<html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1>   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 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/group/carfree">http://www.youtube.com/group/carfree</a> 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 <a href="http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LotsLessCars/post?postID=1nbhR0Nby6SJP5jUpkorptHvQuHQS-yVquh57zI6ll54yeL4rq0StJPqRbzjQyi_fmpUkdo">etts@indigo.ie</a> 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.   </div> </body> </html>