Cycling Benefits

The primary benefit I saw was the fitness as discussed in my previous blog. But there are other benefits that might interest others.
In no particular order I have listed what I think are the benefits of commuting by cycling.

Health and fitness:
For cycling, your body energy is the fuel and heart is the engine. Hence good cycling keeps the heart healthy and exercises all parts of the body.

Feel Fresh
In car I take about 60mins to travel 15kms through the Bangalore traffic. That means about 30mins I sit idle at signals or get frustrated at slow pace of traffic. So when I reach office or home my mind is restless and tired. When I’m on cyle, balancing and agility keeps my mind busy thinking of presence. When your mind is in the state of presence, you feel fresh, active, agile and peaceful. Read the book - http://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230602689&sr=1-1
I actually have felt the freshness and less tired when I reach home or office on cycle.

Eat what you like
This is one of the primary reasons I took up commuting by cycle. I can not resist yummy chocolates, sweets that are in plenty in our diet. Every weekend there is some function to attend to. And every often somebody returns from onsite with foreign chocolates or somebody comes from thirupathi prasadam. Intake should be around 2000KCals per day if BMI is normal. One Samosa or mysore pak if I take I need to skip my meal. But I take couple of them almost everyday. So now with some cycling around everyday I burn enough cals. So I think it should be ok to eat what I like!

Time saver
In most cases it is either equal or less than car commuting time from home to office. In my case I travel from JP Nagar 1st phase to GVC mapped at – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105755152128773253825.00045d9e05628a5fb2648&ll=12.968011,77.605287&spn=0.371368,0.725098&z=11
I take about 45mins to 60mins depending upon the traffic. Signals are the hurdles for the cars, similarly main roads crossings are the hurdles for the bikers. The main time savers for bikers are the short cuts which save about 10-15% distance, maneuvering through the traffic clog at main junctions and crossing like a pedestrian at traffic lights. But I spend about 5-10mins crossing the main roads on my way at Hosur road crossing, Bannerghatta crossing, and Inner ring road crossing in front of Dell office.
Also as our lazy lifestyle demands some kind of exercise, you need to set aside some 7-8hrs of exercise in a week. And if you are exercising while commuting that is saved for some blogging .

Clean and Green Environment
Needless to say you do contribute your bit for saving the environment.
Reduces noise pollution, air pollution. No depletion of fossil fuel reserves. You save that much space on the road to just occupy enough for yourself only not for the entire car.

Cost savings
Cost savings can also be worked out based on your fuel expenditure for office commute. For me if I do 3 days a week consistently I can save probably upto 2000Rs per month. You can count in also the gym fee savings. Also gym builds up some muscles which if you don’t maintain will become too sexy..

City exploration
If you are a cycling commuter then you are not limited by choice of roads. You can keep exploring the shortest route by going through less known roads, gullies, areas you have never seen before. It avoids city maddening traffic also although not completely.

Disadvantages

Safety and security while driving
The biggest fear is to be run over by an errand bus. In car accidents keep happening denting and scratching your car resulting in some road rage, but nothing happens to you. Little careless ness while riding bicycle is also dangerous. You have to be very agile and well balanced. Try to avoid main roads for that reason as much as possible. Take the by lanes running parallel to the main roads. Always wear helmet.
For night riding put many reflectors and blinking lights to be seen by other speeding vehicles.
Dogs chase you in night sometimes in by lanes you have to get down and get friendly with them!
But overall it is not as scary as you think. It is just the mindset that needs change. By moving around in cars and bikes we only have made our city unsafe. But cycling makes the city safe overall. For that we have to inspire more ppl to get on to it.

Theft
Easy to lift and take it off. The chain lock doesn’t guarantee the safety but it makes that much hard for anybody to steal. So place it in much visible area where people can see if there is some theft happening. And chain it to some stationary object. I use either the running water pipe or grilled gate to chain to.
Traceability of bike is not easy after theft.

Bike parking is not available in all places
Yep. So we have built big parking lots for cars and bikes but not cycles. We have to grow our community to voice our concerns. All we need is some iron loops in a line in front of our office to chain to.
Other places in city also have the same problem. So we have to find some odd stationary object to chain to.

Tendency to violate rules
Well I took to biking primarily to cut through the traffic snarls. So we get on the footpath meant for walkers, but since we don’t have cycling lanes there is no other go.
We are like amphibians changing to vehicle riders or pedestrians when necessary. We tend to cross as pedestrians where there are road dividers. Oneways are meant only for speedy vehicles so we tend to go there as pedestrians.
Safe riding is important without getting hurt and without hurting others on the road.

Cycling Solution to Traffic

This is one of the best Bangalore specific presentation on traffic problem and possible solution.
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/das-125207-bangalore-traffic-solutions-bangaloretrafficsolution-travel-places-nature-ppt-powerpoint/

This guys from our biking community dreams in this presentation of having a large network of bike rentals in Bangalore. I fully endorse him!
http://www.slideshare.net/rajivmathew/ananth-ranganathan-freewheeling-presentation

This presentation is from Hasiru Usiru an NGO working towards saving environment by promoting related causes.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3841727/Bangalore-traffic-solution-presentation

Each and every day 500,000 people ride their bicycle to work or school in Copenhagen. This blog highlights who they are, why they do and how it was made possible.
Forty years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 36% of the populations choose the bicycle. Copehagenizing is possible anywhere.
www.copenhagenize.com

Just imagine Bangalore in the 70’s and 80’s. The same width of arterial roads, no one-ways, no signals. 50% non-motorized like walkers, cyclers, tongas and about 50% motorized vehicles. Now the situation is hardly 5% walkers and cyclers and no tongas. Rest is black vehicles.
Now imagine if we can Copenhagenize Bangalore, that means about 30% green vehicles and rest black vehicles on the road.

I attended a workshop in Bangalore recently on the biking solution to traffic organized by BMLTA in collaboration with various like minded organizations. There were case studies presented from Delhi, Pune and Nanded, first, second and third tier cities. The city planning especially in Nanded was very well appreciated. It was designed on a concept called ‘Street’. Streets typically host lot of activities. It needs to cater to Pedestrians, Buses, Cars, motor bikes, cycles, Hawkers, cobbler corners, parking, bus stops, trees etc., Some of the roads are so well designed catering to most of these items which is marvelous. And there is no road widening done here. It is just the best utilization of the space available. Percentage allocation changes to each item all along the stretch of each road. I think we need to think in those directions for Bangalore as well.

Kannada Blog Sample

I can write anything in any language in barahapad and then preview it. And then save it as utf8 html. Then i can cut and paste the entire thing and post it in the blog. Pretty cool eh!
ಈಗ ನಾನು ಏನು ಬೇಕೊ ಅದು ಬರೀಬಹುದು
You can get the barahapad from baraha.com free.

Google has come up with an amazing transliteration tool. It is pretty simple editor online. Check it out at: http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/Kannada
ಈ software ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಪಟ್ಟೆ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದೆ ಗುರೂ. Hats off to google!

FAQ on Cycling

After my first blog some of the commonly asked questions are answered here:

Where do I rent cycles?
http://notebook.bumsonthesaddle.com/lists:rent
Also for non-geared bikes you can check out at your local cycle shops which costs around 30-40rs per day.

What about sweating once your reach office?
Checkout for a shower room in your office sports complex.
Else you can get into the rest room wipe your sweat, put a spray of deodorant, change to formals.

Is gear necessary for cycling?
When we were kids, cycle carried less weight and we were more agile. If you are still so, you can go for non-geared. Also if the distance is less gear is not necessary.
Apart from this you can ask your friends who would have junked their old cycle and get it upright and take a ride. Feel it, get comfortable, then get on a new bike and commute!

My distance from home to office is very long. Is it feasible to cycle?
You must try out to find the benefits. If it is not found beneficial drop the idea. But generally in Bangalore bikers club I have seen most people travel around 25-30kms per day and few travel around 50kms per day. Geared bikes wont tire you that much.

Do I look funny on cycle?
Yes you do if funny is being different from most others. Man has evolved. Many used to ride cycle to office in 60s and 70s. Now most drive car or motor bikes or come by bus. Now Cycle commute is not so common and hence is funny. But benefits are driving people to take it up now-a-days.

Opposition at home? Safety on road?
Those are some of the disadvantages you need to handle. But if you are ok world around you is ok. So take the plunge and see if you are safe on the road. Take all safety precautions like hand gloves, knee cap, lights, reflectors, helmet etc., It is necessary. I ride with all of them. You do get some comments on the road too. Hey see this guys needs that funny helmet on cycle :)
For girls it would be hard to take it up for commuting. So riding for fitness in the morning should be alright. I didn’t want to discourage but it is better to know. But you are welcome to checkout at Bangalore bikers club to see if any girls are commuting and take some tips there.

If everybody takes this initiative it would be cleaner world?
Yes. But everybody won’t take it. So please spread the word. Some of you might be interested to take it to the next level. Lets help health improvement, environment cleanliness. It is good to possess one at home. It would be useful for anybody in your family for at least short travel for shopping etc.,

If you have more questions post it here, I’ll enhance this FAQ.

Other useful sites for Bangalore bikers and others also are below. Everything you want to know about biking are here and the links to other sites where further information are available here.
http://www.bumsonthesaddle.com/
http://www.bikeszone.com/forum/index.php
http://groups.google.co.in/group/Bangalore-bikers