1,000 participate in 20-km cycle rally

Ludhiana: Over 1,000 bicycle lovers, cycling enthusiasts, professionals, and amateurs joined the public bicycle rally ‘Right2Ride’ for celebrating the World Bicycle Day on Sunday. A 20km bicycle rally was flagged off by officials of Hero Cycles early on Sunday morning (from Rakh Bagh back to the same place) in the presence of thousands of cyclists, including men, women, and children. During the event, deputy commissioner of police (Ludhiana) Ashwani Kapur spoke about the benefits of cycling, and highlighted how the carbon footprint could be reduced by a huge amount if more and more people took to cycling.
SK Rai, managing director of Hero Cycles — which organised the event — said: “This event was conducted to bring all cycling enthusiasts under one roof, celebrate the passion for this sport, and educate them about the eco-friendly mode of transport. A study released by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in January this year estimated that if bicycles were to substitute two and four-wheelers used for short distance trips, it could result in an annual benefit of Rs1.8 trillion, which was equivalent to 1.6% of India’s annual GDP for 2015-16.”
Rai also added: “More than half the people in India use non-motorised forms of transport, such as walking and cycling to travel to work, followed by two-wheelers (18%), and buses (16%). The benefits of cycling are immense, be it direct or indirect. Through this Right2Ride, we wish to bring attention to the major factors that are hampering the growth of cycling infrastructure in our country. We also want to tell people that cycling is not just an individual choice, but one that knits together communities.”