Prepared for: Bangalore Metropolitan Railway Corporation Limited

(BMRCL) & Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT)

BICYCLE VISION PLAN

BENGALURU
AS INPUTS TO BENGALURU COMPREHENSIVE MOBILITY
PLAN, 2019

PHOTO COURTESY: HT TPS://WWW.CHOOSEMYBICYCLE.COM/EN/WOC/CYCLE-TO -WORK-CHALLENGE-IN-BANGALORE

AUTHOR: URBAN MORPH FOR BICYCLE MAYOR OF BENGALURU

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document is intended to provide inputs to the
Comprehensive Mobility Plan prepared by the BMRCL on
Bicycling as a tool to enhance the sustainability in Bengaluru. As
a part of the consultation process held with experts on Saturday
22nd February 2020 convened by Directorate of Urban Land
Transport & BMRCL, specific inputs on the CMP were provided.
This document provides data and recommendations to inform
the Comprehensive mobility plan for expansion and rethinking
on the vision for cycling in the city.

This report lays out the vision for bicycling in the city and the
interventions that are required from the government to make it
happen. The report considers data from over 70 thousand trips
that have been clocked by riders commuting to work on a
bicycle over 14 months by 2000 plus bicyclists registered on the
platform https://cycleto.work.

Our recommendation hence is

1. Provision bicycle tracks around a 2km radius of each Metro
station
2. Provision segregated bicycle tracks on arterial corridors of
18m or wider to enable full trips
3. Commission a study to provision an alternate grid for
cyclists in the city
4. BMRCL & BMTC to study provisioning of shared Bicycles
for last mile connectivity at metro stations and key bus
stops.
5. Project which identifies 100 frequently traversed junctions
to make it safe for cyclists
6. Project to identify technology to make enforcement of
bicycle lane violations automated and more effective.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this document is to provide a vision plan for
bicycling in the city for the period of the CMP

GOALS
The goals of the bicycling vision plan will be to
❖ Layout the case for bicycling in the city.
❖ Provide quantity of infrastructure required.
❖ Layout some projects which will make the infrastructure
successful.

CASE FOR BICYCLING IN BENGALURU

Bengaluru has been plagued by traffic congestion and
increasing pollution. This has led to decrease in the efficiency of
traffic movement. Trying to increase the speed of vehicles is a
losing game. Multiple studies have proven that trying to increase
speeds of vehicular traffic by increasing road supply have failed
to provide results in the long run. The world is now moving to
increasing the road use efficiency.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

Road use efficiency in Bengaluru is a priority with public

transport being the prime driver of efficient movement of
people. The BMRCL has adopted TOD policy to decrease last
mile trip distances. The draft TOD policy placed the modal share
of mass transport and NMT to be 80% of the vehicular trips in
the city. This has clearly identified last mile within various TOD
zones. Bicycling provides the best last/first mile choice within the
widest TOD zone, the transition zone which is 1 to 2km on either
side of the transit corridor.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

CHAPTER 2: CYCLETOWORK
PLATFORM DATA & ANALYSIS
The #CycleToWork program launched on September 22, 2018
(International Car Free Day) was an initiative under the BYCS -
Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru's agenda to drive decision making
through data. The idea was to bring to the notice of decision
makers that the city has many cyclists for whom infrastructure
investment is essential to propagate cycling as a viable option
for Bengalurean's. If cities have to be livable for 8 year olds and
80 year olds, they have to be walkable and cycleable as kids and
senior citizens can't drive. The data collection through this
Cycleto.work platform started on Oct 1, 2018 and showcases
only work commutes in the city of people who are on the
platform. Since October 2018, 120 people on an average join
the platform at https://cycleto.work every month. The cyclists
track their ride on an app and that data is pulled into the
#CycleToWork platform.

It has been running continuously since tracking more than

70,000 trips across more than 270 companies which provide
sufficient data to know commute patterns of cyclists.

The #CycleToWork platform shows out of the 1790 people in

Bengaluru who have signed up 990 of them regularly track their
rides. Of these 457 riders are making trips 5 kms or less. So
54% of the riders still do trips greater than 5 kms with the
average trip distance across the entire set being 8.15 kms.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

The data shows that 10% of the riders registered on the

platform are female riders.

Oct 2018
Nov 2018
Dec 2018
Jan 2019
Feb 2019
Mar 2019
Apr 2019
Month & Year

May 2019
June 2019
July 2019
Aug 2019
Sep 2019
Oct 2019
Nov 2019
Dec 2019
Jan 2020
Feb 2020
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000

Distance (in Kilometers)

Distance

The data shows there is an increase in the adoption of cycling

with even summer months clocking good ridership. It is useful to
note that the increase in cyclists is also marked by facilities being
provided by companies to the cyclists. Most companies have
provided safe cycle parking with shower facilities. Some
companies in large campus have also provided painted cycle
lanes to keep cyclists safe.The total number of companies which
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

have people commuting on bikes has grown to more than 270

on the platform. The
map in Image 1 shows a
distribution of
companies along the IT
corridor in the south
and east of the city. The
flat terrain in this area
also helps cycling to be
an easy option.

A typical set of routes

by the cyclists is shown
in Image 2. This map shows all work commute rides for a week in
January 2020 between Jan 19 and Jan 25. It shows
predominance of travel along the IT corridors of Electronic city,
ORR (Silkboard to Hebbal), Whitefield and the city center.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
INFRASTRUCTURE ON ROADS

Arterial roads

WIth more than

half the trips on
bicycles still being
complete trips its
important to
consider certain
wide arterial
roads for
segregated cycle
t r a c k s . Th e d a t a
from #CycleToWork shows more than half the riders still make
full trips longer a TOD zone trip. The recommendation is to look
at the 2000 kms of arterial & Sub-arterial roads and evaluate the
feasibility of making protected bike paths on the ones that are
18m or wider.

TOD Zones

The TOD draft has a focus on increasing NMT for last mile
commute. With cycling giving maximum coverage there needs
to be a focus on planning cycle lanes in the TOD zone. There are
41 stations in the current network of green and purple lines of
Phase 1.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

A total of 135 metro stations are planned across all the three
BMRCL construction phases. These are captive zones for cycle
and pedestrian pathways.
A total of 682 kms of public transport provisioning is planned
across the CMP phases for 15 years. This includes Metro,
Metrolite, Suburban lines, Bus priority lanes and BRTS. A TOD
study for each station needs to be commissioned that can
identify the cycling infrastructure required along the Mass
transport lines starting with the 41 metro stations currently in
operation.

Alternate Mobility Corridor for Non-Motorised Transport

Bangalore is primarily mixed use like most Indian cities. With

majority of the road network being incapable of carrying
dedicated cycle tracks, it is essential to imagine how cycling
infrastructure can manifest itself spatially departing from
traditional ways of planning for cycling in cities.

An exercise to validate whether this new network that emerges

can be used to negotiate the city from one destination to
another using alternate paths for cyclists is a very useful tool in
the urban planning arsenal to catalyse cycling in the city. Using
lake perimeters, conservancy lanes, rajakaluve banks and
through public parks and large government, SEZ, university and
other campuses in the city, provide for enhancing the cycle
network while using safer, more enjoyable routes to reach
destinations.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

A study to look at various layers such as water (lakes and drains),

roads, large land parcels (IT parks, Military), campuses,
Government offices, public spaces like parks and maidans etc. to
collectively give form to an alternate mobility corridor that is
exclusive to the cyclist or pedestrian, need to be commissioned
by BMLTA to arrive at a plan to invest in such routes. These
alternate networks can be a mix of dedicated and shared streets.

With 84% of the 12,000 kms of road length within BBMP limits
being 15m or lesser, It important to try shared streets with traffic
calming. This will allow the entire road use to
become safe reducing the need to provision
segregation for cyclists. A pilot of shared
streets needs to be attempted in residential
areas to create safer streets that can connect
to arterial roads or avoid them altogether.

Junction treatment

Junctions are a point of

conflict for cyclists and
pedestrians. There are
44,000 junctions in
Bengaluru. Picking 100
important junctions and
providing interventions
for safe bicycle
crossing. This will need
bicycle signal phase and
paints for crossing along with pedestrians among other things.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

Technology based bike lane enforcement

Some of the corridors which will not be able to have segregated

cycle tracks may come with painted bicycle lanes to signal
priority for cyclists when they are riding. To make sure that the
encroachment of this lane is reduced, technology based
detection of encroachment is required. A pilot project will need
to be rolled out in the city. This project will use various
technologies like sensors & cameras to detect violations and
alert the concerned departments to penalise offenders.

Mobility Dashboard

There is no visibility of cyclists in the city because of lack of

reliable data. A dashboard like #CycleToWork can be made
available to the BMLTA/DULT to monitor the trips and routes and
take actions.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

The dashboard will provide data not only from own bicycles but
can also enable visibility into PBS trips and other modes. This
can soon be extended to Electric Vehicles and other vehicles as
well.

NMT Policy
Non-Motorised policy is a state subject and it is essential to have
a policy by the BMLTA to cover this sector. The motor vehicle
policy is not sufficient to plan, provision and operate NMT
systems in the city. This policy will cover all agencies that will
create programs, set rules and create practices for increase in
NMT.
BMLTA/DULT - For planning the NMT network and preparing
masterplan
BBMP - For building and maintaining the NMT network and PBS
infrastructure
BMRCL/BMTC - For provisioning last mile services and ticket
discounting for promoting last mile usage of NMT
BTP - For enforcing violations and managing bicycle traffi c.
Department of Commerce & Industries - For coming out with
policies supporting manufacturing of bicycles and electric
bicycles.
Department of IT & BT - For enabling technology in the usage
of the next generation of NMT mobility.
Department of Tourism - For using NMT to increase
attractiveness of investment in the city.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

PUBLIC BICYCLE SHARING SYSTEM

The PBS system has a two pronged benefit. While it may allow
for complete trips its serves mostly as last mile services. The
permit system introduced by DULT has enabled many operators
to provide shared bicycling services in the city. The total bicycles
in the city is more than 6000 mostly by a couple of operators.
There is a need to continue to attract new PBS service providers
and increase the total deployed number of bicycles to 20,000 or
more.

Rental system at public transport nodes for last mile

Connectivity

There is a need for the BMRCL and BMTC to provide PBS

services of their own. This will allow the agencies to integrate
their smart cards and provide ticket discounts for using
environment friendly last mile services. The agencies will need to
lay down SLA’s for these services and provide VGF. The current
PBS operators should be encouraged to bid.
 Bicycle Vision Plan, Bengaluru

CHAPTER 4: BUDGET FOR CYCLING

For Bicycle tracks on Arterial corridors & TOD Zones.
CMP Description Kilometers Cost/Km Total cost
Phase (Cr) (Cr)

1 (2020 - Segregated 500 ₹ 1.5 ₹ 750

2022) Bicycle Tracks

2 (2023 - Segregated 750 ₹ 1.5 ₹ 1,125

2027) Bicycle Tracks

3 (2028- Segregated 750 ₹ 1.5 ₹ 1,125

2035) Bicycle Tracks

Total 2,000 ₹ 3,000

For Junction treatment to accommodate safe bicycle crossing

CMP Description Junctions Cost/junction Total cost
Phase (Cr) (Cr)

1 (2020 - Junction 20 ₹ 2.0 ₹ 40

2022) treatment

2 (2023 - Junction 30 ₹ 2.0 ₹ 60

2027) treatment

3 (2028- Junction 50 ₹ 2.0 ₹ 100

2035) treatment

Total 100 ₹ 200