I will not support cycling as a primary mode of transportation for people. Especially for women! I am going to try to explain why, from an Indian perspective, and from a feminist perspective. If you agree or disagree, it would be great to hear from you.
The cycle is a revolutionary transportation technology. It is independent, it is sustainable and it is fun! In the past one year, since I started learning about and working on cycling, I heard some of the best stories about this vehicle! I heard about how a single mom in a small town in Telangana was able to complete her education and work part time, because of a cycle. I heard how a government doctor cycled 30 kilometers a day to get to her hospital and back because there was no other means of transport for her. Girls being able to pursue higher education and women claiming their own independent mobility - made possible through cycling.
Today, these women own cars and scooters. They work just as hard but their mobility is easier because they are not physically exerting themselves to study and earn an income. They are able to go more places and travel longer distances because they own these private vehicles. They have time to relax at the end of the day, because they spend less time in transit. Despite the traffic and despite the “health impacts” of cycling, they opted out of it. And I think everyone who supports cycling as a primary mode of transportation gets it wrong as to why they made this choice (one of the arguments they make is that there is an ‘aspirational’ aspect to it, extremely problematic in itself!).
The women I spoke to are grateful to cycles, but they would not go back to cycling because cycling is just not viable! When it rains or when it is too hot outside, what are cyclists supposed to do? Get late to work and school? When they have injuries or bodily difficulties of any other kind, how are people supposed to cycle? I get terrible terrible cramps during my periods, how do I cycle during “that time of the month?”
I am not even talking about the infrastructural problems with cycling - those can be fixed. We can build cycle lanes and we can make sure that they are shaded and they are well lit, but we cannot cool down the country, can we? We can protect them from the water in the rain but not the wind, can we? We can design cycles in a way that differently abled people can use them, but we still cannot take away the physical exertion it puts on people, can we? And let me ask you what happens to people who cannot do the balancing act? Those people who are just not good at cycling because of a hundred different reasons? Sanitation, safety campaigns, infrastructure development etc etc and nothing about the nature of cycling itself is changing, is it?
I never have to depend on cycling. I can take my car, my scooter, have a friend pick me up or book a cab! Not everyone can do that. And it pisses me the hell off when people like me, people with privilege and entitlement to choose whatever mode of transportation we want, tell other people to use cycles! The cycling advocates talk about involving the community and encouraging basti dwellers and government school children to use cycles when they themselves travel in AC cars. I guess this is what armchair activism looks like - this is what planning without understanding the realities of the global south looks like.
Now people are going to cite examples from the Netherlands and Germany and some other city in the United States or some other global North country without giving me or any of us actual proof that cycling is a viable option in urban India. The problem with our development models is that we try to import ideas from the west without thinking about our own cultural and environmental setting. And at this point, we need to talk about alternatives to private motor vehicles, right? And we will!
People who found independence and empowerment through cycling have stopped using cycles for a reason. Cycles are a silver bullet up until a point of time and then they are not. And every minute, every rupee we spend talking about cycling is resources we are taking away from public transportation. Cars are not the solution. Bikes aren’t either. Public transportation - buses and trains are the only sustainable, long term, dignified solution.
Can we please give cycling the place it deserves - a good recreational opportunity, fun exercise option and a good intermediate transport option for rich people; Give it the infrastructure it so very much deserves.
And not talk about cycling as an alternative to buses? Not talk about how people have to struggle extra to be able to survive? How is it a “feel good” story that our public transport system is so bad, so utterly horrible that a government doctor had to cycle 30 kilometers a day to do her job?! How is it a “feel good” story that young girls have to cycle and tire themselves out before getting to school just to be able to access educational opportunities?
Individual stories of struggle are only “feel good” when a system is broken. Cycling is a bandage on a broken dam of transportation and everyone who is advocating for cycling has to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves the important questions, the intersectional questions!
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