Commuting to Office on Cycle - Lets do it people !!!

Recently i happened to write an article for my office magazine.
Sharing it here:

Cycle and Me:

This article would be a walk through one's childhood days, when the most amazing toy, giving a touch of freedom, and something to quench the need for speed (puts a grin on face of most kids making them feel they can perform like lance armstrong), was a cycle.

I still remember the number of tricycle, and bicycle i had in my childhood, certainly it being so important and has played such a crucial role in my upbringing, i bet most of us do atleast have a faint memory of the bicycle which our parents gave.

But then times change, priorities change, as we grew up, grows our desire for something bigger, something better.

College days makes our heads turn when some super bike passes by, making us almost swear to buy it when we make ample money after getting jobs.

But then reality sets in, the ever increasing petrol prices makes us settle down with some Japanese bike, and we end up boasting around the mileage it gives.

And as time passes by, changes our desire, which now sets it guns to buy a new car.

But while in this hoard to give ourselves the pleasure and comfort that we think we deserve what we generally end up doing is become completely unfit, growing in middle of the body, too tired to enjoy rains, too tired to admire the beauty of nature.

Trekking becomes more of a outing, where we are just willing enough to walk for a few KM.

Dare i say this, ask some middle aged guy/girl or some one in late twenties to walk for 3 KMS, and it looks like a marathon task for him/her.

During this time, cycle vanished from most of ours life. When most of us have not ridden one in years, or decades. No one ever considers it as an alternate mean of commuting.

A mere suggestion of switching to bicycle as a commuting vehicle makes most of them believe its an option which is well below their dignity.

Even though fuel affordability is consistently a matter of concern to most of us, switching to it is unacceptable.

A confirmed official statistics says, that in India the average commuting distance is less than 5KM, yet most of us, don't have a bicycle at homes.

Why is it so, is it because during all this while we became so lazy, that any physical activity looks like a punishment.

Or the more accurate reason, our culture teaches us, that cycle is for someone who falls below the poverty line. Do give this a thought, if you wish to travel for say 1KM, what mode of transport will you choose, and why don't you have a bicycle till now.

Another statistics say(This one is from Bangalore, but i really don't think city matters at all, after all even we do face traffic congestion problem), that the time required to travel around in the city, is in the following order for the distance less than 10KM:

Bicycle<Motor Bike<Car<Public Transport

By this article, i honestly don't mean to humiliate or challenge anyone's preference, its just one single plain question.

And to add to all these woes, do we know how much damage we do to mother earth by our shear ignorance, ignoring the most efficient vehicle ever devised by humans.

It's never too late, specially when it's up to contributing something towards benefiting mother nature.

Thousands of kilograms of carbon can be avoided if a car is kept off the road for a year.(I roughly remember, the figure is somewhere close to 1200KG.)

Mind you this is for just one car, imagine what will be the effect if most of the vehicles go off the road for unnecessary or short distances.

On a lighter note, there is even an iPhone App available to measure the carbon footprint caused by an individual.

Remember, most of our fellow citizens are busy doing their bit of damage they can cause to mother earth. By avoiding following them, we can just contribute or possibly save something for the coming generation.

One definitely doesn't want the next generation to have fights for water, or some unpolluted air for breathing.

The preference for switching to this god vehicle is definitely our own personal choice, and i am no body to persuade anyone from atleast giving this mode of transport a try, after all we were dying for it in our childhood, so definitely we do love it, its just that in the matter of time, the love got lost.

Discover the joy of exploring unknown land, traveling long distances, meeting new people, making new friends, trying new local cuisines.

Let me assure you one thing, cycling taken as a hobby takes you places, and its damn addicting. But then not all addictions are harmful.

A motivating fact that i can share here with you all, Pune has the second highest number of cyclists in India, only trailing Bangalore.

A friend of mine, dumped his car for commuting to office for him it was 6KM each side, and he saves Rs.600 per week on fuel.

Cycling is by far the safest mode of transport, remember your vehicle is light weight, and you can't achieve very high speed which will become difficult for you to control.

You might not believe me for this one, well search any local news, you are bound to find accident related news involving motorists, rarely cyclists.

Hoping to see more number of people on saddle, and once again i apologize sincerely, through this article i never meant to hurt anyone's sentiment, or challenge anyone's preference of vehicle for traveling.