Last Friday was International Bike to Work Day. The League of American Bicyclists founded the event in 1956, to encourage participation in active transportation. More than five decades later, in Grahamstown, there were no more cyclists than usual last Friday.
Last Friday was International Bike to Work Day. The League of American Bicyclists founded the event in 1956, to encourage participation in active transportation. More than five decades later, in Grahamstown, there were no more cyclists than usual last Friday.
That being said, Grahamstown's Observatory Museum in Bathurst Street houses the most improbable contraption imaginable.
With a front wheel taller than some adults, and a tiny back wheel, there's a saddle somewhere around shoulder height.
This all-metal bicycle once belonged to a relative of Margaret Lloyd, a former principal of Oatlands Preparatory School.
For decades, successive platoons of pupils listened to Miss Lloyd explain that this bone-jarring machine was once considered a good way to get around.
More than a hundred years on from the Penny Farthing's heyday, bicycles are more comfortable and safer. But hardly more popular.
Rhodes students still sped down the hill for dawnies in their Polos and Corsas. Workers still queued at taxi ranks.
Kids still stumbled out of the backs of bakkies and BMWs at school gates and Mr Bafo still stopped the 7.59am speedsters at the dip in African Street.
Mostly people here, aside from a few green-minded Grahamstonians, bike because they haven't got cars.
Fact: Cars are more comfortable.
Being on a bike in traffic is dangerous. In winter it's cold. In summer it's hot and you smell when you get to work. Carrying shopping is a pain and bicycle clips are quite dorky.
But Bike to Work (http://www.biketoworkinfo.org/) offer compelling reasons to ride:
• Three hours of biking per week reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%.
• Women who bike 30-plus minutes a day have a lower risk of breast cancer.
• Adolescents who bicycle are 48% less likely to be overweight as adults.
• The average American household spends more on their cars than they spend on food.
• On a round-trip commute of 16km, bicyclists save around $10 daily.
• For every kilometre pedalled rather than driven, about a kilogram of CO² is saved.
• Traffic congestion wastes more than 11 billion litres of fuel a year in the US.
Climate change considered could it be that in 100 years, school children will troop past an SUV parked in the Grahamstown Transport Museum, flabbergasted that we once thought it was the answer?
Why ride? From the commuter's mouth
Mia van der Merwe
Teaching assistant at Rhodes
Mia took to riding her boyfriend‘s bicycle when her car broke down last year. She says cycling cuts down what would be a 25-minute walk by half. She especially enjoys cycling downhill.
Melite Vivier
Rhodes student
Melite cycles as often as she can but resorts to her car in bad weather. Vivier also feels safer on a bicycle than walking. She says cycling creates a sense of community.
