TEHRAN – Bikes will carry out 3.5 percent of the capital’s total transportation, as the national document on bike transport development has proposed, deputy mayor for traffic and transport affairs at Tehran Municipality has stated.

A five-year plan to develop biking in the capital has been proposed aiming to promote biking, develop bike lanes and curb air pollution.

Currently, the document is under review by the traffic council to be approved, ISNA quoted Mohsen Pourseyyed Aqaei as saying on Saturday.

As per the document, some 120 kilometers of the roads will be accessible for the bicycle riders each year, he added.
The reason behind the failure of bicycle schemes in past recent years was that the technology was overlooked in the schemes so that the cyclists had to return to the bike renting stations and give back the bikes, while today, using the new technologies, bicycle use has been facilitated for the citizen, he explained.

Referring to the claims arguing that the bike schemes in Tehran will fail, he said, “The claims are inappropriate because we could extend biking as a modern transport system by passing through the traditional methods and using the world-class technologies.”

Governmental and municipality’s offices also will be provided by bicycles to encourage staff to ride while going to nearby buildings, he concluded.

Tehran Metro hosts over 2,000 cyclists

According to Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Operation Company, some 2,282 bike riders used the metro in the Iranian calendar month of Khordad (May 22- June 21), as taking bikes on trains is allowed at Tehran’s subway during off-peak hours on weekdays.

Bicycle riders used metro last month even more than a month earlier which was reported 422 people, IRIB reported on Wednesday.

Peak hours for subways are from 6:30 am till 9:30 am and between 4 pm and 7 pm on weekdays. There are no peak hours on weekends.

Launching the scheme, cyclists will also able to use the subway, while ordinary bikes are only allowed to enter wagons marked with labels on the train since past 8 months.

During non-peak hours, bikes are allowed in metro as long as they can be folded and stored in luggage racks, while ordinary bikes can enter the trains only on weekends and holidays.

FB/MG