Firoza Suresh, who has been enjoying cycling since the age of seven is now the Bicycle Mayor of Mumbai! She founded Smart Commute Foundation in 2016 that is working in the sustainability space by conceptualizing and implementing programs that promote a healthier, greener and happier city. She has been encouraging people to adopt cycling as a means of their daily commute. Cycling as recommended by the world health organisation is a physical activity that prevents many diseases and also improves mental health and well being. Firoza Suresh, Bicycle Mayor of Mumbai and Founder Director, Smart Commute foundation shared with NDTV,
I like the fact that people cycle for leisure or fitness as a hindrance of buying a cycle is taken care of but the transit from leisure to cycle to work has some challenging like the parking facility, bicycles not being allowed in the premises.
According to experts the biggest deterrent to more people cycling is the lack of infrastructure in India. Zohra Mutabanna, Urban designer and transportation planner added,
We think of roads as a place where cars or buses need to drive but we can leave a part of the street for an active mode of transportation like cycling and walking as these are more environmentally friendly. Our streets are designed for cars not cycling so we need to think of how we can incorporate trees for shade, more safety and more right of way more comfortable to allow their kids to cycle on the streets.
As the Bicycle Mayor and a catalyst for change, Firoza has many plans. She said,
We have a mandate of 50 by 30 which means 50% of commute trips should be on bicycles by 2030.. its an ambitious plan but only possible with behaviour change that instead of cars one can pick up cycles for less than 5 km, running errands but policy intervention is also required.
Although the Bicycle Mayor of the city Firoza acknowledges the challenges Mumbai faces with its lack of cycling infrastructure, she has a clear mission to inspire people to ditch their cars on getting on their bicycles.
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Written by Anisha Bhatia, Edited by Sonia BhaskarThe Delhi government is likely to conduct a trial for artificial rain in May as part of its efforts to tackle air pollution, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to relax the ban imposed on the manufacture, storage and sale on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR noting air pollution levels had remained alarming for a considerable time.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced in the assembly on Wednesday that the Delhi government will introduce a new policy for issuing Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates to vehicles from other states, in a bid to tackle air pollution.
Children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid-childhood may have weaker connections between key brain regions that can highly impact their thinking and controlling capacity, according to a study.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sirsa has accused Arvind Kejriwal's AAP - in power before the BJP won the February election - of allowing more than 1.08 lakh vehicles to run on city roads despite each emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
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