Greenway: Pedaling towards healthier cities
A sneak peek into how the Cycle City “Greenway” campaign, funded by UNDP and Ncell, is promoting environment-friendly urban mobility through cycling in Nepal
The “GreenWay” campaign uses existing technology to track, map, credit, and reward cycling practices, and gradually connect with the larger ecosystem of solutions for healthy cities. With private sector contribution through sponsorship rewards, along with some business development opportunities for interested private sector companies and clean businesses, the campaign is an experiment to promote cycling as an alternative mode of transport in cities and contribute to reduce carbon footprints.
In the fiscal year 2019/20, Nepal imported petroleum products and other minerals worth Rs 194.79 billion, based on the records of the Department of Customs. The amount is equivalent to the budget for five provinces (approx. 196 billion), except Karnali and Sudurpaschim, this fiscal year 2021/22.
According to Worldometer, Nepal had 7,833,787 tons of Fossil CO2 Emissions in 2016, with almost 40 percent from the transport sector, the highest among others. Emissions had increased by 10 percent compared to 2015. In recent years, pollution levels have been increasing rapidly in most of urban areas.
As a symbolic gesture to encourage innovation and partnership for clean mobility and carbon emission reduction, UNDP conceptualized the gamification of cycling as an experiment so that a maximum number of people could start using it as an alternative mode of transport. COVID-19 restrictions also provided a unique opportunity to initiate this campaign to promote cycling.
With co-funding from UNDP and Ncell, the campaign was launched in collaboration with the Government of Nepal Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, and Kantipur Media Group. Cycle City Network Nepal (CCNN) was selected on a competitive basis as an implementing partner. Led by CCNN, Greenway was soon expanded to other cities of Nepal. Greenway is now a registered app that promotes cycling culture in cities through a mode of gamification. The app users receive an incentive reward of Rs. 3 for every kilometer they ride.
With the campaign ‘My Way, Greenway’, the idea is to encourage existing cycle-users and to trigger more people to adopt cycling at least once a week to their workplace, school or college. One may ask if it is possible to ride bicycle around Kathmandu and the answer is yes, since the average radius of the city is 5 km based on the report 2012 by MOPIT and JICA. The capital city can set an example to other cities in promotion of cycle-friendly infrastructure.
According to Project Team Leader of CCNN, Nivesh Dugar, the campaign has reached out to more than 7,300 app users cycling around cities covering at least 386,000 km while saving up 57,000+ kg of CO2 with 1,930,790 green-ups as recorded in the mobile app. “Greenway has 10 green partners that are promoting their products through the app. Along with this, we have promoted Cycle to School in more than 15 schools,” he added.
Here are some of the reviews from the app users:
“Greenway Nepal is a great campaign that promotes cycling in the country by incentivizing cycle riders. Being one of the internal testers of the app, I got to experience its ins-and-outs. It has an outstanding UI (User Interface) and a decent UX (User eXperience). Despite its good aspects, the map, at times, behaves unexpectedly, like not keeping ride tracks or tracking wrong ways. Along with this, in the beginning, the app was not integrated with any flagging system to figure out invalid rides. Later, it had the flagging system but that system had difficulty in segregating between valid and invalid rides. There were also some problems in the reward redeeming process. With a few tweaks, this app could be better and could prosper well.” — Jenish Maharjan (Kathmandu)
“At first, I was really excited about the app but I regret to say that I have not been using it. I even referred it to my friend since it would offer some earnings to the users who cycled. I donated what I earned for the welfare of women cyclists. But after some time, my friend could not withdraw her cash rewards. She felt dejected and said that she had been misguided, due to which I felt humiliated. I would suggest the app developer to be very clear on users’ benefits since that is the most important part of encouragement.” — Dadiku Sherpa (Kathmandu)
“I used to earn a maximum of Rs. 50 in 24 hours. I had made a total of Rs. 500 but it was not easy to redeem so I had to donate whatever amount I had earned. Currently, I have not received any incentive from the app. Since my phone memory is full of other apps like Strava and Relive, I have not been using the app currently.” — Devraj Thapa Magar (Kathmandu)
In response to the first trial, CCNN worked on the issues and enhanced the application with more user-friendly features in the second phase. As a result, there were more than 2000 new registered users in a span of around two months.
Moreover, Greenway has reached out to different municipalities even outside Kathmandu to promote the ‘Cycle to School’ campaign, donating bicycles and incentivizing students. So far, the project has been implemented in Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Tulsipur Metropolitan City, and Tilotamma Municipality. “With support from our partners like Ncell and UNDP, we were able to hand over around 100 bicycles to school students, especially girls, to promote easy access to education,” said Dugar.
“In collaboration with UNDP and other organizations, Tillotama Municipality has made a positive impact by distributing bicycles to around 50 school girls,” said Mayor of Tilottama Municipality, Basudev Ghimire. “Distributing bicycles to the target group has not only made their lifestyles more comfortable, it has also helped protect the environment.”
There were broadly three criteria for the selection of the girl students: one, they must complete their secondary-level education; two, they must not get married until they reach the age of 20; and three, their homes should be at least 30 minutes away from their schools.
Similarly, Tulsipur Municipality handed over bicycles to 50 needy girls last year. “Thanks to UNDP and CCNN, not only was our prime focus of promoting Tulsipur as a smart, green, and clean city successful, we were also able to encourage girls’ education and ease accessibility for children from surrounding rural areas,” said Mayor of Tulsipur Municipality, Ghanshyam Pandey.
Some of the students who received the bicycles said:
“My brother and I used to go to school on the same bicycle. But now I commute on my own. Unlike earlier, I do not have to wait for my brother to finish his classes. With our tuition classes in different locations, my brother had to drop me off and pick me up regularly. Having a bicycle of my own is saving our time and energy. In addition, we are also able to perform multiple household chores and have more time to study.” — Mira Limbu (Tilottama Municipality)
“Earlier, my father used to drop me off to school on his bicycle. Now that I have a bicycle, I can go to school on my own. It has helped me commute easily and has even benefitted my family since I can perform household chores. Most importantly, it will help in my education.” — Laxmi Rai (Tilottama Municipality)
“I used to spend more than an hour to go to school every day. At times, we did not have money and had to start very early to reach school by walking. Possessing a bicycle has saved a lot of time and money. Now I can reach my school on time and focus on education without worrying about commuting. I feel free and independent since I have control over my own mobility now.” — Sita Ghartimagar (Tulsipur, Dang)
Bernardo Cocco, the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Nepal, said: “We are promoting carbon-free mobility options as part of our green recovery project. We are also empowering girls as future leaders to access these options. We could not have done this without our institutional and private sector partners. Our thanks go to the mayors and partners like Ncell, Kantipur Media Group, NMB Bank, IME Pay, and others that have contributed to making this campaign successful. Through similar partnerships, we look forward to exploring more opportunities that foster sustainable lifestyles and green choices that bring positive changes to Nepal.”
For the sustainability of the campaign, Greenway has also come up with other initiatives, such as Bike For Change, Pro-cycle Working Modality, Rapid Assessment, Cycle Act, and similar sustainability plans.
The team also conducted a rapid assessment in Lalitpur, Tillotama, and Tulsipur, and based on the need for infrastructure development, a 5 km cycle lane is to be constructed in Tulsipur. For legal foundations, a cycle act initiative by Nepal Cycle Society, has been proposed to government authorities, although it is yet to be endorsed by the municipal council. Furthermore, plans for bicycle sharing in Lalitpur have also been discussed with UNDP Accelerator Lab, Connective Cities, and a few private entities.
To learn more about the project, visit: https://www.np.undp.org/content/nepal/en/home/projects/pgrp.html
Story by Suman Rai/UNDP Nepal
