The other day, stuck in an interminable jam on a Delhi road, I saw a young girl ride past on a two wheeler. Navigating easily between larger vehicles, she was a blip on my horizon within minutes. “That’s the way to go in Delhi,” commented my driver, “two wheelers are easy to navigate, a breeze to park and use minimal fuel … our government should be doing more to encourage them on the roads rather than buying more of those huge low-floor buses!” All we could do, stationary on the road that day, was to gaze in envy as two-wheeler after two-wheeler overtook us. “I drive a car all day,” he said feelingly, “but when I get on my bike to go home at the end of the day, that’s the only time I really feel mobile!”
This got me thinking. The metro and bus rapid transit have been touted as great ways to reduce traffic on Delhi roads, but what are the options for people who don’t want to sacrifice their independence at the altar of public transport? I was thinking of college students, young professionals, tourists and and those who need to move around in the city at odd hours when public transport is not an option. Currently, they have no option but to either hire cabs and autos or buy yet another car to clog up our roads. Or so I thought.
“It’s for such people that we developed the concept of uRide in Delhi,” said Anand Bhaskar Rao, one of the three young people who’ve recently started a first-of-its-kind scooter rental service in Delhi. “We believe that promoting the use of two-wheelers can decongest Delhi’s roads without compromising on the fun of having one’s own set of wheels,” he said. Two wheelers, he added, took up little space on the road and in public parking lots. Compare them with autos that one routinely finds parked haphazardly on roads, or weaving dangerously through traffic, and two wheelers come up trumps.
Another impetus for starting a scooter rental in the capital was that Rao and co had heard too many horror stories from expat friends about Delhi’s autowalas. “We thought, scooter rentals have worked so well in places like Goa and Pondicherry… why not try the idea out in Delhi?” Rao said. So, along with partners Ashish Poddar and Rajeev Palakshatta, Rao started off with 10 scooters, a page on Facebook and very little else. “We decided to use only gearless scooters, no geared scooters or bikes. The gearless variety is easy to use even for people who haven’t ridden one before, simple to maintain and eco-friendly,” said Rao. Much more fuel-efficient than taxis or autos, these gearless scooters give a cool 60 kilometres to a litre of petrol.
They began providing a gearless Honda Activa, complimentary helmets and a city map for about Rs 200 a day. To avail of these services, clients just need to provide an ID proof, a two-wheeler licence and a sense of fun. “We’ve received a lot of business from people in the city on short-term assignments — both Indian and expat, who find it more convenient to hire a scooter for a month than deal with public transport,” he said. Some of their clients are people who have recently moved to the city and have no proof of local address (mandatory when buying a vehicle).
Word-of-mouth publicity has got uRide scooter rentals thus far, and Rao is confident that this idea is here to stay. For it promises much more than a ride from point A to B — it’s freedom on two wheels.