Sunday, July 17, 2011

City industries have failed to make bicycle popular says MIT student

Despite 95 per cent of rickshaws and a large share of bicycles being manufactured in Ludhiana, the city industrialists have failed to popularise the bicycle as a convenient mode of transport, said Albert Ching, a research student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Ching, who is pursuing a doctorate on non-motorised transport in Asian countries, is in Ludhiana to study the Hi-Bird Cycles manufactured Eco-cabs.

"I'm happy to see new experiments being done to make rickshaws popular, but roads need to be safer and for this, I feel corporate social responsibility lies in the hands of the manufacturers who have not done much as of now," Ching said. The bicycle has become a poor man's ride while car companies have successfully made their products popular, he added. Albert also visited Fazilka to see the Research and Development workshop where three models of Eco cabs are being studied. He urged the industrialists to spread awareness of Eco cabs and bicycles to ensure more people use them. At present, 60 per cent of bicycles are bought by people who cant afford any other mode of transport and not many use cycles for environmental reasons, which needed to change, he added.

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