VIJAYAWADA: In what is seen as a solution to traffic problems and reducing vehicular pollution, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has come up with an initiative to introduce bicycle sharing for urban mobility.
Though the city has dedicated lanes for bicycles, they are not used for the same.
VMC Commissioner J Nivas on Saturday said the corporation is planning to introduce bicycle sharing for urban mobility to reduce vehicular pollution and to take public feedback before executing development activities in the city on the lines of Hamburg in Germany. Nivas, along with Mayor Koneru Sreedhar and other officials, recently visited Hamburg to study the progress of various development works being executed there.
Disclosing the details to the media on Saturday, Nivas said around in Hamburg, majority of people have opted to commute in the public transport system, especially on bicycles to reach their workplace. Hamburg has a population of around 18 lakh. “Officials there realised that the bicycle sharing procedure by developing a mobile application in which citizens can avail services free of cost for 30 minutes and after that they will be charged basing on their usage. The same procedure will be replicated in the city with around 15 lakh population taking the ground-level situations into consideration,” he said.
Nivas said the civic body has provided separate bicycling lanes on Mahatma Gandhi Road, Eluru Road and BRTS Road for the convenience of cyclists and citizens will be motivated to use them. A team of representatives from Hamburg will visit Vijayawada in February 2019. An agreement between VMC and Hamburg will be signed to adopt the technology for introducing the bicycle sharing procedure in the city, Nivas said. He also said that officials expressed interest in adopting the bicycle sharing procedure after visiting the city in February.