Mumbai to Elect Bicycle Mayor And Councillors Even As BKC Cycle Tracks Set For Demolition

Even as Mumbai prepares to strip away its first dedicated cycle tracks at Bandra-Kurla Complex, the city's cycling community is conducting elections to elect a bicycle mayor and councillors.

There are 55 applicants for 24 wards, which corresponds to the city's municipal wards. Applicants are residents of the ward they represent and should be regular cyclists. The election's results will be announced on June 3, which is World Bicycle Day.

Firoza Dadan, the first 'bicycle mayor' of Mumbai, and director of the Smart Commute Foundation, an organisation established to popularise cycling as an environment-friendlier and health-promoting alternative to motorised transport, said the election process has been a great success. "We had a 16-year-old applicant, though the minimum age for a councillor is 18 years," said Dadan.

The post of 'bicycle mayors' was created by Amsterdam-based non-profit group BYCS, as a part of a project to induce more urban commuters to shift to cycling. Mumbai, along with Bengaluru, has been a pioneer of the programme in India. To decentralise the idea, BYCS encouraged large cities to also elect councillors. "This was for hyper-local activation of the programme. Mumbai is the only big city globally to have bicycle councillors," said Dadan.

Dr Vishwanathan Iyer, neurosurgeon and the current bicycle mayor, said that the programme aims to encourage more people to use cycles during their commute to work. "Morning cyclists are not our key interest," said Vishwanathan.

According to Dadan, the participation of two groups is crucial for the programme's success. "We are reaching out to the urban elite and through the 'mee cycle rider' we are engaging women and children from the lower income groups through donations of cycles," said Dadan. "

The city's efforts to promote bicycle commuting suffered a setback after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority said that underutilized cycle tracks across BKC will be repurposed into vehicular lanes to expand existing road widths.

Cyclists said that the decision was unfortunate. "It is one more nail in the coffin for sustainable commuting. However, we will not miss the BKC cycling tracks. The tracks never took off. It went from nowhere to nowhere. Cyclists did not use it, and it got encroached. Fragmented tracks that are not in continuity are of little use," said Vishwanathan. 

Dadan said the BKC cycling tracks were like a beautiful but expensive art installation. "It was made without engaging the cycling community. The stakeholders, including the corporate houses in BKC, were not consulted. After so much money was spent on laying it, Rs 25 crores will be spent to remove it," Dadan added. Cyclists are hoping that after the Metro railway lines are completed, bicycle commuting will be included as part of the last-mile connectivity plans.