A vicious cycle defeats a green idea

Back to future

Vying to encourage more cyclists, GoCycle, a voluntary movement started in 2002, inaugurated the City’s first parking space dedicated to the eco-friendly vehicles here on Sunday, but by evening a Deccan Herald reporter found the space filled with bikes that run on conventional fuels. The bicycle stand was launched outside Koshy’s on St Mark’s Road with about 50 cycling enthusiasts participating in the event.

Space encroached

According to people at Koshy’s, the cyclists who were part of the event had, for representation parked their vehicles there, but the space was encroached after the event ended. GoCycle founder G Krishnamurthy is however, optimistic. “This is a novel initiative.

The City has a growing number of cyclists and they must be encouraged and provided with parking spaces,” he said. He also said that GoCycle plans to bring 10 more such stands, focusing on malls, and around Lal Bagh.

Casual approach

A police officer on duty at St Mark’s Road remarked: “Most of the problems in this City are because people do not care. It should be the duty of the commuter to respect the dedicated parking space but not the duty of the officer to embed that respect in him.” Bars painted in red to make provisions for about seven parked bicycles to be chained onto, were hidden behind two-wheelers by afternoon, defeating the purpose of their installation.  Ajay Nair, who has been operating an ice cream stall outside the bar-cum-restaurant for more than two decades, said, “Such programmes happen on Sunday mornings. No one really bothers much about them. It is all basically for the media photographers.”

But Krishnamurthy feels otherwise. He said, “We have told the owner of Koshy’s to promote cycling amongst the workers. Also, we will return to the spot to see if it is being used properly.”