Pedalling virtuous high-end cycles

With oil prices spiking - and ready to send us back to bovine energy sources - may we suggest we break the dependency cycle by embracing the cycle. Electric vehicles and cars running on beetroot may become fashionable (and affordable) one day. But, till then, the bicycle can be an excellent way to not just keep the nation fit, the roads safe(r), air more breathable, but also save significant money for homes and nation.

The problem with cycling, of course, is that it is 'humble' - read: lacks the social status that four-wheelers can carry off. While Second Worlders in India see the human-powered two-wheeler as a Third World transportation device, in the First World, the cycle - and, by extension, cyclists - is already seen as something futuristic, fashionable, 21st century. Businessmen - and their spouses - are more worried about the embarrassment of being seen cycling to a dinner party than whether they reach without getting knocked down by a Lakhimpur SUV. So, even as the road transport and highways ministry must go max capex and on a national cycle lanes-building spree, let heroic cycle-makers build high-end lines of bicycle models. Who knows, high net-worth individuals may start a virtuous cycle of showing off their multi-thousand- or even lakh-priced pedalling devices that require no fuel except one's well-toned vanity.