'Bicycle on Rent' Initiative in New Town

As vehicles and buses stayed off the roads during the pandemic, cycling, a sustainable, healthful, and low-cost means of transportation, saw a comeback in popularity. During the UK shutdown, emergency workers ordered 200 percent more bicycles through cycle-to-work plans. According to the All India Cycle Manufacturers Association, the cycling sector in India was predicted to increase between 15-and 20 percent in 2020, up from 5-to 7 percent the previous year. With city traffic levels nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, it's critical to keep the cycling momentum going. Cities are actively planning infrastructure to support and foster non-motorized modes of transportation among commuters, such as walking and cycling.

Cities should look at introducing Public Bicycle Sharing (PBS) systems, which are a flexible form of transportation that allows users to hire a bicycle for a short length of time, making it a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and socially distant mode of transportation. New Town Kolkata Development Authority has set up dedicated cycling tracks in New Town and is presently in the process of selecting private companies to operate the public bicycle program in the township, based on ideas from IIT-Kharagpur. In two stretches of action area 1, the authorities have installed grade-separated dedicated cycling tracks: one from the east enclave/box bridge junction to the new town bus terminus, and another from gate number 1 to 4 eco-park.

Mobility and traffic congestion

Urban areas have accounted for the majority of the increase in vehicle travel. Cities all around the world have seen a tremendous increase in the usage of automobiles, as well as motorized 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers. Increases in motorized urban mobility can be connected to population growth, urban sprawl, and rising prosperity in developing and emerging countries, all of which lead to more automobile ownership and lower vehicle occupancy. As a result, there has been an increase in gridlock and hours invested stuck in traffic. Congestion produces plenty of undesirable consequences. As a result of traffic congestion, many productive hours are lost. Buses in certain cities are now slower during peak hours than horse-drawn "omnibuses" of a century ago, due to excessive traffic! Difficult, late, and expensive deliveries are a problem for businesses. The slowed speed of public transit vehicles on clogged arteries has a significant impact on scheduling. Saturated roads result in increased air pollution, inefficient use of rarefying petroleum-based fuels, uncomfortable crowding on buses during long commutes stalled by traffic, and a variety of other unpleasant conditions and experiences.

Since the late nineteenth century, the developing Asian cities, particularly India, have undergone rapid economic expansion and urbanization. People and goods that are heavily reliant on automobiles have seen a considerable boost in mobility. The majority of big cities have seen significant growth in car ownership. There has been an increase in parking demand as a result of increased automobile ownership. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, almost 40% of urban India's highways are used just for parking. India has one of the world's lowest parking prices. Free or low parking fees encourage private vehicle use, resulting in vehicle on-street parking, narrowing roads, and increasing traffic congestion, particularly in business and core metropolitan areas. Parking management has been widely considered one of the travel demand management aims around the world

Sustainability

Sustainability is a critical component of a smart city, which can be jeopardized by resource overuse. While poverty has been blamed by many, the upper and middle classes are mostly responsible for environmental deterioration due to their greater levels of consumption. Air pollution is one of the most serious forms of environmental deterioration, and India has 37 of the top 100 most polluted cities in the world.

According to recent trends, Kolkata's air quality has deteriorated significantly. Most Indian cities were self-sufficient in terms of daily water requirements fifty years ago. Subsurface water levels have decreased as a result of excessive groundwater extraction, high-rise building, and unregulated built-up expansion, resulting in structural scarcity of water resources.

Unplanned spatial urban growth along Kolkata's eastern periphery has also harmed the city's natural ecosystem. Authorities planted 10,000 trees to make this newly created city a green or smart city. The Tolly Canal (of then-Calcutta) has been substantially damaged and is now known as the Tolly Nallah, owing to the city's failure to preserve its former infrastructure. As a result, the emphasis should be on the 'ecology of the city' rather than 'ecological in cities.' The KMC also has issues with solid waste and wastewater management.

Kolkata's hybrid urban framework, as well as the difficulties that come with it, offer significant hurdles to the city's socio-environmental sustainability.

How can bicycle rentals help in reducing traffic congestion and parking management?

Park-and-ride activity is mentioned in the National Urban Transport Policy of 2006 as a parking management strategy to be implemented to minimize traffic congestion on urban roads. A park-and-ride system is a method of easing urban traffic congestion in which drivers park their private vehicles outside of a city and take public transportation to the city center. We recommend public transportation to avoid using private transportation, which at the same time will increase the number of public motor vehicles on the road. Instead, bicycle stations would be more advantageous in such a situation.

Park-and-ride locations can emerge in regions that meet characteristics such as informal park-and-ride activity, residential density, employment intensity and concentration, and existing and anticipated levels of service on relevant highways. Commuters gain from park-and-ride services because they avoid stressful trips along congested highways and save time searching for a parking place in the city center. They also aid in traffic reduction by encouraging people to ride bicycles in congested metropolitan areas and to choose a sustainable mode of transportation. The service has no negative effects on the environment.

The public program, which would be a bicycle-rental system, would be run by a private partner chosen through a transparent procedure. "We prefer bicycles that are GPS-enabled so that they can be tracked by users, as in the dockless model." The NKDA (New Town Kolkata, Development Authority West Bengal) will only charge a small parking fee if you park in one of the designated lots. "The user will be charged a small fee by the service providers," an NKDA spokesman stated, adding that there will be automated cycle booths where bicycles may be rented. The service providers would be required to operate the service using an app-based booking or access system, similar to the bike-taxi service in Newtown, where passengers can either call up, or hire a bike taxi from a location where it can be found, or access the service through apps.

Another possibility for renting the bicycles is that they will be locked in an automatic system. By using a mobile wallet, the user will be unable to unlock one. After use, the user will be able to lock the cycle on the stand once more. The main guideline being framed by the authorities is that a user renting a bicycle will be able to access and use the bicycle from any location where it is stored inside the township's 30 sq. km perimeter, and will be free to leave the bicycle at any public spot within the township after riding. The NKDA will charge the service provider a monthly base fee of Rs 177 per bicycle and would allow and arrange for open public locations in the township to park bicycles. Cycling is the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation. And, unlike Kolkata, where there was no space for riding lanes, New Town has established that infrastructure. To start the service, the NKDA has teamed up with Chartered Bike, an Ahmedabad-based firm. The bicycle rental scheme's business model and philosophy are based on those used by app-based bicycle sharing businesses in pedal-friendly cities such as Paris, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam.

Ahona Dey. Student, Techno India Salt Lake, Kolkata.