Traffic cops frown on ‘careless joyrides’ on Yulu bikes, want more safety features
NEWDELHI:THE Delhi Traffic Police — worried over “careless joyrides” by some Yulu Miracle Bike users — has held a meeting with representatives of the Bengaluru-based company and asked them to “enhance safety measures”.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in September last year tied-up with Yulu, a rental bike sharing platform, to provide transport up to the commuters’ final landing point. Yulu offers a blue-colour electric bike called ‘Miracle’ that riders can pick up from designated ‘Yulu Zones’ and return later.
Taj Hassan, special commissioner of Delhi Police (traffic), told HT on Friday that his personnel in areas like Connaught Place, India Gate, Rajpath, Khan Market, etc. have been ‘worried over minors, even school children in uniforms, riding Yulu bikes without helmets.’
“These bikes are largely used for joyrides by people and are not serving the actual purpose of lastmile connectivity (from the Metro stations). Also, no Yulu staff is present at the docks/bike stands to either assess the age or identification cards of users, or even tell them what is permissible as per traffic rules. So we felt we must speak to the company officials,” Hassan said.
So far, the company has stationed 450 Yulu bikes at docks outside 35 Delhi Metro Stations like Mandi House, Barakhamba Road, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhavan, Khan Market, Munirka and IIT, which can be availed through a mobile application 24x7.
Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), New Delhi, Pushpendra Kumar, who met the Yulu officials on January 2, said, “A major problem with Yulu bikes is also that their sluggish speed (up to 25 km/hr) slows down fast-moving traffic on busy roads. Also, the low height of the bike does not meet the eye-level of drivers in bigger vehicles like trucks and buses, creating dangers of an
accident. Violation of traffic norms by these users is common. So we told Yulu guys to take corrective measures.”
HT followed some Yulu e-bike riders at few Metro stations and saw that young men were doubling on the bikes, which Yulu doesn’t allow. At Lok Kalyan Marg on Saturday, three boys were seen tripling on the little bike with one of them awkwardly crouching on the foot deck of the
bike. The users drove on the wrong sides of the roads and took sharp turns.
Most of them admitted that they used the Yulu bikes for joyrides. An IT professional, Aditya Dutta, said he and his friend took the bikes from Barakhamba Metro Station, drove all around CP, and came back in half-anhour. “We just learnt about these bikes from a Youtube vlogger and decided to have a fun weekend. Plus, it cost us very little, ₹ 40 for six kilometers ,” he said.
When contacted, the CEO and co-founder of Yulu, Amit Gupta, said the Miracle bikes are categorized as Non-motorised Vehicles (NMV) and have no legal requirement for helmets, registration plates or driving license. “Yet, we always promote the safety of our riders and encourage them to use their helmets while riding. We use our mobile application, social media and website blog to educate the users to follow traffic and safety rules. Our mobile application clearly says that only users above age 16 years are allowed, no drinking and driving, and only one person allowed.”
“Plus, we have warning messages placed on the bike to reinforce that a penalty can be levied if users do not abide by the aforesaid. The same is communicated to the users at various touchpoints within the app. We also have our field staff in the form of Yulu pilots, bikers and marshalls, in and around the Yulu zones to ensure best practices are followed with regard to traffic rules,” Gupta said.
Experts like Amit Bhatt, director of integrated transport at the World Resources Institute (WRI) India, said the “joyride phenomenon is universal.” “Electric bikes are a new innovation in the area of transport. Our cities don’t even know how to react to them, and then kids think it’s a toy to play with.”
“However, Yulu makers could put in a filtering mechanism in the mobile app which asks the prospective users their age, purpose of using, to ensure that frivolous trips go down and the correct usage goes up,” he said.