Missing on roads: No room for cyclists in city

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 17

The share of bicycle, an eco-friendly and highly economical mode of transportation, is the least preferred among the city residents.

Even those, who have no option other than bicycle, have been experiencing a harrowing time on city roads as they say motorists usually don’t tolerate bicycles moving in front of their vehicles. Motorists honk to scare cyclists off the roads, they say.

A rat race for possessing maximum material wealth has given birth to purchase of flashy sedans, hatchbacks, MPVs and SUVs.

Surinder Singh, a resident of Sultanwind road, says, “Roads teeming with fast-moving motorcycles and cars leave a little room for slow-moving bicycles. People behind the wheels do not have patience to see a bicycle ahead. Many of them keep honking until bicycles move away or stop to make way for them.”

Migrants and factory workers constitute the major share of bicycle users in the city.  A factory worker, Ved Prakash, said motorists no longer tolerate bicycle riders ahead and attempted to scare them away by honking.

Besides, bicycle riders are scared of rampant thefts. Thieves easily break open locks to steal unattended bicycles.

What irks cyclists is “no legal assistance” available to those whose bicycles are stolen. People, mostly migrants, use double and even triple locks, tethering their cycles to poles or iron grills alongside roads.