Peshawar BRT cycling women ‘five times’ more in 2023

Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has seen a 44% increase in the use of zoo bicycles during the current year compared to last year, including the use of these bicycles by women.

According to this year’s report of Trans Peshawar, the BRT operating company, 2,405 people registered zoo bicycles in 2022, compared to 3,825 in 2023, which is an increase of about 58 percent.

The total number of zoo bicycle registrations has reached 6,230.

According to Trans Peshawar data, a total of 143,000 zoo bicycle trips have been completed in 2022, while in 2023, the bicycle was used for more than 22,000 trips, which is a 44% increase.

Women are also among the registrants whose number has increased by more than five times compared to last year.

In the year 2022, only seven women had registered for Zoo Cycle, while in 2023 the number increased to 44.

Trans Peshawar spokesperson Sadaf Kamil told Independent Urdu that one of the reasons for the increase in the use of bicycles is the reduction in its registration fee.

He said that initially, for the registration of zoo bicycle, a security deposit of Rs.3,000 had to be deposited, which has been reduced to Rs.1,000.

When Sadaf Kamil was asked, in which areas of Peshawar are bicycles used mostly? So he said that most of the registrations took place within the University of Peshawar campus, where Islamia College, Peshawar University, Agriculture University, Khyber Medical College and Engineering University are located.

According to Sadaf Kamil, the second highest use of bicycles was in Hayatabad, a modern settlement near Peshawar city.

He said that registration by women is almost all within university campuses, where more female students use the facility.

Sadaf said, ‘One possible reason for the increase could be the inflation in Pakistan that due to the high cost of petrol, bicycles are preferred which is a cheaper ride. ‘

The cycle system of BRT is available in limited areas, including University Road, Peshawar University Campus, Hayatabad and some other areas, while there are no plans to expand it to other areas as of now, according to Trans Peshawar.

Sadaf Kamil said, ‘The bicycle system is not intended to reach other areas yet, but in phase two of the project, it can be taught to other areas.’

The zoo bicycle system is linked to the BRT which still requires a deposit of Rs 1,000 as security and the cycle must be returned to the parking lot after 24 hours of use at a reasonable fare.

The number of BRT passengers also increased

In addition to bicycles, the number of passengers using BRT has also seen an increase compared to last year.

Last year, BRT was used by more than 270,000 passengers on a daily basis for travel convenience, which has increased to more than 316,000 (peak ridership) in 2023.

This year, more than 80 million passengers have traveled in BRT bus while according to Trans Peshawar, the daily ridership is around 300,000.

Similarly, there was an increase in the number of female passengers and 30 percent (90 thousand) of the total passengers this year were female passengers, while this number was 25 percent last year and 22 percent in 2021.

62 new buses have been added to the BRT system this year, taking the total number to 244, and some buses have also started plying on new routes.

Before the BRT was launched, the Asian Development Bank had estimated that it would carry more than four lakh passengers on a daily basis, of which 20 per cent would likely be women.

According to the Asian Development Bank, more than 792,000 passengers travel in Peshawar every day in buses, wagons, bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, minibuses, Datsun pickups and taxis, and after the start of BRT, the passengers of these rides I will travel.

Before BRT started, Asian Development Bank estimated that four to seven percent of motorcycle passengers, 50 percent of Suzuki pickup trucks, 50 percent of old buses, 50 percent of rickshaws, 25 percent of taxi passengers, 100 percent of minibus passengers, 100 percent of wagon passengers and 50 percent of Datsun pickup passengers are likely to shift to BRT.

In the same report, it was stated that the number of annual BRT passengers will reach 15 crore in 2021, possibly 19 crore by 2025, 22 crore by 2030 and 26 crore by 2036.