A group of cyclists submitted a petition at a police station in Kolkata that manages areas like Maidan and parts of Jawaharlal Nehru Road demanding that they suggest alternative routes for cyclists through roads that do not proscribe cycling.
The letter was from Bengal Loves Cycle, a platform for people who think that cycling should be promoted and not banned from the city’s roads.
But Saturday’s letter to the police did not raise the call for lifting the ban.
Instead, it urged the police to help cyclists find alternative routes if they do not allow the cyclists to ply on some thoroughfares.
“If some roads are banned, then suggest alternative routes to unaware cyclists instead of treating them as criminals and subjecting them to harassment and coercion,” the letter said.
Kolkata police banned bicycles from plying on 62 arterial roads in the city in 2014. While cycling is banned for 24 hours on some of these roads, the ban is valid for 16 hours, barring the night hours, on some other roads.
Some of the roads where the restriction have been imposed are Diamond Harbour Road, CR Avenue, Rashbehari Connector, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Park Street and Koilaghat Street.
The cyclist had addressed the letter to the officer-in-charge of the South Traffic Guard, which also manages Park Street, but they were asked to submit the letter at Maidan police station.
Satanjib Gupta, one of the signatories of the letter, said most cases of seizing cycles or imposing penalties on cyclists come from the Park Street-Maidan area. Hence, they wanted to submit the letter to the South Traffic Guard.
“While everyone is taking a step towards green mobility and trying to reduce the number of cars on roads, Kolkata is doing the reverse. By banning cycles on some roads, the authorities are encouraging cars, which take more space to move a lesser number of people,” said Gupta.
“It is also discriminatory against the poor who can own a cycle but cannot afford a car,” added Gupta, who is also the bicycle mayor of Kolkata.
Gupta has been given this honorary title by BYCS, an organisation based in the Netherlands that promotes cycling across the globe.
Gupta said he and other cycling advocates used to demand that the police reverse the ban on cycling.
“But we understand that is not going to happen soon. The police are too adamant to make any concession on cycling. We are now telling them to suggest alternative routes, maybe internal lanes and bylanes, rather than treating a cyclist like a criminal. It’s disheartening and humiliating for a cyclist to be treated like that,” he said.
“Do not impose fines on cyclists,” he urged the cops.
An officer of South Traffic Guard said the police would go ahead with the prosecution of cyclists found plying on roads where cycling was banned, unless they were told otherwise by Lalbazar.
A Kolkatan said that while he supported the cause of allowing cycles, cyclists, too, should be blamed for not following traffic rules.
The majority of the cyclists flout red lights at traffic signals as they think the signal is only for motorists.
