User:Ridwanq/sandbox

History
Bangladeshi Cyclists commonly known as BDCyclists is a cycling group in Bangladesh that was initiated by Mozammel Haque and a few of his friends on May, 2011. Currently, it is the largest cycling crowd in the country. The main objective of BDCyclists is to promote cycling as the group believes that cycling provides a healthier life style. The goal of BDCyclists is to stay healthy and ride for recreation, commute, health, and shear fun. The group promotes safe cycling by making it mandatory to use safety gears such as helmets at all of its official rides. It is mandatory for the cyclists to bring head light and tail light for their bicycles to attend the night rides that the group organizes. BDCyclists also encourages all of its members to ride safely at all times.

Activity
The group organizes several fun bicycle rides every week such as the Bike Friday, BDC Nightriders and Josshila Saturday. About 250 cyclists join the Bike Friday event. It also organizes the Critical Mass, a cycling event that is held every month in 300 cities around the world. Occasional races are organized among the members and in the community to measure growth, skill and fitness level of the members such as the ‘Ifad Ride For The Environment-Zero CO2-Gomi Zero’. BDCyclists also arranges cycling lessons every Saturday Morning in Dhaka known as the BDCyclists Beginner’s Lesson. Other than cycling events the group also organizes several social and community events throughout the country such as the 64 Good Acts or the Eid Mubarak Ride where the members of the group distributed gifts to the less privileged people, especially the less privileged children in Dhaka. Recently the group participated in the World Heart Day and World Tourism Day rally in Dhaka.

Member
Though, the group started its journey back in 2011, the number of members actually started to rapidly increase from the beginning of 2013. The country’s largest telephone operator, Grameen Phone TV commercial which was aired towards in the middle of 2013 featuring BDCyclists titled as ‘Cholo Bohudur’ actually helped to publicize the group. The Grameen Phone TV commercial has certainly helped BDCyclists to start a bicycle revolution not only in capital Dhaka but all over Bangladesh. In July 2013 the group had 16,283 members. In a matter of only two months, in September the member number crossed to 20,000 members. Many more are joining the group every day. Members of the group have people from all walks of life such as students, service holders, business persons, including both young and old and male and female. People from all walks of life are now cycling to commute within the city and also joining the rides arranged by BDCyclists. To become members of this group, prospective members have to register at the BDCyclists website.

The Cycling Revolution
The belief, the conception that it is possible to commute within Dhaka by cycling is something that BDCyclists has shown to the people of Dhaka. This has inspired and encouraged many people to chose cycling for their commuting purposes in Dhaka, thus starting the cycle revolution in the city. People who are cycling instead of riding the bus, taxi or personal vehicles are now saving 1–2 hours on their daily commute. Inspired by BDCyclists, the youth are forming cycling groups at each of the localities to promote cycling. In addition, through the rides that BDCyclists arranges every week, they are helping to show their members the true natural beauty of Bangladesh because cycling helps one to be close to the nature which is not possible when someone is in a motorized vehicle.

On the Web
The group has a website at http://bdcylists.com. The website provides information about the features of cycles commonly found in Bangladesh and also in other parts of the world. The website also has a Question and Answer section where technical questions about cycles and any other questions related to cycling are answered by moderators of BDCyclists and other cycle experts. The website has a classified section and also a link to its facebook page. Members of the group share their cycling experience and discuss about issues related to cycling on the group’s facebook page. This facebook page contains information about cycles, cycling issues, cycle stores, photos from different rides arranged by the group etc as well.

National and International Media
The successful bicycle revolution initiated by BDCyclists has made a lot of noise in the media; almost every day an article or a news report is being published related to cycling in one of the daily newspapers and magazines in the country. News about BDCyclists is not only being published and broadcasted in the country’s media but even the international media such as The Guardian, One World South Asia and Yahoo News Malaysia has reported about the cycling revolution initiated by this group. A producer in the country has also made a drama based on the dream of BDCyclists, titled as ‘Cyclewalar Shopno’ or ‘The Dream of a Cyclist’. The drama has been aired in several of the TV channels in Bangladesh.