Week 9: Pedalling to progress: bicycle use patterns in Africa.

One purpose of this week's class is to draw attention to the concept of transport culture: using the example of the bicycle in Africa we will explore the ways in which the use of any transport technology, including walking, is mediated by culture. A second purpose of the class is to explore the extent to which a wider adoption of the bicycle in Africa could offer a partial solution to transport problems within low income groups. In discussing the bicycle as a transport mode for Africa, it becomes clear that there are a number of cultural barriers to be surmounted.

Cultural issues in transport- the position of the bicycle:

Culture, or present behaviour patterns conditioned by the legacy of past behavioural arrangements, has its consequence for the differential take up of the various forms of transport technology. The patterning of bicycle use in Africa is a very good example. There are two aspects of this patterning we will focus on today. The first is the difference in bicycle use patterns between adjacent African states - shared geographies - which were colonised by different European powers - different political histories. The colonial legacy still impacts on contemporary transport patterns. The second aspect is the impact of culture on gender access to bicycles: women's access to the bicycle is restricted in many African cultures.

These arguments were summarised in a paper published in the Transportation Research Record No. 1441, 1995 by Grieco, Turner and Kwakye:

Recently, attention has fallen upon the development of non-motorised transport options as an appropriate and sustainable strategy for the Third World (1; 2; 3). Transport policy research has identified substantial differences in the extent to which different developing areas of the world have taken up the cycling option (Table 1). Dramatic differences between Asia and Africa have been identified. Furthermore, within Africa itself significant differences are to be found between Francophone West Africa and Anglophone West Africa (4). It is this established pattern of differences which formed the rationale for our research into attitudes towards and patterns of cycling in Ghana. The research was conducted as part of a joint project between TRL and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ghana with linkages to the World Bank's Sub Saharan Africa Program.

A less remarked upon but equally distinctive difference between regions is to be found in Ghana itself (5) where, in the 1980s, of the national stock of 200,000 cycles, 34.2% were to be found in the Northern region, 43.8% in the two upper regions and only 0.7% in greater Accra (Figure 1). In the three uppermost regions of Ghana, cycle ownership was around 53 per 1000 persons, some 65 times higher than Accra. Cycling in Ghana has been primarily a Northern practice. Recent figures indicate an expansion of this stock with imports of bicycles estimated at 67,000 for 1992, 225,000 for 1991 and 158,000 for 1990 (4).

Currently, there is considerable policy activity, not least on the part of the World Bank, to diffuse cycling practice to the large urban centres of the South (6). There is some evidence of suppressed demand for bicycle use in Accra (6). It has been estimated that in certain low income areas 62% of households own a bicycle (7), however, this figure does not hold true for all or most low income areas of Accra. Even where households own a cycle, conditions for cycling on the main thoroughfares are so poor that most cycling only takes place within local areas. Even casual observation indicates that cycle use is not evenly distributed amongst the low income districts of urban Accra. In this context, it was decided to investigate differences in attitudes towards cycling and cycling practice itself within urban Accra. Personal observation, contacts with local transport experts and information provided by interviewers engaged on other transport research projects all indicated that the level of cycle use by the residents of Nima was higher than was the case for other areas.

Nima, a low income densely populated urban district, has traditionally been and remains a major reception area for migrants from the North. As cycling is a more common practice in the North, this migration link provides a path for the transference of the northern culture of cycling into the urban south. Migrants are carriers of a non-motorised transport culture. Moving from this analysis, which was largely shaped by local expert knowledge, an investigation of cycling attitudes and practices in the low income area inhabited by Northerners (Hausa, Fra-Fra, Kusasi, Dagomba, Busanga, etc.) and in a low income area (Jamestown) inhabited by indigenous social groups (Ga) was conducted (Figure 2). Our preliminary evidence indicates that there are indeed variations in transport culture within the city, variations which correspond with patterns of migration linkage to areas of greater non-motorised transport use.

Understanding these differences in transport culture has important policy implications. Substantially different patterns of childhood socialisation were found with regard to cycling in Nima and in Jamestown. In Nima, adults encouraged male children to learn to cycle, although attitudes towards females cycling were more problematic; in Jamestown, both male and female children were strongly discouraged and frequently punished by their parents for cycling. These differences in patterns of socialisation have their consequences for subsequent use of the bicycle and thus for the viability of the bicycle as a mass means of non-motorised transport. A clear policy implication of such differences in transport cultures within a city is that where policy makers intend to install cycling infrastructure, the positioning of the initial parts of the network should be anchored on the existing areas of high usage. Locating facilites where the user population has poor access may very well lead to implementation failures. @ Grieco, Turner and Kwakye, 1995 http://www.geocities.com/transport_research/trrec.htm

Gender access to bicycles: some African evidence

The work on gender and transport in Africa has received important direction from Christina Malmberg Calvo of the World Bank. Malmberg Calvo's work has measured the role of the rural transport burden borne by African women and explored how this burden might be reduced by the introduction of intermediate transport technology - one form of which is the bicycle. A first introduction to this body of transport research can be found at http://www.worldbank.org/gender/transport/Case_Studies/calvo12.htm. Malmberg Calvo produces a useful summary of the cultural position of the bicycle in Eastern Uganda:

Since bicycle ownership and use confers social prestige in Eastern Uganda, it is often used by male members of the household for journeys outside the village. Women encounter both cultural and economic barriers to riding bicycles and other Intermediate Means of Transport time- and effort-saving devices are rarely used for women's transport activities. However, IMT has the potential to reduce women’s transport burden. Since women were found to be eager to adopt IMT, the report advocates the introduction of a sturdy "ladies" bicycle to overcome the cultural resistance to women using bicycles, complemented by credit provision and management capacity-building of women's groups. Finally, some key issues which emerged from the study are the importance of providing credit, the value of considering both transport and non-transport interventions for reducing rural women’s transport burden, and the importance of active participation by all groups in prioritizing appropriate interventions.

The work of Malmberg Calvo has been accompanied by a number of other researchers in this field: the work of Deike Peters also offers a rapid introduction to the cultural barriers affecting women's access to intermediate transport technology in Africa:

Women’s access to vehicles and services is actually often more constrained by socio-cultural conventions or even bans rather than by physical barriers. This is particularly true for bicycles, which represent a particularly attractive transport alternative for shorter- and medium-length trips with multiple stops. Unfortunately, it is culturally unacceptable for women in many societies to ride bicycles. In Iran, women were recently banned from riding a bicycle in public places altogether, because women must avoid anything which could attract strangers.

In many parts of Africa, where bicycles often represent the only viable alternative to miles of walking, women who ride bicycles are considere d too independent and loose. When asked why so few women in Beira, Mozambique ride bicycles, the following were among the most telling responses [7]:

“ Women don’t know how to ride bikes”

“ It’s not ladylike for women to spread their legs”

“ Women are afraid to ride bikes”

“Women can’t be trusted to ride bikes because they may go off and have affairs ”

“The man of the house deserves to ride a bike more than the woman”

However, these responses, while not entirely untypical for Sub-Saharan Africa, are much less pronounced in other parts of the region, which usually quote “safety concerns” or simply “conventions” and “dress-codes” as the primary impediments to women’s cycling. @ http://www.sustdev.org/journals/edition.04/download/ed4.pdfs/sdi4_93.pdf

The research on gender. transport and the bicycle is substantial enough to indicate the need for major policy work within this area: the regional data base, however, remains highly fragmented and insufficient ethnographic and detailed survey work has been undertaken to give the appropriate level of guidance for transport projects and transport interventions to capture the full value added on offer from appropriate investment within this area of transport.

Non motorised transport options for Africa: projects and developments.

The discussion of non-motorised transport options for Africa has become a substantial policy discussion in a context where resources are highly constrained. The discussion of non-motorised transport focuses on three main issues: improving the walking environment in a context where human porterage is commonplace, introducing intermediate mechanical transport forms such as the bicycle often with extended carrying capacity through the addition of basket or cart and removing barriers to the use of animal traction.

One of the most detailed reports on the development of bicycle based interventions in low income transport contexts is provided by the Kopeyia Bike Project in Ghana: to view this project go to Kopeyia Bike Project

The project description and record alerts the policy pusher of pedalled transport to the many obstacles in the way of the widescale adoption of the bicycle in Africa. One key observation relates to the lack of reliable data on the market for bicycles in Africa:

There are unfortunately no detailed and published studies of the nature of the bicycle markets in Ghana. It is largely an informal market, and no meaningful data was available on import figures in 2000. Most machines are however known to arrive in the country through either one of two ports- Tema or Takoradi. Next to the devaluation of the cedi, the most significant constraining factor that controls retailer profitability is the hefty 21.5% V.A.T and import duty on spare parts. This hurts small operators in Accra who work on narrower profit margins. Consequently, the majority of most importers in Accra (the central bicycle market of the region) will often import new and old bicycles to be stripped down for spare parts sales. In a survey by Tengey et al (1999:47), bicycle owners revealed that this is not an optimal solution for improving availability; 78% of respondents experienced difficulty in obtaining spare parts. Clearly, there is a need for national bicycle import policy reform for smoother retail growth, starting with removal of import duties on spare parts.

References:

Malmberg Calvo, C. (1994) Case Study on Intermediate Means of Transport: Bicycles and Rural Women in Uganda, World Bank, SSATP Working Paper No. 12.@http://www.worldbank.org/gender/transport/Case_Studies/calvo12.htm.

Peters, Deike, Breadwinners, Homemakers and Beasts of Burden: A Gender Perspective on Transport and Mobility @http://www.sustdev.org/journals/edition.04/download/ed4.pdfs/sdi4_93.pdf

Kopeyia Bike Projecthttp://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/projects/kopeyia/bike.html

Tiwari, Geetam. Planning for bicycles and other non motorised modes: The critical element in city transport system. Transportation Research and Injury Prevention programme (TRIPP)Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India @http://www.iitd.ac.in/tripp/publications/paper/planning/Manila2002.pdf

e-mail at m.grieco@napier.ac.uk