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CAP Bicycle Campaign 2012

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CAP together with the Department of Environment, Penang and the Penang Office of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism is organising the Bicycle Campaign 2012 in conjunction with this year’s World Environment Day on 15 July, 2012 at Kepala Batas, Penang.

Participation is free and open to all. Come and be part of the movement for good health and environmental and economic sustainability.

Malaysia is getting more urbanised and motorised today. Our towns and cities are now planned with the needs of cars in mind instead of people’s needs — easily half of the space in our cities is now used for cars. This leads to urban sprawl, which causes even more noise and air pollution that lowers our quality of life.

Such senseless mobility that involves not only high costs, but also speed — that leads to more stress, more road bullies, and more road deaths and injuries — are unhealthy, bad for our quality of life as well as is economically and environmentally unsustainable.

What the country needs now is a less disruptive mode of transport, one that reduces environmental pollution, is healthier for all, calms the chaos on our roads, and will connect people with people, and people with nature.

We need a cheap yet efficient alternative transport that will slow us down, not stress us out, one that is economically sustainable and will lead to a better quality of life for all Malaysians.

We need to bring back the bicycle. Yes, the bicycle — that good old cheap-to-operate pedal-power machine our ancestors depended on to take them places, that now no longer has a status on our roads or a place in our transport planning.

The humble bicycle could be a key to our long-term survival — in terms of health, environment and economics. CAP’s research shows that reviving bicycle use here would benefit both the nation and the people.

By cycling, Malaysians — both children and adults — will be incorporating exercise into their daily life, and in the process, improve their health.

We invite the public to join us and participate in this campaign to promote health and environmental and economic sustainability. Entry is free. Participants will be given T-shirts and only need to bring their bicycles.

Read more about the benefits of cycling in these articles:

Reviving the bicycle for health

Reviving the bicycle for transport

How government can promote cycling

Bicycle safety tips