A year and some roadblocks later, cycle sharing scheme still on track

The Public Bicycle Sharing scheme, launched last December as part of measures for a greener city, was greeted with quite a bit of enthusiasm initially. But, as the scheme completes a year, much remains to be done to turn Pune into a cycle-friendly city. The Indian Express explains the many issues, such as the patchy network of cycle tracks, that the scheme faces.

How popular is the scheme?

In January, a month after the scheme was launched by Mayor Mukta Tilak, only two vendors, PEDL and OFO, were part of it. They had 1,200 cycles on the road, and the average number of rides on each cycle per day was about five. Over the months, more cycles have been added and the scheme has made its way to newer areas, but, as per the information provided by the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Cycle Cell, the number of trips per cycle per day has gone down to about three.

Currently, about 8,000 cycles are part of the sharing scheme, and they are available in Aunch, Shivajinagar, Deccan, Kothrud, Pimple Gurav, Vishrantwadi, Viman Nagar, Pimple Nilakh and Balewadi. Hundreds of cycles, parked near Sambhaji Garden on Jangli Maharaj Road, give the impression that the scheme has lost some of its popularity.
The fare has also gone up considerably in the last few months. Initially Rs 1 for 30 minutes, it’s now Rs 3 for every 10 minutes.

Ranjit Gadgil, programme director at NGO Parisar and a member of the Bicycle Advisory Committee of the PMC, said the number of rides per day per cycle decreased after a few months as the novelty factor wore off.

“In fact, the actual demand for the service can only be ascertained now. In the beginning, when cycles were being supplied at discounted rates, people would try them out for fun. Now that the scheme has been around for some time and actual rates are being applied, one gets an idea about the actual usage,” said Gadgil.

The vendors, meanwhile, are still in the process of figuring out the price at which the cycle scheme is attractive for users but also commercially viable for them. It’s possible that once they ascertain that the lowest fare would not be financially feasible for some sections of society, the PMC may step in and subsidise fares for these groups.

Narendra Salunkhe, project officer for the Public Bicycle Sharing Scheme, said it’s normal that at any given time about 20-30 per cent cycles would be used, while 60-70 per cent remain parked. “Pune is in a transformative mode. Work for the Metro project is on, flyovers are being built and walkways are being created. Due to this, in many areas, there are some temporary limitations on the usage of cycles,” he said.

Fewer cases of vandalism

In the initial phase of the scheme, miscreants vandalising cycles was a major worry for the vendors. In some areas, about 50 to 60 cycles were getting damaged per day, said vendors.

But instances of vandalism have come down, said officials of PEDL and Mobike, vendors that are part of the scheme. “Reports about authorities planning strict action against those responsible for the damage seem to have done the trick. Now, we receive only two to three vandalism complaints per day, compared to the several dozens we used to get a few months ago,” said a manager with one of the vendors.

More cycle tracks needed

No cycle scheme in the city can succeed without supporting infrastructure, such as usable cycle tracks, said Gadgil. He said while the Bicycle Advisory Committee believed that the scheme should be launched after construction of bicycle tracks across the city, the scheme was launched earlier as the vendors had pushed for it.

“The idea now is to add cycles and create cycle tracks parallelly. This is bound to be a slow process. The PMC says that the goal of creating cycle tracks across the city should be achieved in the next three years, but that’s an ambitious goal. I believe that the creation of infrastructure by PMC for non-motorised transport is a continuous process,” said Gadgil.

Salunkhe said the PMC plans to build a total of 824 km of cycle tracks, including dedicated tracks, painted lanes on the road and greenways, and also mend existing tracks. The work also involves improving the existing tracks, he said.
At the moment, 100-odd kms of cycle tracks in the city are ready for use and work is on to build new ones at Bremen Chowk, Ganeshkhind Road and other areas.

“The problem we are facing now is that despite these new tracks coming up, they are spread across different areas and are not well connected, and this limits usage. The piecemeal approach to cycle tracks is not going to be be useful… they have to be linked to each other to provide continuous and unhindered way for cyclists,” said Gadgil.