In praise of bikes
Bicycle ownership in Asia, currently more than 400 million, is growing rapidly. In India, bicycles account for 30-50 per cent of traffic on primary urban roads. The advantages of biking are as follows:
• It is highly cost-effective and fast.
• Bicycles require little parking space, occupying about one sq m, less than eight per cent of the space needed for a car.
• A two metre (m)-wide one-way bike lane is able to accomodate 5,200 cyclists per hour (OECD, 1993). In comparison, a road lane with a vehicle capacity of 2,000 cars per hour needs a width of 3.5-four m.
•Manufacturing bicycles requires fewer resources (steel, rubber etc), generates lesser pollution, is less energy-intensive, demands relatively low technology and is labour-intensive, thus creating more employment.
• Bicycles have a much longer life than automobiles; bicycle disposal is relatively benign and recycling is easier.