A step closer to a cycling friendly UAE

While #cycletoworkuae day might be over for another year, the campaign to make this country more cycle-friendly and to get more people on their bikes is just beginning. It is heartening to see the progress made since the inaugural event a year ago, but what is most encouraging is witnessing our community get behind the project.

It is easy to look at other places where cycling is established and overlook the long process that was involved in their evolution to that state. As our recent report about cycling in New York City chronicled, cycling does not naturally sit well with car drivers prone to impatience, not always paying attention and driving too aggressively – remind you of anywhere? But through a combination of awareness campaigns and in investing in infrastructure such as cycle lanes, cycling became increasingly popular.

The high-level official support in New York for cycling was anything but altruistic. More bicycles on the streets meant fewer cars and that meant reduced congestion. Many of our metropolises face similar challenges and at least in the cooler months, encouraging cycling is a way to address those issues without having to build bigger and wider roads.

This process, whether in the UAE or elsewhere, requires support from decision makers at government level but nothing will change unless cycling is also embraced by a substantial proportion of the community – including potential cyclists but also the drivers who will share the roads with them.

The first #cycletoworkuae day a year ago involved challenging fixed ideas in which many people unquestioningly believed cycling was unfeasible here. The greater participation this year – described by coordinators as “exponentially” higher than 2015 – shows that message is sheeting home.

The early converts to our cycling campaign were disproportionately from countries where cycling is already a well established activity. One of the goals for this year’s event was to spread that into more of the UAE’s many and diverse communities. This process will continue and even if the eventual goal still seems some way off, we can take heart from the fact that it is significantly closer today than it was last week.