Get on your bike, Bulawayo residents urged

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Zimbabwe’s second city has launched a carbon-cutting initiative that encourages residents to take up cycling — and also promotes a healthy lifestyle — but it could prove a hard sell with  upwardly mobile younger people.

This month, the Bulawayo municipality launched the Asitshoveni Cycling Programme as part of the global Smart Mobility Initiative which, among other things, seeks to persuade residents to take their foot off the fuel pedal of their vehicles and hop onto bikes.

One of the benefits of the initiative is that it is expected to help decongest city streets as the central business district has become a road-rage-filled urban traffic jungle.

The number of cars on the road is growing, amid a rush to import used vehicles, which has meant an increase in carbon emissions while the rest of the world is being called upon to do away with environmentally unfriendly transportation.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has said African countries are among the lowest polluters in the world but they still have a major part to play in promoting a clean environment.

The ambitions of Zimbabwe’s second city are to make its own small climate-action contribution to reducing carbon emissions by appealing to residents to choose muscle-powered two-wheelers over fossil-fuel guzzling motor vehicles.

This comes at a time when the world’s major polluters are expected to help low-income countries mitigate, and adapt to, the devastating effects of climate change.

“Cycling is one of the more sustainable transport solutions. Unlike other modes of transport, cycling does not emit dangerous gases that pollute the atmosphere,” said Nesisa Mpofu, the city’s spokesperson. 

“This mode of transport can assist the city to achieve a green economy, in line with Sustainable Development Goal number 13 on climate action,” Mpofu told the Mail & Guardian. 

According to the UN’s definition, Sustainable Development Goal 13 seeks to “strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries”. It is localised climate action, such as the promotion of green energy, that is expected to spur the realisation of those goals.

While Bulawayo city officials say the Smart Mobility Initiative will help to stem harmful pollutants, with hundreds of enthusiastic cyclists at the launch of the programme, convincing local residents to embrace bicycles as a day-to-day mode of transport could be a tall order.

For the economically upwardly mobile, cycling as a way to trim fat, and as an eco-friendly option, is not likely to be viewed favourably, contends Thembani Dube, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association’s secretary for administration.

“To the younger generation, the use of bicycles symbolises downward social mobility, incongruent to the new millennium definition of success,” Dube told the M&G.

In addition, as noted by the UN Environment Programme in a July report, titled Walking and Cycling in Africa — Evidence and Good Practice to Inspire Action, “most [African] countries still lack policies, appropriate infrastructure and budgets for protecting vulnerable road users”. 

“The danger lies not just on the road but in the air too.”

Many of Bulawayo’s roads are in poor condition, while cyclists lament the absence of cycling lanes to ensure their safety from motorists.

In previous years, cycling lanes formed part of the city’s vast road network, helping to ensure the safety of cyclists, but with the ubiquity of legal and illegal public transport operators, cycling can turn into a daredevil pastime.

“The infrastructure we have can hardly accommodate an influx of bicycles,” said Dube. 

“The congestion resulting from the haphazard distribution of commuter omnibuses exacerbates the traffic congestion which makes it difficult to envisage the positives that may be brought by the cycling culture initiative,” he told the M&G.

While the city fathers may dismiss Dube as a killjoy, motorists have not been too kind to cyclists, and there have been incidents of the latter being victims of hit-and-run events, highlighting the challenges faced by the Asitshoveni Cycling Programme.

Mpofu says these challenges are not lost on the municipality.

“In light of moving to green energy and a smart city concept, we need infrastructure such as cycle lanes, parking for cycles, sheds and water points to support the efforts of reducing burning of fuel and pollution among others.”

Some say although the city has a long history of cycling, little has been done to promote it, both as a pastime and a sport, and now as an environmentally friendly mode of transport.

“We have a cycling track in Bulawayo, which dates back to the 1950 or 1960s, that is owned by the City of Bulawayo, and leased to a football club,” said Dave Loxton, spokesperson for the Flying Eagles Cycling club in Bulawayo. 

“If this could be repaired and returned to cycling — it would be a great motivation for cyclists to train or race without being on the main roads.

“If they are serious about cycling in the long term, they should explore a partnership with a city somewhere that has established a bike-friendly environment. There are many examples in Europe,” he said.

Loxton says he has been cycling for 60 years, “dodging taxis, potholes and non-working robots”, and his appeal to motorists for the safety of cyclists is: “The vehicle that you drive belongs to you but the road doesn’t. Share it.”