BENGALURU: With cycling getting a big push, dedicated parking spaces will be an integral part of the upcoming parking action plan and urban mobility plan, for the first time. Parking slots will be created by roadsides and in multi-level parking lots.
The aim of introducing dedicated cycle parking spaces is to ensure safe mobility, encourage cycling, make roads safe and keep people’s health in mind. The move will also improve the ambient air quality, an agenda of both the State and Centre.
If all goes well, Karnataka will be the first state to have dedicated cycle parking spaces, commissioner of the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) V Manjula told TNIE. DULT is finalising the mobility bill and working with other civic agencies and traffic police on creating a parking policy for Bengaluru. Experts and citizens pointed out that besides cycle parking spaces, government departments must also work on introducing dedicated and safe cycle tracks on city roads. Dedicated cycle tracks have already been introduced on select Smart City corridors in Bengaluru and other cities.
Manjula said that cycle parking spaces were not included in the mobility bill and parking policy. “During an interactive session with citizens, it was pointed out that there is no cycle parking space, when we are talking of giving cycling priority and discussing its importance. As the safety of cyclists is an issue, safety of cycles in parking bays is yet to be addressed. There could be separate cycle parking spaces in offices, but now they need to be created in public spaces, with locks and other safety measures,” Manjula added.
Experts from other states and municipalities, DULT and administrations of other Tier-II cities, giving feedback, said the right time to introduce cycle spaces is when cities are growing. Citing Bengaluru as an example, the officials said: “As Tier-II cities like Hubballi- Dharwad and Davanagere are growing rapidly, proper planning while expanding city roads with dedicated cycle lanes and parking slots is the way forward, unlike shrinking roads in Bengaluru to create dedicated bus lanes.”
