[sustran] Motorcycles in cities

[Eric Britton]

Motorcycles in cities: The text of this entry is identical to another posed to
the group today: Cycling in cities

 

I don't know if this is going to work, but for archival and retrieval purposes I
very much hope so.

 

As Brendan Finn suggests we will do well to introduce a certain order in our
discussions, not least because our two very different topics present very
different sets of problems to planners, policy makers and ordinary citizens in
our cities, South and North as it happens. 

 

To this end, I intend in the coming days to do a bit of housekeeping in Lots
Less Cars in Cities and will go back into a number of our recent messages on
these two topics and see if I can sort them out and put the various
communications under the principal headings. This will involve some repeated
reference if not reading for you, but since these are important issues and since
delete is but a click away, I do not worry overly about the inconvenience.

 

The two subject lines which I hope we shall be able to adhere to in the future
are:

 

o              Cycling in cities

o              Motorcycles in cities.

 

The idea is that the first of these categories will be mainly given over to
information and discussions concerning 'cycling as daily transport '. And if
this is currently going for the most part to be about the challenges of
improving the role and performance of cycling in cities, in some cases there may
be entries about some longer distance and rural uses. All the better I would
say.

 

The "motorcycles" category will I hope be mainly about these vehicles in and
around towns and cities, with a focus on the problems they create on the one
hand, the many rich contradictions they bring up when we finally start to
confront them, and without for one moment losing track of their importance for
many people in their daily lives, both as a means of getting around and also an
important source of employment and family support. It extends of course to three
wheelers, Rickshaws and all the wide range of variants thereof. 

 

Brendan brings up one point about the street infrastructure out there in many
cities in the Global South that we need always to keep in out sights, and that
is all those people who live and work in those same streets. Traders, vendors,
hawkers and people just lying, sitting and sleeping. 

 

Finally, I will try to improve the organization in our informal video libraries
currently under http://www.youtube.com/group/globalsouth and
http://www.youtube.com/group/carfree so that if nothing else we have the cram on
top of the milk.

 

I hope this is going to work for you.  (And that it might also be useful for
Sustran as a small but potentially useful organizing and reference device).

 

Eric Britton

 

\

 

* * * * * * * * * * 

Message of Sat Sep 9, 2006 - On Behalf Of
<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LotsLessCars/post?postID=1nbhR0Nby6SJP5jUpko
rptHvQuHQS-yVquh57zI6ll54yeL4rq0StJPqRbzjQyi_fmpUkdo> etts at indigo.ie


In my opinion, we have three separate issues here :

1) Bicycle use, and the general failure to provide even the barest minimum
safe environment for cyclists or their protection, let alone an attractive
environment to make it a mode of choice. I agree with Joshua about the lack
of suitable infrastructure. Some people are trying to change this, but
typically they are dealing with city councils whose limited resources are
dealing with drainage, waste disposal, pothole repair, street lighting and
other basics that Global North takes for granted. In some cities - and I
think Lagos and Accra could be included here - there is the further
complication of streetside vendors and traders who occupy the pavements and
curbsides, and hawkers who sell in the roadspace between the slow-moving
lanes. Any cycle facilities become occupied and the cyclist faces a new
adversary even among the traffic.

2) Motorcycles for personal use. I think there is general agreement that
this is a significant mode, and often both a commercial and social lifeline
in many cities, towns and rural areas throughout Africa and Asia. There is,
of course, disagreement both about the safety aspects (e.g. in Thailand)
and where they are used in substantial numbers in urban areas (often in
conflict with cyclists). Nonetheless, I think it is a mode to be nudged in
the right direction rather than to be suppressed or heavily controlled.

3) Motorcycles for commercial passenger use. In my opinion, these have a
role in areas where there is a lack of alternatives, but not in the busier
parts of cities. We have long ago agreed that buses are the most efficient
users of road space. Why on earth should we then agree to thousands of
single-passenger two-wheelers on the busiest arteries of a major city like
Lagos? Is it because we feel that anything that gives work to the poor
can't be touched, even if it seriously damages the mobility of all
citizens? Besides, it would be interesting to know how many of the workers
actually own the motorcycle they drive, and how many are paying a rental to
an owner and then fighting aggressively for work to cover their fuel costs
and enough to eat at the end of the day.

When we debate motorcycles and bicycles, I think it is important to keep
focus on which strand we are discussing.

With best wishes,


Brendan Finn.

 

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