If your workplace is less than five kilometers away and you’re willing to brave pollution and sweat then OLA has chalked up a one-of-a-kind offer for you – riding a bicycle to work.
India’s largest taxi-hailing service has just introduced bicycles to its extensive portfolio.
‘Pedal’ as Ola is calling it is a bicycle sharing service where customer traveling over short distances can rent a bicycle and travel for the same. The service has primarily been introduced to help customers complete the final leg of their journey within large college and office campuses.
Right now the service is only active in select place but will soon come into all cities where Ola cabs are operating. Ola in a statement said that it is initially piloting the service in various campuses, to start with.
With incessant traffic jams and delays on a daily basis, Ola aims to solve bigger issues like pollution and congestion especially for short distance trips.
The procedure to avail the service will be the same through the Ola app but the user has to link the app to Aadhaar as the key to the bicycle is biometrics.
The customers can book any bicycle located at a nearby docking station in their area and then use it after unlocking it via biometrics. Ola says that it will make the use of machine-learning and algorithms to ascertain where customers require the service the most.
Once the ride is over, customers can just lock the cycle using the smart lock, which the company says does not require the bike to be left at a docking station.
As for the bicycles, they will be manufactured in India and come equipped with features like an anti-slip chain, alloy frame, puncture proof tyres. The bike will also give users the ability to track their status while riding the cycles.
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)