Je­lani Beck­les

Pro­fes­sion­al cy­clists, ca­su­al cy­clists or cit­i­zens look­ing for a new form of trans­port will now have ac­cess to a lane around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah af­ter a ground-break­ing meet­ing was held on Mon­day morn­ing be­tween Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters and mem­bers of the cy­cling fra­ter­ni­ty.

At the end of the meet­ing held at the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture, it was de­cid­ed that cy­clists will have ac­cess to one of the lanes around the sa­van­nah in ap­prox­i­mate­ly two weeks.

Cy­clists will be al­lowed to use the in­side lane (clos­est lane to the sa­van­nah) be­tween 4 am and 6 am and be­tween 8 pm and 9.30 pm dur­ing the week.

On hol­i­days and week­ends, rid­ers would be al­lowed to use the lane be­tween 6 am and 9 am.

Some of those present at the meet­ing were Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan, Min­is­ter of Trans­port Stephen Cadiz, pres­i­dent of the Madon­na Wheel­ers Cy­cling Club Bar­ry Edghill and for­mer na­tion­al cy­clists Gene Samuel and Roger Gib­bons.

The Min­is­ters al­so agreed to en­cour­age the Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty to pro­vide the nec­es­sary in­fra­struc­ture to el­e­vate the Ch­aguara­mas Golf Course cir­cuit in­to a 'Safe Cy­cling Zone'.

Yes­ter­day Edghill was hap­py with the new de­vel­op­ment. "It is a re­lief. I al­most stood up and ap­plaud­ed af­ter hear­ing the news. It was such great news for cy­cling."

He added that not on­ly lo­cal rid­ers would ben­e­fit, but for­eign­ers who want to ride will now feel safe.

Mem­bers of the T&T cy­cling fra­ter­ni­ty have been fever­ish­ly try­ing to get re­spect for rid­ers. Edghill spoke about Share The Road T&T, an or­gan­i­sa­tion launched fol­low­ing the pass­ing of for­mer na­tion­al cy­clist and coach Clin­ton Grant, who died while rid­ing along the Au­drey Jef­fers High­way last year.

"They are on a mis­sion to help ed­u­cate mo­torists about what cy­clists are en­ti­tled to, they al­so in­tend to ed­u­cate what is re­quired from them (cy­clists)."

Samuel al­so could not con­tain his ex­cite­ment, say­ing: "I am very ex­cit­ed for the safe­ty of the rid­ers. The meet­ing was very pos­i­tive. Af­ter wait­ing so many years, it is a great thing, it will be great for tourists."

Samuel be­lieves cit­i­zens in T&T will start liv­ing healthy again and is con­fi­dent there will be more bi­cy­cles on the road.

The for­mer na­tion­al cy­clist has been plead­ing for the safe­ty of cy­clists for more than ten years.

Edghill, who praised Min­is­ter Ram­bachan for his help, is en­cour­ag­ing all cy­cling clubs and groups to give sug­ges­tions to es­tab­lish more safe zones for cy­cling in the coun­try.