Mero Cycle for Healthier Cities

“Kathmandu Cycle City-2020 (KCC2020), Ride with Pride” kicked off in 2009 to promote, advocate and make Kathmandu Valley a cycle-friendly city by the year 2020. The campaign was closely associated with the promotion of clean and green Kathmandu and specifically for the promotion of sustainable urban mobility. The campaign gave birth to multiple organizations working for cycling such as Cycle City Network Nepal and Nepal Cycle Society. It even brought many people together through rallies and gave space for not only cycle users but also pedestrians with cycle lanes built in Kathmandu and Lalitpur. This campaign even advocated for legislation associated with Bicycles in Lalitpur Metropolitan City. The campaign got its final closure with the organization of 9th World Bicycle Forum in Nepal in 2020. As a way forward to the campaign for another decade a new campaign titled “Mero Cycle for Healthier Cities (MCHC), ride and earn”. This campaign is the next step of KCC2020 where it recognizes the multiple efforts done by different institutions under a Mobile Application based platform where people get motivated to use bicycles and reap benefits out of it for keeping the city clean and healthy.
MeroCycle is an application which is closely associated with the promotion of cycle on a personal level. It incentivizes people for cycling around the city and rewards them with different goodies for taking up cycling. This campaign is associated with Sustainable Development Goals and specifically with SDG – 3 “Good Health and Well Being” and SDG – 11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. Previously the campaign KCC2020 was just endorsed by the people and but the campaign MCHC is endorsed collectively by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (Governmental Agency), Lalitpur Metropolitan City (local Body), Kantipur Media Group (Media Agency), Cycle City Network Nepal (Non-governmental organization) and United Nations Development Program (Intergovernmental Agency). The major components of the campaign are as follows: 1. Increasing cycle users in Nepal, 2. Personal carbon offsetting rewards for the cycle users, 3. Building and promoting green based businesses in Nepal among cycle users, 4. Building partnerships with municipalities and institutions for the development of physical infrastructures that promote cycling.