According to the announcement, the funding will help see the construction of hundreds of miles of new high-quality cycle lanes and aid the delivery of new schemes…reports Asian Lite News
The UK government has unveiled a 338 million pound ($472 million) package in an effort to boost cycling and walking across the country, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced Friday.
According to the announcement on Friday, the funding will help see the construction of hundreds of miles of new high-quality cycle lanes and aid the delivery of new schemes to encourage walking, Xinhua news agency reported.
Infrastructure upgrades, changes to The Highway Code and new requirements to ensure that active travel schemes’ effects are properly assessed are among the raft of measures included in the Summer of Cycling and Walking document published Friday.
We've seen a huge increase in the number of people adopting active travel as a healthier and more environmentally-friendly way to get around.
As the UK prepares to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) later this year, these initiatives are expected to play a key role in the government’s drive to build back greener from the pandemic and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, said the Department for Transport (DfT).
Last year, cycling increased more than in the previous 20 years put together, with the number of miles cycled on British roads rocketing by 45.7 per cent to 5 billion.
Independent opinion polling and new research also published by the DfT showed that active travel schemes are supported, on average, by a ratio of two-to-one.
He said the volunteers are delivering the goods maintaining all the Covid protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) during non-curfew hours…reports Sujit Chakraborty.
The Guwahati cycling community, which had started its mission a couple of years ago to protect the environment and save fuel, besides popularising cycling as a mode of recreation, is now helping Covid patients, ailing people and senior citizens.
The ‘Cycling Community’ of Guwahati launched the ‘Relief Riders’ mission two weeks ago to serve Covid patients, ailing people, senior citizens and those in distress with essential items, including food and medicines.
One of the pioneers of the ‘Relief Riders’ mission, Arshel Akhter, said that riding their bicycles, the members of the cycling community are delivering prepared food, medicines, vegetables, fruits, groceries and other essential items to those in need without charging anything for delivery.
“Through online mode or by making cash payments, the beneficiaries are paying for their required items and our volunteers are delivering the essentials at the doorsteps of the people or at the Covid Care Centres,” Akhter said.
He said the volunteers are delivering the goods maintaining all the Covid protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) during non-curfew hours.
According to Akhter, who was named ‘Bicycle Mayor’, an honourary position conferred by the Amsterdam-based social enterprise BYCS, the Relief Riders mission currently has 16 volunteers in different parts of Guwahati and the numbers are increasing since the mission was launched on May 17.
The volunteers are aged between 22 and 59 years, who are delivering the essential items within a radius of 3 km from their respective homes.
He said the Relief Riders mission was started in Guwahati following the footsteps of Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and a few other cities, where the cycling community got together to help the people in need.
Bikash Doley, an entrepreneur and a volunteer for the Relief Riders mission, said that the Bengaluru team had guided them to devise a simplified process to operate the entire scheme.
“We have a few helpline numbers where people can call to place their orders. Once we get the orders, we post them in our internal group alerting the rider staying nearest to the beneficiary. We try to keep all transactions contact less by encouraging digital modes of payment. We also follow social distancing measures, personal hygiene and wearing of masks etc.,” Doley said.
Another volunteer, Siddharth Bhattaroy, said that they are also saving fuel, protecting the environment and preventing carbon dioxide emissions by using bicycles, which can also pass though narrow lanes and by-lanes with ease.
Cycling enthusiast Ripunjoy Gogoi said that if a medicine or some essential good is not available near the requester’s place, the group forms a relay team to deliver the item to the concerned citizen.
The senior most Relief Rider member, Gautam Choudhury, said that the volunteers’ strength is growing daily and they expect more people to join their mission to reach out to needy people.
Meanwhile, ‘World Bicycle Day’ would be observed on June 3 through numerous events. The Guwahati Active Mobility Forum would organise some competitions for people of different age groups on the occasion.
Akhter said the UN in 2018 had declared June 3 as the ‘World Bicycle Day’.
