Focus Group Discussion

Yesterday, Team ReDiscover Bicycle conducted a Focus Group Discussion where in the main panelists of the discussion board were Dr. Ranjit Konkar, Co-ordinator Product Design, at NID, Deepak Panchal and Devendra Bhai, Head, Metal workshop and two more metal workshop helpers; Natha kaka Head, wood workshop; one of the security gaurds at NID; French faculty; and Chris, Michelle and Katharine, students on exchange programme from RMIT, Melbourne Australia. Apart from them, we were glad to have few more student participants from various other disciplines at NID.
The main agenda was to get insights from the panelists on their cycling/non cycling experiences. We had a small presentation before the actual discussion to introduce the audience to various "Bike sharing" systems around the world. Few examples qouted were the India's First Bike-sharing Service - FreMo ( http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/2010/03/indias-first-bike-sharing-service-fremo.html ) in Thane, a Mumbai suburb; the bike sharing system in Chinese city of Hangzhou which is considered China's most beautiful city ( http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/biggest-bike-share-in-china.php ). This system would beat the existing system in Paris. And the final example was of the Bogota city in Columbia. For more information on this you may download a PDF file on this link http://www.itdp.org/documents/st_magazine/ITDP-ST_Magazine-19.pdf

It was interesting to have the participants views on various questions we left open for them to answer. Some of the questions asked were :

• When I see someone riding a bicycle I feel… ???
• Bicycle: I ride it because….
• Bicycle: I don’t ride it because…
• I would go for a bicycle that…
• Short cuts : I like it…
• I like when people appreciate me….
• Bicycle: I feel equally a part of transportation system…..

While we were discussing all these points, interesting stories about cycling experiences came through. The main point which is prohibiting people from riding a bicycle seemed to be the socio-economic status of the people. Everyone agreed on the fact that people who ride bicycle are the ones who cannot afford to buy a motorbike or car. This is a big concern to be dealt with to motivate even the people who can afford expensive modes of transport. It was surprising for me to know that few people among our discussion ride 20 kms of bicycle everyday to get to their work place from home. Most people switch to motorised transport as soon as they can afford it as it saves time, has less exertion, and can carry more people without any extra effort.

And there were few suggestions for the kind of bicycles they would like to ride or when buying a cycle for the first time.