When I went to the IISc (Indian Institute of Science) campus, I was meeting a couple of cyclists there, so, while walking with me, Pradeep B V pointed out a red-and-yellow cycle that was sailing past us.
"That’s the initiative of the IISc campus, one which our cycling community particularly likes," he said.
He explained that every year, outgoing students dump the cycles that they use while here…and the present students had the great idea of painting them yellow-and-red, and allowing anyone to use them on the campus!
If you see a red-and-yellow cycle anywhere in the IISc grounds, you can use it to cycle around, or to your destinatio within the campus….and just leave it there. The cycles are thus scattered all over. The colouring, of course, prevents them (hopefully) from being taken off the campus.
I was very struck by this creative way of dealing with both the problem of abandoned bikes, and people’s transport around the campus, in a way that prevents any further pollution of one of the last green spaces of Bangalore.
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Nice idea ! As an experiment Commercial Street should be declared Vehicle Free Zone and Free Colored Cycles should be made available for interested shoppers to move around! For elderly and disabled shoppers very few authorized electric rickshaws can be made available on pay and use basis. Even Electric Mopeds can be made available for the young and lazy shoppers !
Internationally there is an initiative in europe used by one and all where one can hire cycles for a fee and park them at various parking spots and not use cars in congested places. In Bangalore one can have such stations with color coded cycles in various spots and have someone to man them and collect them whihc will also create employmnet for some. IISC initiative needs to be commended. In the west even in most universities and departments people use cycles to commute most of the year. Bangalore needs innovative solutions so why not use electric bicycles to commute to short distances, give tax incentives to people who use cycles and introduce better cycles for all collage and university students. Most of all have very well lit solar lights which will reduce accidents and crime.