In a bid to achieve the goal of making Mumbai the cycling capital by 2030, Firoza Suresh, founder of Smart Commute Foundation, along with students of L.S. Raheja College of Architecture will conduct a survey of informal settlements in K West ward.

“We are using the route to involve families living in informal settlements as it is a quick route to increase the number of people using cycles as a mode of transport. We want to achieve one lakh cyclists by 2023,” Ms. Suresh said recently.

She said her team realised the potential after working with children of an informal settlement for about a year. “The study will look into traffic patterns, which is crucial to see who will use a cycle. We are also in talks with manufactures and we plan to provide cycles at a cheaper rate to the residents, which will be partly funded by crowd funding and help from corporates,” she said.

Ms. Suresh, who started the Cycle to Work initiative, said while many had joined in, infrastructural issues are coming in the way of expanding the concept.

At a discussion, transport experts and planners spoke about the need to incentivise cycling in the city and changes that is needed to be made to the infrastructure and in people’s perception about cycling.

Dhawal Ashar from World Resources Institute India Sustainable Cities said the issue of cycle tracks is a chicken and egg story.

Aakansha Jain from The Energy and Resources Institute said 50% of short-distance work trips — between two and five km — across the country can result in savings of up to ₹27 billion.

Guido Tielman, Consulate General of the Netherlands, also made a presentation about cycling in his country, which has more bicycles than people. He said one of the reasons why cycling has been so popular in the Netherlands has been due to the infrastructure support and a culture that is inculcated into the children.

Ms. Suresh said getting a cycle track across the city is going to be tough. “We need to ensure that a large number of cyclists are on the roads every day to necessitate the need for cycle tracks. We are going to be in touch with business hubs and corporate offices to provide safe parking for cycles, and also malls, which at present have no provision for cycles,” she said.