Child-friendly neighbourhoods
Hike for Bike
Summary
This is a proposal to promote cycling in the school campus. A fixed amount of cycles will be made available to move around anywhere within the campus. A person taking a cycle will have to put their student ID card (or any different ID) for authentication purposes. The programme will be launched through a festival calling “Hike for Bike”. A long 5 km radius of hiking (in a rally) by using bicycles will be run during the launching event, mainly by the children in the campus.
Context
The streets of Dhaka are mainly occupied by cars, microbuses and motorcycles. Hardly any space can be found for cycling or other non-motorised vehicles to run and as such, it is important to highlight the importance of empty space for free cycling, as cyclists are also rightful users of the road. As this type of mind set should come from the early stages of the childhood, a festival calling “Hike for Bike” can promote cycling to children early on and thus can have a positive effect on citywide about the urgency of child-friendly road environments.
Transformational measures and activities
The programme basically consists of providing an opportunity for a free ride service for school students by offering them a fixed amount of bicycles to be used in a limited area and for a limited time. This is a kind of facility promoting the importance of non-polluting vehicles and also an opportunity for the students who cannot afford to buy a bicycle for themselves. This programme will be launched by an event calling “Hike for Bike”, where the students who already have bicycles of their own will bring them on the street and go for a bike rally encircling the campus of the school. This is going to make city dwellers and community members aware of the importance of a bike lane or a road to make it friendlier for the children to use, and also will have an impact on the mind set of the children about owning the street.
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