Barbara Gruehl Kipke

Bicycle Usage in Two Cities of Africa

Homepage Manual Contents Navigation

INTRODUCTION - Previous Research on Bicycle Traffic

Studies on the topic of bicycle traffic in developing countries can be classified as follows:
some, that describe the situation of the bicycle industry (1, 2, 11, 12, 25, 26, 34), others, that consider the technical aspects of bicycles (39), yet others that analyse bicycle usage (3, 9, 21, 31, 38, 41) and transportation planning studies (6, 9, 17, 41) whose goal it is to promote bicycle usage. The latter are the exception, because in most cases the bicycle is left out of consideration in transportation planning studies. A few studies include all four subject areas (19, 20, 40).

It is surprising, that in Asia, where bicycle usage is so high, there is little literature pertaininq to the subject of bicycles. In India information is limited to the bicycle industry. In China studies are mainly about bicycle usage. Surprisingly, the literature on bicycles in Africa is quite substantial, despite the relatively low bicycle usage, or maybe precisely due to that fact. (1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 26, 31, 40, 42)