Partner Promotion & Collaboration Kit

Bangalore University Bicycle Sharing Project

Namma Cycle Story

It all started under a Big Tamarind Tree when a Small Old Ghost on the big tree told us that the Solution to all our traffic woes is Bicycle. The Holy Ghost also told us that we have not realized the full potential of the bicycle. Forgetting the simple and easy way of commuting we have adopted expensive cars as mode of commute. The ghost remembered the happy days in the city when there were less automobiles and more bicycles.

We asked how we can come out of this vicious loop of endless traffic congestion, pollutions , accidents etc in our city.The ghost closes its eyes and whispered , “Bicycle Bicycle Bicycle” .Before flying away on a bicycle it left a message,“The Bicycle as vehicle shall liberate you from Traffic Jams, shall bless you with good health and vitality, shall make our city safe for our kids, shall bring people together, shall make all your journeys fun and fill your life with laughter . Therefore go young men make bicycles accessible to common man. Share the Bicycles and Do care for your city“.

So we started discussing how we can promote bicycles as a mode of commute and also as a Public Transport . We have been working with Urban Department to create Bicycle Streets, Pedestrial Friendly Neighborhoods, Bicycle Parking Facilities. Coming back to Namma Cycle Story, We had seen many Bike Sharing Systems in Europe. Yet in India there was hardly any effort to promote cycling as a public transport. So this effort is to make sure bicycles are accessible to common man and an experiment to make bicycle as a vehicle of commute for short trips and a suitable vehicle for public transport. We intend to start with renting 200 cycles across 10 stations at the Jnana Bharthi Campus and see how people and the community responds to this unique experiment.

Vision of the Last Century Heavy Infrastructure 1.0

Resource Wastage.No feedback.Costly.Unsustainable.Car Centered

Flyovers. Underpasses.Wide Roads.

• Bike Sharing.• Car Sharing.

Vision of the Next Century Soft Infrastructure 2.0

• Uses Mobile Technology.

• Resource Optimization.

• Resource Tracking.

• Resource Utilization Estimate.

• Intelligent and feedback based.

Bike Sharing IdeaBike sharing systems in urban areas usually differ from traditional bicycle rental services since they are offered at multiple locations facilitating short-predefined trips and last-mile-connectivity. A public bicycle sharing system is an increasingly popular system whereby bicycles are made available on a large scale in a city allowing people to have ready access to these public bikes rather than rely on their own bikes concerning urban mobility. Cycle by its very structure enables faster and smoother mobility over short distances. And a bike sharing system acts as a feeder system for other public transport systems.

The success of the bike sharing systems elsewhere proves that this system has ample scope and opportunity to emerge as an innovative and alternative urban mobility solution, especially in select neighbourhoods of Bangalore, India.

How does it work ?

Manage Rental Stations

Node Manager rents the bicycles.

Check out

Check In.

We will be having 10 stations with around 20 cycles in each station.

Registration and Billing : The Student registers with a online system. He gets a ID and he pays a nominal pre paid charge for using the system.Renting the BicycleThe Bicycles will be kept at specific locations displayed below.A Node Manager will rent out the bicycle to the student. He will record the rental transactions using a Mobile Phone.Returning the Bicycle The student uses the bicycle and drops it another station. A Node Manager will take back the bicycle and stop the rental transaction.System Interface given below :

Theft Prevention : (Put a diagram here of theft prevention )

Students will be registered only after getting a letter from the HOD.System will store the rental transactions, any stolen cycle trip can be detected easily. Also bicycles are insured .

Future Plan•Make Bike Sharing Model sustainable , economic and most preferred mode of commute in the University Campus. In this phase we will run the experiment within the university campus.•Share Freely the Processes, Systems with the community. Release the Software as Free and Open Source , so that the experiment can be repeated in any other city or university with minimum investment on technology.•Make Bicycles preferred mode of commute for last mile connectivity. In this phase we are considering having a agreement with BMTC so that students can get down in any Bus Stop and cycle to the university.•Integrate Bicycle to Metro and Buses for multi modal trips. We would like commons to use bicycles to go to metro and use bicycle for reaching their destination. Lack of parking facility for automobiles at Metro Stations is another reason why Bicycle is the future vehicle of commute for our city.

Why we need your collaboration ?Clearly, given the business-as-usual scenario the outcomes are certainly no sustainable and thus the future appears bleak. Hence, this call for exploring and creating mechanisms that attempts to minimise the ecological damage through innovative and alternative mobility solutions in the urban context.

Easy, safe and convenient commutingBicycles are the most practical and convenient alternatives for undertaking short trips apart from walking.The limited supply and coverage of public transport in urban areas has led to people embrace personalised motorised transport, which in turn has resulted in increased - congestion along transportation networks; travel times; carbon emissions and a host of such negative externalities.

How can you and your business support us?We are looking for people who would like to promote their business to the youth community and have a message to the youth. We will be able to give you space on the station to promote your business in a responsible way. In return we feel your business can give us a nominal amount for supporting the operations of Namma Cycle. The Stations will be kept in 10 prime locations in the university. We are not interested in promoting the Space as Advertisement space. We would like to promote the intrinsic worth of your product and business. It could be a creative piece of painting or it could be a photo of your customer appreciating your product.In Short , You can Promote your business in a creative way.

Your Benefit by supporting Namma Cycle An opportunity to facilitate your business, brand and commitments for promoting the sustainability vision of your organization to the student community. Exposure to over 1,00,00 students from diverse background - as the Jnanabharathi area is the Educational Hub of South India. Being the first Bike Sharing event of its kind, partners associating, by design will stand out as a pioneer & a leader in advancing the cause of Soft Mobility and Green Transport Solution in Indian Context. An opportunity to be part of an exciting, innovative and original program. An opportunity to showcase products, innovations and services that offer solutions to environmental issues. An opportunity to make our city safer , cleaner and sustainable.An opportunity to make your community healthy and more livable.

Who is Anchoring It ?

Ride a Cycle Foundation, an NGO & Gubbi Labs a research collaborative are anchoring the project. RACF has been actively working to promote the cycling in Bangalore and Mysore.

Ride-A-Cycle Foundation is a Non Profit NGO that wants to encourage cycling – as a form of recreation, sport and as a means to commute to work. Ride-A-Cycle Foundation will lobby for the rights of cyclists and for laws that offer protection to cyclists through dedicated cycling lanes as well as through support for safety regulations. We hope to work with the government administration to bring about change aimed at encouraging cycling in our cities. Web Address : www.rideacycle.orgIt is also active in initiating several projects for the city of Bangalore. The Madiwala Cycle Track Project, the Jaynagar Bicycle Friendly Streets Project and Cycle Parking Stands at critical centers are couple of projects which we are currently working on with the Government. Ride-A-Cycle Foundation had also organized the Cycle Festival at Mysore during Mysore Dasara 2009/2010 celebrations. About 5000 kids participated in the event. We had also organized a special children’s day highlighting the issues of mobility of kids in urban spaces along with the Transport Department, Government of Karnataka.

Gubbi Labs is a research collective promoted by engineers and researchers working in the domains of urban planning, sustainable transportation, renewable energy, ecological sciences, geospatial science and development economics. Gubbi Labs is a vibrant research organization that propels on innovation, enabling planning and policy-making for converging research into reality. Web Address : http://gubbilabs.in/Gubbi Labs was engaged by Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Govt of Karnataka, to design the bicycle friendly streets for Bangalore –South region. Gubbi Labs was engaged by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to propose a research based intervention by introducing a dedicated bus-based city transport service for a medium-sized city - Tumkur. KSRTC has set the ball rolling by inaugurating the service few weeks back.

Team Profile Prof.Ashwin Mahesh, Prof. Ashwin Mahesh received his PhD degree from University of Washington. He used to work at NASA looking for Unidentified Flying Objects , (UFOs) before finding the flying cyclists of Bangalore. Dr Mahesh is the Co-founder and Editor, India Together, Bangalore. Dr Mahesh also worked as Director – GOIS/Transport, E-Governments Foundation, Bangalore during April 2005-July 2006. He workd with both private and public sectors.He was a Consultant – Second Administrative Reforms Commission, Govt of India, New Delhi during February 2006-December 2006. Dr Mahesh is also a Co-founder and Director, Mapunity, Bangalore since 2006.He is our chief patron and chief trouble shooter.

Murali H. R. is a Creative Consultant and Six Sigma Process Expert. He worked with General Electric Healthcare for 5 years architecting and building life critical support systems. He now trains corporate sector in Business Process Management and Web Technologies. He has worked and travelled in Asian and European Nations and is aware about the models used in these nations. In fact it was his cycle journey along the coast of France that gives the impetus for cycling initiatives in Bangalore. He enjoys writing in Kannada. He loves travelling on cycle and playing carnatic flute.He is the action man. Pradeep Banavara is the co-founder of Mapunity, a social enterprise that develops technology to tackle social problems and development challenges in India. He is one of the key persons behind the development of the Bangalore Transport Information System (www.btis.in).He is a neo geographer and contributes to the OpenStreetMap project. His other interests are cycling and organizing tours on cycles. He was the tour director for the inaugural edition of Tour Of Nilgiris (www.tourofnilgiris.com). He is also a Trustee at the Ride-A-Cycle Foundation (www.rideacycle.org) and is actively involved in advocating cycling as a mode of transport. Dr. H. S. Sudhira has a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for his research on urban sprawl. He has worked on studying the evolution and growth of cities, with focus on land-use land cover changes and mobility. He worked with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Government of Karnataka as Land-use and Transport Specialist. Currently, he is involved in a research project that looks at comparative analysis of urban forms in India and China. Besides that he is a birdwatcher and volunteers for India Literacy Project (http://ilpnet.org). He is with Gubbi Labs.

Lavanya Keshavamurthy is passionate about sustainability and dreams of living in an equitable world. She is part of Bangalore’s growing green consciousness and has been active in promoting bicycling and waste management in the city. She loves travelling and has an affinity towards adventure. Of late, she has been focusing on her vegetable garden. She is with Ride-A-Cycle Foundation.

To Peddle with Us Contact Murali HR murali@nammacycle.in99450- 66612www.nammacycle.in