Residents of the Fontanar neighborhood in the Cuban capital are pleased with the incorporation of electric three-wheel vehicles to shorten distances between sectors within Boyeros, one of the municipalities that make up Havana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Oct 17 2022 (IPS)

The incorporation of small electric vehicles for public transport, together with initiatives that encourage the use of bicycles, represent opportunities and challenges for Cuba to sustainably and inclusively combat the chronic problems in urban mobility.

“Connecting nearby places with electric means of transportation has been very timely and a relief,” said Dania Martínez, referring to the well-known Ecotaxis, six-seater vehicles that since June have been providing transportation between neighborhoods within the municipality of Boyeros, one of the 15 that make up Havana."Neomovilidad has aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-carbon urban transport system in Havana, with a positive environmental impact." -- Reynier Campos

The teacher and her son were waiting for one of these vehicles at the Fontanar shopping center to take them to Wajay, their neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, when IPS asked them what they thought about the service.

“Public transportation is not good in this area, far from the city center, and private taxis charge you a high fee. Just getting somewhere else five kilometers away can be difficult. Hopefully the three-wheelers will spread to other places,” Martinez said.

She was referring to light motorized vehicles that resemble some kinds of Asian autorickshaws, which are also known locally as motocarro or mototaxi, with a capacity for six people in the back.

With a range of 120 kilometers, these three-wheeled electric vehicles cover three two- to four-kilometer routes for a price of four pesos, or 17 cents at the official exchange rate in a country with an average monthly salary equivalent to about 160 dollars.

The fleet of 25 vehicles is part of the Neomovilidad project, implemented by the General Directorate of Transportation of Havana (DGTH) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba.

For its implementation until 2023, it has a budget of 1.9 million dollars donated by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

“From its start in 2019, Neomovilidad has aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-carbon urban transport system in Havana, with a positive environmental impact,” Reynier Campos, director of the project, told IPS.

During the first three months of operation, more than 135,000 people were transported, with an estimated monthly emission reduction potential of 6.12 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

On the downside, Ecotaxis can only recharge at night by connecting to the national power grid, 95 percent of which depends on the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Recharging is carried out at the three-wheel vehicles’ parking area and is done at night because it takes about six hours.

However, there are plans to contract power from solar parks of the state-owned electric utility Unión Eléctrica de Cuba, in order to offset consumption, executives said.

Other fleets of Ecotaxis provide service in the municipalities of La Habana Vieja, Centro Habana and Guanabacoa, also with UNDP support, and contribute to the national commitment to climate change mitigation actions.

Campos explained that Neomovilidad is a pilot project in Boyeros that could be extended to other Havana municipalities and cities of this Caribbean island nation of 11.1 million people, where public transportation is one of the most pressing long-term issues.

Reynier Campos, head of the Neomovilidad project, stressed that the initiative proposes to strengthen the legislative framework and promote public policies based on four lines that contribute to Sustainable Urban Mobility and help reduce carbon emissions in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Long-standing problem

With its 2.2 million residents and tens of thousands of people who live here on a short-term basis, Havana has 1.4 million people using transportation daily, one million of whom use the state-owned bus company Empresa de Ómnibus Urbanos, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

But the most recent official reports acknowledge that less than 50 percent of the fleet of public buses are currently operating in the capital.

The Cuban government blames the U.S. embargo as the main obstacle to the purchase of spare parts, as well as the lack of access to credit to repair and renovate buses, the main form of public transportation.

Problems with the availability of fuel and the number of drivers who find work in sectors with greater economic benefits also undermine an irregular service whose most visible face is the overcrowded stops at peak hours.

Figures indicate that 26 percent of the total estimated passengers in Havana use private taxis, which charge higher rates that not everyone can afford.

There are also non-agricultural transportation cooperatives with cabs and minibuses, as well as buses of the state-owned Transmetro Company, that provide services with set schedules.

About 80 percent of Latin America’s inhabitants live in towns and cities, and urban public transport remains essential in regional mobility plans.

Cuba is quietly taking steps to encourage the use of alternative vehicles and increase electricity production from renewable sources, which plans aim to raise from the current five to 37 percent by 2030.

As a result of flexible customs regulations for their importation, as well as assembly, it is estimated that half a million bicycles, motorcycles and electric three-wheelers are in circulation on the island, helping families get around.

However, high prices and sales only in foreign currency hinder their spread. Some of the most economical ones cost over 1,000 dollars, while others range from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars in government stores.

Mirelis Cordovés, driver of one of the electrocycles, makes 11 trips a day on the Fontanar-Wajay route, in the Boyeros municipality of the Cuban capital. She is pleased to have a job and a higher income to support her nine-year-old son, whom she is raising on her own. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Gender focus to reduce gaps

Neomovilidad stands out for encouraging the incorporation of women as drivers and promoting female employment.

“In addition to giving me a job, my income is higher, helping me support my nine-year-old son,” Mirelis Cordovés, a single mother who is one of the 13 women who now form part of the project’s team of drivers, told IPS.

Latin American nations such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama have adopted national policies related to the development of electric mobility.

In the case of Cuba, the proposal is “a vision for the development of electromobility from the Ministries of Transport, Energy and Mines and Industry, with guidelines and priority lines in public transport, including the conversion of vehicles,” said Campos.

He said that Neomovilidad proposes to promote public policies that contribute to Sustainable Urban Mobility.

The project urges considering the specific mobility needs of each social group and mainstreaming variables such as gender, age and accessibility, in order to reduce gaps.

The National Gender Equality Survey, conducted in 2016 but whose results were released in February 2019, showed that women primarily bear the burden of care work.

They are the ones who spend the most time taking children, family members or other people under their care to schools, hospitals or to buy food, the survey showed.

Transportation was identified as one of the top three problems for Cuban women, second only to low incomes and housing shortages.

The study drew attention to the correlation between time use and income inequality, because cheaper transportation options (public buses) increase travel delays.

Experts consulted by IPS consider that in the case of Cuba, a developing nation shaken by a three-decade economic crisis and pressing financial problems, there is no need to wait for solutions that demand large resources, if small and accessible alternatives can be devised to organize and facilitate mobility.

The Neomovilidad stand during the 2022 International Transport Fair at the Pabexpo fairgrounds in Havana. The project includes a pilot system of public bicycles, with six bicycle stations and 300 bikes, which should start offering its services before the end of 2022. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Integrating bicycles

As part of Neomovilidad, a pilot system of public bicycles should be inaugurated before the end of 2022, with six stations and 300 bicycles, also in the municipality of Boyeros.

The autonomous venture Inteliforja will operate the bicycle mobility system as a local development project, in conjunction with the DGTH, after winning a bidding process.

“The main activity will be the rental of bicycles at affordable prices. It will include other services such as parking, mechanical workshops, as well as complementary activities such as bicycle touring, package delivery and community activities to encourage the use of this means of transport,” explained Luis Alberto Sarmiento, one of the managers of Inteliforja.

Sarmiento told IPS that the central workshop will be located at the José Antonio Echeverría Technological University of Havana, where there are several engineering and architecture courses.

“We plan to install a solar panel-powered station there to charge students’ motorcycles and electric bicycles,” said the young entrepreneur.

“Farther in the future, when we have more resources, we plan to introduce bicycles or three-wheelers for the transportation of elderly and disabled people,” Sarmiento added.

Although electric mobility and the use of bicycles are seen as promoting more open, safer, cleaner and healthier cities, Cuba faces multiple challenges in this regard, starting with the need to lower the price of vehicles and ensure the stable availability of parts and components.

Other pending issues are the lack of recharging points for refueling outside the home, the lack of bicycle lanes or green lanes, in addition to the urgent need to repair a road network, 75 percent of which is classified as in fair or poor condition.

Bogotá is famous for its vast network of bike lanes. Credit: Helda Martínez/IPS

By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, Dec 17 2013 (IPS)

“I ride 43 km a day and I love it,” said Carlos Cantor in Bogotá, Colombia. “Five years ago I switched my car for a bike,” explained Tomás Fuenzalida from Santiago, Chile.

They are both part of the burgeoning growth of cycling as a transport solution in Latin America.

But in the second-most urbanised region in the world, public sentiment towards bicycles is mixed, with some seeing them as a symbol of low socioeconomic status, says the “Biciciudades 2013” study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with regard to the expansion of this sustainable means of transport in large and medium-sized cities in the region.

The report, based on surveys and commissioned by the IDB’s Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative, found that between 0.4 and 10 percent of the population in the region use a bicycle as their main means of transportation.

Among the cities studied, Cochabamba in Bolivia heads the list, with 10 percent of the population depending on the bicycle. It is followed by La Paz, Bolivia, and Asunción, the Paraguayan capital, with five percent. All of these are intermediate cities with populations between 100,000 and two million people.

Among the big cities, in Santiago and Mexico City, three percent of the population use bicycles as their main means of transport, followed by Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and Bogotá, with two percent.

Bogotá is known as a world leader in bike paths, with 376 km of “ciclorutas” or dedicated lanes – one of the most extensive networks in the world – and 120 km of recreational paths. In addition, car traffic is cut on some streets on Sundays and holidays.

Cantor, a 58-year-old communications specialist, took a break from his daily ride to tell Tierramérica about his experience cycling in the city. “You can go fast, because there’s no traffic; on some stretches I even enjoy the greenery and the quiet,” he said. “There’s a lot of solidarity, and you make friends.”

The Secretariat of Mobility of the Capital District estimates that in Bogotá, a city of around eight million people, local residents make about 450,000 bike trips a day. The largest group of bicycle users are manual labourers and factory workers, followed by students from lower-income families.

The recreational bike paths date back to 1974 and are used by an average of one million people every Sunday.

“I love the [recreational] bike paths, I use them every Sunday,” law student Carolina Mejía told Tierramérica. “But I don’t use the ciclorutas, because many of them havent’ been completed yet, and there are stretches that you have to share with cars and buses, and that scares me. Also, it’s not safe.”

Cantor agreed that there are safety concerns: “Every day bicycles are stolen, and there’s a brisk trade in stolen bicycles. In a question of seconds they change the colour with a spray can and your bike disappears.” But he said “people learn to use less pretentious bikes, and they put marks on them so it’s harder to sell them underground.”

Fuenzalida, 44, swapped his car for a bike in the Chilean capital “for my health,” because “you get exercise without paying a single peso in the gym” and because “it is much nicer to ride a bike than to take the subway, for example.”

The public relations specialist not only pedals to work, but also uses the bike to take his kids to school, go to meetings, or visit family members.

For people like him, the Santiago city government is implementing a “master plan” to extend bike lanes to a total of 933 km. The city currently has 215 km of bike lanes, while there are 130 km of paths in adjacent rural municipalities.

Greater Santiago is home to over five million people.

“This is one of the keys to increasing the use of bicycles, and for the city and residents of Santiago to see the benefits in the easing of traffic congestion and for health and the environment,” the Chilean government’s spokesperson Cecilia Pérez told Tierramérica.

The mayor of the Santiago metropolitan area, Juan Antonio Peribonio, told Tierramérica that the plan would be ready in 2022 and that lanes were being built to connect the existing paths. To that will be added a public system to lend out bicycles, in order to promote cycling.

But not everything is positive for cyclists. “Sometimes pedestrians, taxi drivers or car drivers insult me, they call me stupid,” said Laurie Fachaux, a 28-year-old French journalist who has lived in Chile for a few months. “They should get used to the fact that I have a right to be on the streets just like they do.”

Antonia Larraín, 37, believes that part of the problem is the lack of regulations protecting cyclists. “If an accident happens, there is total impunity,” said the psychologist, who pedals 13 km a day to and from work.

Enrique Rojas, 50, who has driven a taxi for 30 years in Santiago, reflected the other side of the coin. “Cyclists are careless, they wind in and out of the cars and don’t respect traffic signals; I have often almost hit one of them because they didn’t stop for a red light or because they were riding at night without any light,” he commented to Tierramérica.

“Cyclists should also have to take out a permit, and bicycles should have licence plates. They shouldn’t just be able to get on their bikes and not worry about anything – they leave their safety in the hands of others,” he complained.

But bicycle use is growing nonetheless, like in greater Mexico City, which has a population of around 20 million.

“It has been a relatively short process,” said Xavier Treviño, director of the Mexican office of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). “The greatest success has been turning cycling into an alternative means of transport, and the main strength has been promotion of cycling,” he told Tierramérica.

The most visible symbol of cycling in the Mexican capital is the Ecobici Individual Transportation System, which since its launch in 2010 has drawn 87,000 users of 4,000 bicycles at 275 stations along 22 km of paths. Users register and pay 31 dollars a year.

Mexico City also has 90 km of separated and non-separated bike lanes. “Systems like Ecobici provide incentives for continued growth. It’s positive inertia. But infrastructure is lacking. All main roads should have infrastructure for bicycles,” Treviño said.

According to Ecociudades 2013, nearly all of the 18 intermediate and six large cities studied have bike lanes, with the exception of Asunción, Paraguay and Manizales, Colombia.

But only Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Asunción, La Paz and Montevideo – the capital of Uruguay – have regulations for urban cycling, as Rojas, the taxi driver, was calling for.

With reporting by Helda Martínez (Bogotá), Emilio Godoy (Mexico City) and Marianela Jarroud (Santiago).

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Bicycles are adding to Cambodia’s export basket, but at a price to workers. Credit: Michelle Tolson/IPS.

By Michelle Tolson
PHNOM PENH, Jan 28 2013 (IPS)

Cambodia’s export business is in the process of changing due to shifts in manufacturing in Asia. A business publication in the country has reported unexpected growth in the “machinery and transport equipment” sector and speculated it was as “probably bicycles.” But when Cambodia jumped into the top ten exporters of bicycles to the EU in 2012, it prompted the European Bicycle Manufacturers’ Association (EBMA) to investigate.

In 2011, 366,000 bikes were exported from Cambodia to the EU but “in the first half of 2012 the country managed to almost triple its bike export to the EU. Cambodia’s exports totaled close to 520,000 units in the first six months of 2012 compared to 140,000 in the same period of 2011,” according to Bikeeu.com.

The EBMA discovered that bicycle companies had moved their production to Cambodia from Thailand and China, citing increased expenses. The move is estimated to save 14 percent on taxes. A favourable scheme is in place for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) known as the Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement. The EBA allows countries ranked among the 48 LDCs to export products duty-free to the EU, except arms and ammunition.

Introduced at the beginning of 2011, it ushered in a surge of 53 percent in export growth to European countries that year, making the EU Cambodia’s second largest export partner after the U.S., according to local business reports.

Increasing expenses in China and Thailand have been attributed in part to rising wages. The minimum wage in Thailand was recently raised to 300 baht per day (10 dollars) and salaries in China in this business have risen to 400 dollars per month.  By contrast, minimum wages in Cambodia are set at just 61 dollars per month.

Strongman and A & J – listed as a subsidiary of Atlantic Cycle Co. – was reported to have originally opened their factory in Cambodia in 2005.  A government website listing investments into the country shows three bicycle factories in the “Tai Seng zone” in the Svay Reing province – A &J, Atlantic Cycle Co. and Smart Tech – and a fourth bike factory, Best Way Industry, in the ‘Manhattan zone’ in Svay Reing.

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ), according to a USAID report, offers pro-business perks to investors, a quick turnaround on red tape, low taxes, low wages, ease of doing business and a “young and educated” population. The report listed 1,500 workers in the bicycle industry. The minimum monthly salary then for factory work was 60 dollars a month, or 33 cents per hour, which would necessitate working six days per week to make 60 dollars monthly.  Dated 2008, this shows that wages have not risen in four years.

Local media recently revealed that a minimum wage increase for garment factories was in the works due to a labour shortage. Manufacturing overall has been shifting from China and Vietnam to Cambodia, and there are not enough workers in this country. The social affairs ministry has called for a wage increase but asked unions to agree on an amount – with suggested salaries ranging from 93 dollars to 150 dollars per month.

Bicycle factory workers face similar labour issues to garment workers.  Srun Srorn, activist and NGO consultant, explained how factory workers live on wages which amount to just two dollars per day.

Workers pool money and share a single meal. “Usually they do this: four friends x 500 riels (12 cents) = 2000 riels (50 cents). Then they eat some food which costs 500 riels or less. Usually the maximum is 5000 riels (1.25 dollars) for three or four people.”

Some factories include a meal stipend with the monthly salary.  Workers have short meal breaks and eat from vendors located just outside the factory gates.  Some employers include a transportation stipend.  There is no public transportation system in Cambodia, requiring workers to pay for motorbike taxi rides which cost 50 cents to a dollar.

In mid-December 2012, local media reported 1,000 workers at a Smart Tech bike factory in Svay Rieng went on strike to raise their salary. Two months prior, another strike had been reported at A& J.

Moeun Tola, a lawyer at the labour programme of the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) said he assisted the workers with legal advice. He said they were not part of a union but had organised the strike on their own. “They are not advised by anyone but we would give legal assistance and advice.”

Better Factories, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) programme, was created to help factory workers but at this time only assists garment factories, according to a spokesperson contacted by IPS.

IPS spoke with Nhanh Kosol, one of the workers, about the strike for an update. Kosol said that their wage is still just 61 dollars a month but the factory had agreed to a transportation subsidy of 13 dollars per month and overtime pay. They can work overtime between two hours and five hours a day, depending on the factory. Overtime of five hours earns an additional three dollars.

He thought the bike factory was “not too bad, because I have a job. The working conditions are some days good, and some days bad but the salary is not sufficient to support living and everything is always going up.” In his two years working there, the workers went on strike two or three times already and “it can help, but not too much.”

Bike EU listed the per unit price imported from Cambodia as about 200 euros. The U.S. has also recently had an upsurge in imports in bikes from Cambodia, according to foreign trade statistics. In 2009, 2.06 million dollars worth of goods were imported from Cambodia under the label “toys, shooting and sporting goods, and bicycles.” In 2010, the amount tripled to 6.8 million dollars and by 2011 it was 10.3 million dollars.

When asked how much he thought the bikes he helped make sold for, Kosol said workers thought between 1,400 dollars and 3,000 dollars, the low end of which is 25 times his monthly salary.

Bicycles are mushrooming around Buenos Aires. Credit: Juan Moseinco/IPS

By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 30 2012 (IPS)

A programme launched in Buenos Aires three years ago to encourage the use of bicycles has already brought results: the use of this environment-friendly means of transport has increased fivefold in the Argentine capital.

“Buenos Aires, mejor en bici” (Buenos Aires, Better by Bike) is the name of the project that emerged in 2009 in the Healthy Mobility Office of the Transport Subscretariat of the Argentine capital, with the aim of extending protected bike lanes in the city.

“When we started to work on the idea of making bicycles an alternative means of transportation here, they only accounted for 0.4 percent of all trips. That has now gone up to two percent,” the director of Healthy Mobility, Paula Bisiau, told IPS.

To achieve this, work was carried out on three fronts: the creation of a network of bike lanes; the establishment of a free, public bicycle sharing system; and a campaign to encourage bicycle use.

“Buenos Aires is flat; the climate, except for the occasional rainy day, is mild; there are many students and people who practice sports…this was a city that could become very bicycle-friendly,” the official explained.

In a survey carried out by the government of centre-right Mayor Mauricio Macri, 61 percent of respondents said they were prepared to use the bicycle as a means of transport, as long as they could ride in safe bike lanes.

A total of 95 km of two-way bike lanes have been built on the left shoulder of roads that are free of bus traffic, set off by a raised yellow concrete curb.

The public bicycle sharing service was later put into effect, with three stations and 50 bicycles. Users can borrow bikes for an hour, after leaving their address and identification card number.

Today there are 28 stations, 1,000 bicycles and 60,000 registered users, who generally use the service to commute to and from work or school, according to the Healthy Mobility Office.
With the growing affluence in Buenos Aires, traffic lights for cyclists have been installed, to make traffic safer, and special green lanes have been created for bicycles to cross at intersections, alongside the pedestrian lanes.

The programme’s goal is to reach 100 stations and 2,000 bicycles in the free bike hire system, and 130 km of bike lanes by the end of 2013.

To finance this new means of transport, the state-owned Banco Ciudad launched a line of soft loans for bicycle purchases, payable in up to four years, with fixed rates.
Bisiau explained that, besides the creation of infrastructure, the government is working on promoting a “cultural change” with the help, for example, of students from the public University of Buenos Aires.

In an industrial design class, students worked on a prototype of a bicycle that could be used to carry merchandise. And apparel design students came up with proposals for garments for cyclists.

The Healthy Mobility Office offers talks in schools, gives courses to taxi drivers about cyclists, and added a chapter of rules on bicycles to the driver’s license test.

To make the programme more visible, guarded bike parking facilities are set up during public and private events that draw large numbers of people, like concerts or open-air conferences, and an effort is being made to get companies involved as well.

A total of 130 agreements have been signed so far with companies interested in fomenting the use of bicycles among their employees. The businesses assume a commitment to provide a bicycle parking space, bicycles, and in some cases, showers.

Andrés Fingeret, country director for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), said the Buenos Aires programme had brought about a change: that people no longer see bicycles merely as a form of weekend fun and recreation.

“Today there is a real community of bike riders who use the bicycle as their first choice of transport. And there are even clubs of cyclists who get together to go on rides,” he commented to IPS.

He said that when riders discover that there is a safe network of routes, or that they are able to try out the free bike-sharing system, demand immediately goes up.

Fingeret recommended moving towards “greater integration” between bicycles and the rest of the transportation system, to further bolster their use.

He suggested, for example, making it easier for people to take bikes on trains, building ramps in train stations with stairs, or fomenting the opening of new bicycle stores and centres that offer services and accessories for cyclists.

Buenos Aires has thus joined the global trend towards a more sustainable, clean means of transportation, in which Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro clearly stand out in Latin America.
Fingeret agreed that a cultural change is taking place. “Traditionally, people who used bicycles to get about were so poor that they couldn’t even afford a motorcycle. Today, the bicycle has taken on status and there is a broad segment of society, especially among people under 40, who are actively choosing it,” he said.

Ghana’s bamboo frames for bicycles are being exported to Austria. Credit: Portia Crowe/IPS

By Portia Crowe
KUMASI, Ghana, Aug 23 2012 (IPS)

In Ghana, a country burgeoning with traffic congestion, increasing economic growth, and a stark urban-rural divide, making frames of bicycles out of bamboo could be the key to promoting sustainable development. It also makes stronger, longer-lasting bikes.

This is according to Bernice Dapaah, the executive director of Bamboo Bikes Initiative, which trains young Ghanaians to build, fix, and market bamboo-framed bicycles.

“We are into women, children, and youth’s empowerment. And the project reduces carbon emissions and contributes to traffic decongestion, so using it is also a form of reducing climate change,” she said in an interview with IPS.

Bamboo Bikes works in partnership with Ibrahim Djan Nyampong, the owner of Africa Items Co Ltd in Accra, and the frames are sold abroad for 350 dollars each. They cost nearly 200 dollars to build, and Nyampong — also Bamboo Bikes’ technical advisor — pays the young apprentices an additional 30 dollars per frame for their labour.

Nyampong described some of the technical advantages that bamboo frames hold over their carbon fibre or metal counterparts.

“It lasts longer than the metal frame,” he said. “You know a bamboo bike doesn’t break – it’s very durable.”

He said a control test run in Germany proved bamboo frames to be 10 times lighter than metal frames, and noted their heavy load-bearing capacity. Indeed bamboo’s tensile strength — meaning the maximum stress it can withstand while being stretched — is much higher than that of steel.

Bamboo is fibrous, and therefore shock-absorbent. It naturally dampens vibrations, so the frames do not require steel or titanium springs.

“The bamboo has also been treated against splitting and termites, so it’s very strong,” Nyampong explained.

He said the bamboo is treated for three to six months before being used for production. It is then coated in a clear lacquer to protect it against rain and other damage.

These elements have enhanced the frames’ international marketability, and BambooRide, an Austrian company, has begun importing them for sale in Europe.

“At first, we were developing the frames together with (Nyampong), because they were good, but they had to fit a certain European standard,” said Matthias Schmidt, BambooRide’s sales manager.

“So it was like a partnership, a knowledge transfer in both directions,” he told IPS.

The Austrian importers also provided Nyampong’s team with new equipment, including their first jig, to improve precision and reduce the margin of error.

Now, the Austrian company imports up to 10 frames per month, and Schmidt said he looks forward to the initiative’s continued expansion.

“Their capacity is limited… and in the case that we need more frames… we’ll need other sources. So we’re supporting Dapaah’s efforts to improve the equipment and technology,” he said.

Ensuring Environmental Sustainability 

Using bamboo rather than metal to build bicycle frames also holds several advantages for producers – and for the environment.

According to Dapaah, bamboo’s availability as a local material not only enables producers to avoid expensive import costs, but also eliminates the carbon emissions that would arise from the transport of imported materials into the country.

Bamboo is also organic and recyclable, and, unlike metal materials, does not require high levels of energy during extraction and manufacturing.

“The bamboo bicycle is environmentally friendly… because we are also fighting against climate change,” explained Dapaah.

She said the initiative also commits to ecological sustainability by working with bamboo farmers in rural communities to harvest new bamboo crops, and conserve already existent ones.

“If we cut one bamboo, we make sure to plant at least three or five more,” she said.

In addition, bamboo bicycle frames promote sustainable transportation as an alternative to motor vehicles and fossil fuels.

According to Isaac Osei, the regional director for Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, this is important.

“The traffic situation in the country in general is increasing, and when traffic increases it has its associated environmental issues,” he told IPS.

There are 30 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people in Ghana, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority registers hundreds more each day. Data suggests that vehicle ownership will continue to rise, as the country hits record levels of GDP growth per capita. Ghana has the largest GDP per capita in West Africa at 402.3 dollars in 2011.

Osei noted some of the harmful impacts of increased vehicle use, including carbon dioxide emissions and pollution from dust particles on dirt roads.

“To actually educate people to use bicycles rather than vehicles, I think it is good for the country and the world as a whole,” he said.

By employing and providing young people with technical skills, the initiative is designed to reduce unemployment and, consequently, rural poverty.

“So far I’ve trained about 10 boys,” Nyampong said. “They can build the bikes, but it’s not up to the quality control level, so we are still training them.”

In addition, Bamboo Bikes will help graduated trainees establish their own workshops, and begin to train more young people.

In 2009, Bamboo Bikes won the Clinton Global Initiative Award, and in 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme Seed Initiative award. It also garnered international attention in June when it received a World Business and Development Award at the 2012 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The road between Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls and Livingstone, in Zambia, is a well-traversed one, criss-crossed by bicycle riders towing trailers of bread and other supplies, with their bicycle spokes reinforced to bear the extra weight.

“If you have a bicycle, you can be rich,” said one cargo cyclist on the road just beyond the falls, as he abandoned pedalling and pushed his wheeled load. “This is how we trade.”

Although they are low-tech, the trailers are skilfully designed and often neighbourhood- manufactured, have two wheels and are attached to the bicycle via a hitch behind the saddle. They can carry up to around 200 kilogrammes of goods, water or, less often, people. These are significantly greater weights than what can be transported by head load, handcart or backpack.

Zambulances – bicycle trailers with a mattress, privacy curtain and basic medical equipment – have replaced walking or being pushed in a wheelbarrow for many ailing rural people who live some distance from healthcare centres. Credit: Gail Jennings/IPS

In Zambia, Namibia and more recently Congo-Brazzaville, bicycle trailers save not only livelihoods, but also lives. Zambulances – bicycle trailers with a mattress, privacy curtain and basic medical equipment – have replaced walking or being pushed in a wheelbarrow for many ailing or pregnant rural people who live some distance from healthcare centres.

Designed and produced by Zambikes, the 2012 winner of the international MobiPrize for mobility-related social entrepreneurship, these trailers have been found to save one life for every nine days they are used.

South Africa has been slower than its neighbours to embrace the bicycle as an obvious example of low-cost, low-carbon mobility. But slowly micro-entrepreneurs and bicycle tourists are discovering the ease and economic opportunity a bicycle trailer can offer as a way of transporting goods and passengers.

Malibongwe* lives in Khayelitsha, a low-income neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. He makes a living buying ice cream and selling it from his make-shift bicycle trailer – and manages to support his whole family. Recently he tested positive for HIV and now uses his bicycle to make the monthly trip to collect his anti-retroviral medication as well.

So it was with dismay that Malibongwe learned that his enterprise is in danger, from a surprising source. Despite the country’s draft non-motorised transport (NMT) policy that aims to increase the role of NMT as a key transport mode and allocate adequate and sustainable funding for its development and promotion, the South African National Department of Transport (NDoT) is considering prohibiting the use of bicycle trailers on public roads.

However, the department recognises that although there is growth in motorised transport in developing countries such as South Africa, a large portion of the population depends on non-motorised forms of transport. This is likely to not only continue, but increase following global trends of rising fuel prices and the need for low-carbon transportation.

“Local transport solutions such as trailers, handcarts or bicycles could assist poor and rural communities in making them more efficient with small business and domestic duties,” stated the draft NMT Policy.

It also noted that the “effects of inefficient transport systems in rural parts of Africa, which rely on non-motorised transport in its most basic form, are manifested in a lack of market integration, poor provision of education and health services, low productivity and low rates of regional and local economic activity.”

Yet in June, the NDoT published an intention to amend the National Road Traffic Regulations, proposing that “no person shall ride a pedal cycle on a public road drawing or towing a trailer or anything.”

Malibongwe told IPS that he is “very worried about the new law, as if it is passed I’ll have no way of supporting my family.” He is one of a number of bicycle riders who petitioned the NDoT in July, asking that the proposal be reconsidered.

Kyle Mason-Jones, a chemical engineer whose work focuses on carbon emissions reduction, and who also bicycle commutes 15 kilometres most days in Cape Town, is another.

“By limiting the ability of bicycles to carry goods and passengers, this regulation will undermine their potential as a primary mode of transport for individuals and for most entrepreneurial small businesses,” he told IPS.

“For the poor, this will destroy a very promising possibility for affordable transport and wipe out many small business opportunities. For wealthier citizens, it will make the ownership of a motorcar a necessity of life, eliminating many of the benefits of bicycle-centred transport.”

Concerns about road safety were among the reasons behind the proposed amendments, said one of the policy-makers working with the NDoT. “We know that we have a poor safety record – almost half of the deaths on our roads are pedestrians and cyclists,” he told IPS, asking for anonymity.

South Africa has one of the highest road death tolls in the world. During the holiday period from Dec. 1, 2011 to Jan. 10, 2012, 1,475 people were killed in road accidents according to the NDoT. This contrasts sharply with the United Kingdom, for example, where the death toll for all of 2010 was 1,857.

“Road safety activists brought to our attention that in mostly rural areas, people were being carried by these trailers, and we had a concern about the speed of downhill transportation,” the source said.

Safety-conscious countries such as Germany and the UK – where bicycle trailers are popular modes for parents transporting young children, and for long-distance bicycle tourists – strictly regulate bicycle trailers as merely one facet of comprehensive attention to safer road behaviour.

In Germany, bicycle trailer loads (goods and people) may not exceed 250 kg, or 100 kg in a rigid coupling with no independent brakes, and 60 kg if the trailer itself has no brakes and has a flexible coupling.

Trailers must be less than 80 centimetres wide. In the UK, all wheeled vehicles designed for transport must comply with British or European safety standards – the equivalent of the rules and regulations issued by South Africa’s Bureau of Standards. Certain visibility precautions must be taken, such as reflectors, lights and pennants.

In South Africa, current legislation forbids bicycles from towing other vehicles, but does not define bicycle trailers as vehicles. Instead, trailers were broadly defined as a vehicle towed by a car. The country’s Vehicle Technical Committee, in reviewing these regulations in 2011 and 2012, determined to prohibit bicycle trailers rather than regulate or define them.

The new, prohibitive measures seem counter-productive in a middle-income country with high levels of poverty, where the overwhelming majority of people rely on non-motorised transport.

Improving the goods and passenger carrying of non-motorised transport vehicles will not only facilitate the fulfilment of any government’s transportation goals, but also its goals for job creation, micro-enterprise and community sustainability, suggested NMT engineer and safe cycling educator Louis de Waal.

There is no doubt that road danger is a major fear for people who walk and cycle in South Africa, De Waal told IPS. In addition to the ill-disciplined behaviour of road users, the road environment itself is often not conducive to keeping pedestrians and cyclists safe.

“But to ban one form of bicycle transport, ahead of implementing other safety regulations such as mandatory 1.5 metre passing distances, slower road speeds and compulsory bicycle reflectors, just does not make enough sense,” he said.

Citizen action and the resulting correspondence to the NDoT might have made an impact, though.

“Now that we have seen people’s objections, and read their reasoning, we agree that we will have a significant impact on entrepreneurs and small businesses, and livelihoods of people, with this possible regulation. So we will be back at the drawing board,” said the source at the NDoT.

This is good news, of course, said Malibongwe. But he raised a new concern. Unaccustomed to reading South Africa’s government gazette, blogs or social media, he was not on the “public engagement” radar; he found out about the proposed amendments only because a vigilant activist was looking for interviewees. How will he know of the outcome, he asked?

*Name withheld on request.

By Julio Godoy
PARIS, Jul 18 2012 (IPS)

In July 2007, many Parisians laughed at their mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, when he announced the creation of a public bicycle sharing system aimed at reducing traffic in the French capital.

The system was called Vélib’, a combination of “vélo”, which means bicycle in colloquial French, and “liberté”, or freedom. During its first few months of operation, the skeptics appeared to be right.

While most Parisians snubbed the heavy public bicycles (weighing 23 kg), others destroyed or stole them. During the first year, 8,000 Vélib’ bicycles disappeared and another 16,000 were vandalized, according to official figures.

A number of other factors worked against the urban cycling initiative: the subscription requirement, the high cost of the service, the physical exertion required, which in the summer leads to certain side effects undesirable to a population famous for its polished personal appearance, and the chaotic Paris traffic, feared for its high risks.

But despite it all, when Vélib’ marked its fifth anniversary on Jul. 14, it was also able to celebrate its undeniable success: in five years, 138 million people have used the 23,000 rental bicycles, and the system currently has 225,000 subscribers out of a total urban population of 2.3 million.

In addition, during this time, only six people have died in traffic accidents involving rental bicycles.

The system has also gained followers: 31 communities on the outskirts of Paris have joined Vélib’, which serves as a model for another 34 French cities.

The Parisian authorities stress that Vélib’ has also served as an example for the development of similar initiatives in numerous cities around the world, from Melbourne, Australia to the U.S. city of San Francisco.

In 2011, Velib’ achieved profitability and is fully expected to yield profits again in 2012.

For Delanoë – a sober and extremely reserved politician who publicly declared his homosexuality in 1998 – the triumph of Vélib’ is also confirmation that his transportation policy, initially controversial, is the right one: a quiet revolution for a city besieged by traffic jams and air pollution.

“Five years ago, I could not have imagined that Vélib’ would have such good results,” Delanoë told Tierramérica *. “My goal was to try out a different policy, to help Parisians recover their independence and freedom in transportation, and at the same time, to reduce air pollution.”

This policy is summed up by the slogan “Paris respire” (literally, “Paris breathes”), omnipresent in signs used to promote bicycle use in the city.

Vélib’ “has disproved many urban transport taboos,” urban planning expert Isabelle Lesens told Tierramérica. “Bicycles reduce parking problems, and in a relatively small city like Paris, providing the weather is good, they are an efficient means of transportation.”

But despite its success, the innovative bike-sharing system still has certain drawbacks.

“The costs of Vélib’ are very high. The administration and maintenance of each bicycle costs 3,000 euro a year. There certainly could have been a way to achieve the same results for less money,” commented Lesens.

JCDecaux, the company that manages Vélib’ in cooperation with the city government, acknowledges these problems. “The system is very costly in terms of implementation,” Charles Decaux, chairman of the company’s board of directors, told Tierramérica. “But since 2011 it has achieved budgetary balance, after losing money during the first three years.”

In any event, the success of Vélib’ has inspired Parisians to rediscover their passion for cycling, reflected in the world’s foremost cycling race, the Tour de France.

Moreover, according to official figures, Parisians make roughly 200,000 trips a day on privately owned bicycles. In total, the number of bicycles in Paris has increased 41 percent since 2007. During the same period, motor vehicle traffic has decreased by 25 percent.

Bicycles are one component of the urban transportation policy that Delanoë put into practice when he was first elected mayor in March 2001. One of his first measures was the creation of traffic lanes for exclusive use by buses in almost the entire city, in order to speed up their circulation and reduce the space available for use by private automobiles.

The municipal government is also participating, in cooperation with communities on the city’s outskirts, in the construction of a non-polluting tram line that will form a connecting ring around Paris by 2020. In addition, some 370 km of bike lanes have been created in the city.

On the weekends, motor vehicle traffic is prohibited on the most emblematic streets of Paris.

On Dec. 5, the municipal government introduced an electric car sharing system based on the Vélib’ model. Christened, naturally, Autolib’, the initiative has not yet achieved the same degree of popularity as the bike-sharing scheme. But Delanoë is confident that it will have a positive impact on transportation in the city.

“When Autolib’ becomes part of the daily way of life of Parisians, like Vélib’ already is, the urban transportation policy will change definitively,” said the mayor, who was reelected in 2008, with 57.7 percent of the votes, to govern the French capital until 2014.

“All of these measures – Vélib’, Autolib’, the bus lanes, the tramway – are aimed at revolutionizing urban transportation and reducing private motor vehicle traffic, to curb carbon dioxide emissions and purify the air,” he added. “The fact is that automobiles no longer have a place in the big cities of our times.”

*The writer is an IPS correspondent. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.