57% Gurugram residents prefer cycling to work: Public survey

Gurugram: An online survey conducted by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority's (GMDA) survey has revealed that 57 per cent of the residents in Gurugram would prefer to cycle their way to their workplaces.

However, the residents have also highlighted that they would only want to cycle once they feel that there are safe and secure cycling tracks provided to them. The GMDA had recently initiated the online perception survey on the subject of cycling in Gurugram in which according to officials more than 2,000 citizens participated. The survey has also revealed that if cycling is made safe in Gurugram, 98 per cent of the men and 93 per cent of the women would want to use this form of transportation.

The online survey conducted by the public agency comes at a time when there is a huge demand for developing cycling tracks in Gurugram. With a substantial number of working professionals just residing five to eight kilometers from their workplaces, a lot of residents have now for long urged the Gurugram District Administration to provide the right infrastructure for cycling.

The need for cycling tracks gained further popularity in the last five to six years as air pollution levels have shot up.

The public administrators in Gurugram for long have been criticised for not preparing infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. Most citizen groups highlight that the increase of vehicular traffic in the city has resulted in not only the rise of road accidents but has also contributed to making Gurugram one of the most polluted cities in the world. On October 2, Gurugram got its first dedicated cycling track with a 10-kilometers route designed specifically for cyclists. There are now plans to develop a 25-kilometer-long cycling track in the city in the coming months. "It is good that the public agencies in Gurugram have woken up to the fact that

cycling needs to be encouraged. It is extremely unsafe to

cycle in Gurugram as there is a high possibility that on the busy roads a cyclist in Gurugram can meet with an accident,"

said Rakesh Malik, a cyclist in the city.