The streets of Jayanagar will be a lot more friendly for cycling enthusiasts now as the much-awaited cycling tracks there were inaugurated on Saturday.
”The cycle tracks that were inaugurated today are about 40 kilometres across the Jayanagar. This will primarily be of great help to the school students in that area who ride cycles to and fro from their schools to home,” said Murali HR of Ride a Cycle Foundation.
The track, which is looked upon as a pilot project will be monitored by Ride a Cycle foundation and would prove to be a great learning curve for the BBMP, according to Murali.
“We don’t have plans to start a similar one elsewhere in the city because we want to see how it works in Jayanagar. BBMP will also be able to learn a lot from this as they will know now if the cycle tracks they are building are the right size and the kind of problems they can anticipate in the future,” he added.
The police will be at hand to help ensure the cycle tracks are safe for cyclists. “For the first month, we want to educate and sensitise people about the cycle tracks. So, there won’t be any penalty for anyone who is parking during that period of time. But after a month, they will be penalised for parking at the cycle track. Also, 50 policemen will be patrolling around the cycle tracks throughout the day to provide security to cyclists,” he added.
Its success would depend on whether people will embrace the lifestyle. “Most of the people who will use the tracks will be students, but we are documenting how people use these tracks for the future. Depending on that, we can use this as a template to see if it can be replicated in other cities in the country as well,” he added.
