The city now has a ‘Bicycle Mayor.’ Prakash P. Gopinath, founder of the city-based cycling organisation Indus Cycling Embassy, has been selected as the ‘Bicycle Mayor’ of Thiruvananthapuram by BYCS, an Amsterdam-based social enterprise.
The BYCS powers the ‘Bicycle Mayor and Leaders Program’, a global initiative to promote cycling in cities and help get one billion more people onto bicycles.
The 30th Bicycle Mayor in the world, Prakash joins a network around the globe working to make their cities human-centric and realise the economic, health, and environmental benefits of cycling. They come up with new ideas to promote cycling for all and use the bicycle to address problems such as pollution and road deaths, break down social barriers, and enable people to access essential services.
As Bicycle Mayor, Prakash’s initial focus would be on forming bicycle clubs in schools and colleges to create awareness of benefits of cycling among the youth; liaison with the authorities to have cycle tracks and cycling stations across the city; teaching more women cycling for gender equality and removing the stigma associated with their cycling; and encourage people to donate unused bicycles.
Cycle rally
Prakash said he planned to organise a cycle rally on the eve of World Bicycle Day on June 3. He also wants to form a council to advise him on promoting cycling in the city, especially for commuting to work.
Indus Cycling Embassy organises cycle rallies for social causes such as blood donation, palliative care, and so on, teaches women to cycle, and donates bicycles every month to young girls.
Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.K. Prasanth will hand over the official Bicycle Mayor badge to Prakash at the valedictory of Haritha Nagarotsavam at the Public Library Hall at 4 p.m. on Sunday.