Focus Media (Kigali)
Erwin Winkler
1 November 2007
opinion
In cities worldwide, more and more people are using a bicycle to get around, thus avoiding traffic jams and reducing pollution. Will this trend also take root in Kigali? It seems unlikely.
Recently, I was having my daily share of that irritating activity called "wasting your time" whilst sitting in a bus that was moving at snail-pace in the evening traffic jam between the roundabout and Sopetrad. Suddenly, a man on a bicycle zoomed past the bus, overtaking the whole queue in one go; he would reach Sopetrad within minutes, whereas it seemed our bus would arrive there sometime the next morning.
It was an amusing sight - this man on the simplest of bicycles, going faster than all the snobbish expensive cars. It also showed the advantage of a bicycle compared to a car, in cities where traffic congestion is rapidly becoming a 24/24 phenomenon - which is one of the reasons why, all around the globe, more and more city-dwellers opt for a bike, so as to actually move around.
Another argument, inspired by the global warming scare, is of course that a bicycle is a green means of transport, good for the environment and your conscience.
Thus, this speeding bicyclist got me pondering (better to waste your time pondering than doing nothing at all) whether one day Rwandans, or at least Kigalians, might also massively jump into the saddle, in a drive to decongest the city and save the planet.
It didn't require a lot of pondering (the time it took for the bus to reach "payage") to come to the sad conclusion: not in my lifetime (I'm in my late thirties), and probably not during the next generation either.
Volvos amongst bicycles
The first reason is that, although Rwanda's thousand hills are a major tourism asset, they're not bike-friendly. Imagine going from Nyabugogo to the city centre on a bicycle - it probably takes years of training to accomplish such a feat.
What is more, most of the bikes here are heavy-duty vehicles, used for transport of goods or persons. They're the Volvos amongst bicycles - some two decades ago, before the love of curves also infected the Swedish car-maker, these automobiles had the reputation of being unsightly and hard to maneuver, but if you wanted a car you could crash into a brick wall at 100 km/h and still come out alive, then Volvo was your thing.
That's the kind of bikes we use here: you can easily load them with several bags of rice or four crates of drinks, but when the road is only slightly going up-hill, you have to get off your bicycle and push it. For our beloved thousand hills you need gears, and bikes with gears are well beyond the means of the average citizen.
A second reason why bicycles will in all probability not become a common sight in Kigali very soon is that they're a very low-ranking status symbol. Contrary to richer countries, where lots of families have two cars (one for him and one for her, although often a smaller one - so much for gender equality), in Rwanda the possession of even a single motorized vehicle with four wheels is still rather exceptional, so it is an excellent way of showing off your wealth.
When it comes to the status symbol value of means of transport, the car takes the first place (except maybe for a private helicopter or jet, but I'm not sure even President Kagame has one). There are, of course, further distinctions within cars - the owner of a posh Grand Vitara obviously looks down (in a literal and figurative sense) upon the battered Toyota in front of him in the traffic jam.
The ambiguous motocyclette
At the bottom of the status ranking, there is heavy competition. On the one hand, there this means of transport which is common to the majority of us: walking. On the other hand, the bicycle. This might seem strange, because owning a private means of transport should be a status-booster; however, most people will tell you that they'd rather take the bus than ride a bike.
The reason, it seems, is that the source of propulsion has more influence on status than ownership or individuality; on a bike, just as when walking, this source are your legs and muscles, which ranks lower than fuel-propelled motion. Better to be seen cramped in a bus than sweating on an un-motorized two-wheeler. In short, when you ride a bicycle in Rwanda, you're a pariah, a nobody, not even better than the equally contemptible pedestrian.
This is why the status of the motocyclette, introduced only recently, is ambiguous. Granted, it has a motor, but it's only a small one which does not allow high speed; moreover, given its similarity to the bicycle, the motocyclette is highly suspicious when it comes to improving your status. Here also, it's a safer bet to take the bus if you value your standing in society.
The only exception to the low status of the bicycle is when you use it for recreational sports; but then you've got to be rich enough to buy a sophisticated sports bike plus flashy gear, and be able to bring forth your bicycle on Sunday from the same garage where you park your Grand Vitara.
Bullying pedestrians
The status symbol value of transport is at the origin of a third reason why bicycles are unlikely soon to become the transport of choice for Rwandans: it is immensely dangerous. Indeed, whatever the traffic regulations might say, there is this unwritten rule that being higher in the status ranking gives you more rights in traffic.
Hence, bicyclists are only allowed to bully pedestrians who, even when strolling on the sidewalk, have to make way for the two-wheelers if the latter deem it necessary or convenient to ride there. But for the rest, bikes are ignored by all other traffic-users, and have to be continuously on the alert to get out of the way of other vehicles, even if these are breaking the traffic rules. It is unimaginable for a car-driver that a bicycle might ever have any priority, even when the automobile would be riding on the wrong side of the road. To ride a bike in Kigali, you've got to be suicidal.
Thus, bicycles will continue to be used mainly as sophisticated wheelbarrows, or transport for the poor, and we will have to look for other ways to combat traffic congestion and pollution. And our lone cyclist will continue to have his small victory every evening when speeding past the queue of cars, busses and motors - the owners of which will look at him with contempt, while he is risking his life.
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