It’s been five months since I started cycling to work everyday. I’ve enjoyed the ride everyday.
Driving in Bangalore in peak traffic is pure hell. Traffic crawls. On my route from work to home, a 15km drive routinely took one and half hours. I reached home stiff and sleepy.
The decision to ditch the car and cycle to office had been gestating in my mind for a while but I needed a push to make the change. That happened when I fell asleep at the wheel at a traffic light. A knock on the window was a call to action, not just to get going but to put an end to this daily misery.
Driving is a habit which we inherit from our environment. We have car brains. I am happy I could break out of that. I started cycling to work and back regularly from Nov 2024. I can’t imagine going back to driving anymore.
Each evening as I cycle back, I see drivers trapped in their air conditioned cages. I see myself in each one of them and I feel bad. I was there. I can really feel their pain.
I don’t know what will make others shift from driving to cycling. Each driver is waiting for their own wake up call. Till then, the only advocacy I can do for cycling is to keep cycling.