Cycle club members tribe growing

THIRUVANANATHAPURAM: As protests fume over the petrol price hike, a group of people in the city are embracing a different mode of transport - bicycle. Athirup’s Bicycle Club (abc), introduced last year, has more than 900 users in the city now. With the petrol price reaching Rs 71 per litre, abc offers a comfortable, hassle-free travel in the city at just Rs 2 per hour, which can be remitted after use. Now, more corporates are showing interest in joining the cycle club as they find it a good initiative to save fuel and ease the traffic congestion in the city.There are 15 bicycle racks in various parts of the city. The latest one has came up at Putharikandam Maidan. The specialty of this club is that users need not return the cycles to their original racks. Instead, they could return it at the rack near their destination. Also, the users can communicate using their mobile by sending an SMS. Usage is absolutely free from 9 pm to 6 am.Athirup, the man behind the initiative, has introduced a specific format for sending the SMS. The SMS can be sent to 9645511155. The SMS formats are abc (to know about the club), form (Registration form to join the club), tc (Terms and conditions of usage), steps (Steps of usage), tvm (Rack locations and codes in Trivandrum),  Rack codebicycle-ID for taking/returning a bicycle, Last four digits of notedenomination for making payments(` 10 after 5 hours of usage) in the drop box.Athirup is yet to study about the pattern of use. “There are different kind of users. Purposes too differ. I think students are the most common users. There are no daily users. The rack near the Fine Arts College is the most popular one,” he said.Bhima jewellery and Rotary Club have shown interest in contributing cycles. “For each cycle contributed, two members can use the cycle for three hours per day free of cost. Also, the name of the company that contributed the cycle will be displayed on the cycle,” Athirup said. Supporting Athirup’s initiative, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has offered to contribute cycles to the club. The growing popularity of abc is expected to bring some respite to a slew of problems in the city such as traffic congestion and parking problems.