[sustran] ANC Backs Bicycling

ITDP mobility at igc.org
Wed Oct 18 11:53:42 JST 2000


>From Business Day South Africa, 10/16/00
(for more information, check itdp.org)
-------

One person, one bike

TO THE list of essential items the African National Congress intends to
provide those who cannot afford them, add bicycles. So said Transport
Minister Dullah Omar in Washington last week. "The time has come," he
said, "to promote bicycle transport as a strategic solution."

Ten thousand bikes are to be distributed in rural areas early next year.

By 2010, Omar aims to have rolled out a million. He calculates that a
subsidy of about R200 will be required per "low-income bicycle user". So
we are
potentially talking about R200m over the next decade to achieve his
dream, inspired by Afribike, a Gauteng-based nonprofit agency.

It is easy to mock and wonder just how many lambs Omar if he can
overcome what he calls "the social taboos against cycling" will be
sending to the

slaughter on SA's already deadly roads. As Afribike's Sam Maswanganyi
says, "most combi and car drivers treat cyclists like insects".

The trick, say Omar and Afribike, is to turn SA into a cycling culture,
like Holland, where all planning accommodates bicycles as a key form of
transport. As social engineering goes, this is quite benign. Certainly
it would create lots of opportunities for small sales and service
businesses.  Flat tyres are going to need fixing and bent wheels
straightening.

If it will help a rural child get to school in 20 minutes compared with
an hour on foot, the child should ideally have a bike. But he or she
should
ideally have a lot of other things as well.


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