✭✭✭BadCharlie


    So most of the poor will not know of the ban as they have no TV or Internet. Why ban them in the first place knowing the poor will never hear of it!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,639 ✭✭✭✭Cookie_Monster


    goose06 wrote: »
    Chatting to a friend from Mumbai about this and he said it's down to safety. Cyclists wander go on motorways, cycle in the middle of major routes, wrong way on these roads, mainly the extremely poor who live day by day and it is next to impossible educate them to proper road use as they have no way to reach them, no t.v., internet, low literacy rates etc. He said it would be a regular occurrence for these cyclist be killed and their bodies never claimed as they have next to no way of identifying them or locating their families. I guess it's hard for us to understand the type of existence these people live.

    any program you see about driving in India shows drivers, bikers, truckers and pedestrian all doing exactly the same thing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,547 ✭✭✭funkyjebus


    goose06 wrote: »
    Chatting to a friend from Mumbai about this and he said it's down to safety. Cyclists wander go on motorways, cycle in the middle of major routes, wrong way on these roads, mainly the extremely poor who live day by day and it is next to impossible educate them to proper road use as they have no way to reach them, no t.v., internet, low literacy rates etc. He said it would be a regular occurrence for these cyclist be killed and their bodies never claimed as they have next to no way of identifying them or locating their families. I guess it's hard for us to understand the type of existence these people live.

    I think your friend might be one of the rich ones.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 751 ✭✭✭goose06


    funkyjebus wrote: »
    I think your friend might be one of the rich ones.

    Honestly lads and lassie listening to him talk about the life some of these people have most of them just don't care, it's day by day living and not in the Irish sense that I don't have enough for a pint or a coffee or I can only go on one holiday this year, it's literally meal by meal living. They see a busy motorway as the quickest way to get a day's wages then they'll use it.

    It's easy for us to judge saying that this is for a rule for the rich to allow them drive their cars without having to worry about scratching or bumping them off any of the miserable poor people who dare to cycle on their roads. And as someone rightly said they are all at it, cyclists, drivers, peds, horse & carts. Most of us can't comprehend this type of life so why be so judgmental on a country we can't comprehend? We've enough problems in Ireland with a population of 4.7 million obeying the most basic rules of the road never mind trying to manage 1.2 billion.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,320 ✭✭✭MrCreosote


    Maybe cyclists in India don't pay road tax?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    goose06 wrote: »
    Most of us can't comprehend this type of life so why be so judgmental on a country we can't comprehend?
    I don't see people being judgemental, just trying to comprehend why a country with such tiny vehicle ownership would see fit to ban the primary mode of transport that its people use. It would literally be like banning pedestrians from Dublin city centre and only allowing cars to move about.

    The only logical conclusion I can come to is that those who drive cars hold the influence.

    It might be a different world, but they're still people, the same population dynamics and logic applies.

    "Cyclists are so poor, they don't understand the law and they cycle anywhere. I know, lets make more laws to restrict cyclists."

    The primary aim of this law is no doubt to make wealthy motorists immune to prosecution or sanction if they ram non-motorised vehicles out of the way.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,122 ✭✭✭✭Wishbone Ash


    In my experience, simple bribery of traffic police in Calcutta is rife by wealthier road users i.e. motorists. Making an illegal turn, going through a red light, going up a one way street etc. is usually overlooked when a banknote is pressed into the cop's hand. Most cyclists can't afford bribes and would be placed at an immediate disadvantage with this new legislation and treated more harshly by police.

    (It's can be a difficult enough city to walk through nevermind cycle through!)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 11,959 ✭✭✭✭tomasrojo


    I recall vaguely other cities trying this. It generally makes things worse for everyone, including motorists.


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