L.H. Immers and B.J. de Wilde

Possibilities for Bicycle Transport in Developing Countries

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INTRODUCTION

People from developed countries sometimes do not sense the immense impact of personal transportation on daily life. Because of the quality of their transport system, they only have to open a tap or pull a switch for such basic needs as water and energy.

In developing countries like Tanzania, personal transport not only brings job opponunities and public services within reach, it also means acess to firewood lots and safe water from an upway source. In most of the developing countries. however personal movement is severely frustrated by a low mass mobility. The poor quality of the transport infrastructure (the state and size of the road network) and the limited availability of transport means to the majority of the population put basic needs beyond reach.

In the case of Tanzania, planners response to the problems has been inadequate lacking the expertise and manpower, the country turned to the industrialized world for assistance in transport planning. Consultants appointed because of their home experience came up with series of recommendations based upon a standardized transport planning approach developed in their countries of origin. Few of their plans have been examined on their suitability to specific local conditions. Heavily biased towards the private car - and to a lesser extent public transport - most plans have failed to incorporate the non-motorized transport sector; the unserved "walking majority" was again excluded. Traditional preoccupation with respect to full motorization has little relevance in places where the choice is limited to walking or - at best - cycling. Prestigious master plans for urban areas have been left almost unalttended to. Most plans were never implemented only because of very long term planning horizons that suffocate urban dynamics. Also. "financial and manpower constraints have rendered it difficult to achieve substantial results" (1). Solutions to urban transport problems as adopted in most industrialized countries such as grade separated roads and Iarge public transit systems are unsuitable because of their highly capital-intensive nature. Even today however, expensive high-tech solutions are still being suggested.

Surprisingly inexpensive arrangements for the safe movement of bicycles and pedestrians the most popular modes of transport, are completely overlooked. In a country where the future of mororized transport, is uncertain the traditional approach to transport planning sems obsolete. Unless new approaches are adopted the provision of basic transport inputs for essential purposes will be seriously jeopardized.

The low-cost transport concept does not advocate highly sophisticated anJ capital-intensive solutions to the transport problems in developing countries. Instead it promotes a transport technology that:

• aims at fulfilling adequately the needs of the (poor) majority of the population
• complies with local political, socio-economic and financial constraints
• is easy to manage locally and thereby presents a firm basis for attaining self-reliance in transport planning and management

This paper deals with the large-scaled usage of the bicycle, a typical low-cost means of transport, as a (partial) solution to the mis-functioning of the present personal transport system in Tanzania.