Mumbai’s cycling community has mourned the death of Ashok Khale, a veteran cyclist who succumbed to his injuries late Sunday after being knocked down by a speeding vehicle a day earlier.
The cyclists have emphasized that it was high time that their community took road safety seriously. They also stressed the need for authorities to acknowledge the presence of the increasing community in the city.
According to cyclists, the year has been particularly bad for the community in terms of accidents. “Unfortunately, nobody has kept a record of accidents involving cyclists, but on an average we have been hearing of 5-6 such cases every month. Khale’s death has shaken most of us long-distance cyclists. The Mumbai traffic police and BMC have failed our community, as they haven’t even recorded the number of road accidents involving cyclists nor have they catered towards our safety,” said a cyclist who did not wish to be named.
Firoza Suresh, an avid cyclist who commutes from her Juhu residence to her workplace at Dadar regularly said that riding in Mumbai came with its own set of challenges including the lack of apathy of motorists towards them as well as having to maneuver their bicycles on potholes, loose paver blocks as well as uneven roads.
“We request the cyclists to wear helmets and carry some sort of identity tags that should include blood group and people to be contacted in case of any emergency. The most unfortunate part in the case of Khale was that since he had no identification on him due to which he was only found 12 hours later,” she said, adding that she has already begun working on creating awareness amongst cyclists.
Firoza, who also heads the Smart Commute Foundation that promotes cycling to work place in Mumbai said that they also plan to meet the traffic police officials to initiate Road Safety Awareness dedicated to the cycling community, which should also include sensitising other road users about the cyclists.
Oshiwara-based Karan Jotwani who is part of the Buddy Riders - a cycling group said that the number of cyclists is growing daily in the city and the worry is that many cyclists from the new breed who have just begun riding are often found to be reckless and do not take safety very seriously. “For past four months, we have made it a point to check that all those riding with us are wearing helmets and their cycles have a working taillight. If they don’t and if not we do not allow them to ride for safety reasons as Mumbai was becoming a scary place to ride,” he said adding that it was sad that a majority of motorists do not have any respect for cyclists and hence it was a duty of every cyclists to be very cautious while riding.
Several veteran cyclists claimed that it was those cyclists who rode long distances for endurance or preparing for cycling events and hit the road early morning or late night were at very high risk. “Given the fact that during early morning and late night there is hardly any traffic, several vehicles move at extremely high speed putting a cyclists at higher risk and thus chances of fatal accidents only increase,” shared Firoza adding that during regular peak hours the cyclists were much safer comparatively and the best examples were the Dabbawala’s who hardly ever meet with accidents. In fact cyclists have been urging those riding long distance to never go alone but in groups so that in case of an emergency there is someone to respond.
Meanwhile there are several cycling enthusiasts who have completely stopped riding on the streets of Mumbai due to fear of ending up in hospital. “I used to love riding in the city but after almost being knocked down on couple of occasions, I took a decision that riding on the streets of Mumbai was nothing sort of a suicide and then we decided to start a community- Mumbai MTB Off-roaders and now we put our cycles on our car and ride to some of the off-road sites including Aarey, Gorai village, Bhandup pumping station and others and ride there,” shared Goregaon based Manish Gadia.
