One cold morning, from my classroom window, I could see more than one thousand bicycles in the bicycle park at the Wageningen University premises. I began to wonder how the owners could easily locate their bicycles. It was my early days in the Netherlands a couple of years back as a master’s student. As the saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” I had no option but to start learning how to ride a bicycle because going to school daily by bus was telling on my finances. I summoned the courage to borrow a bicycle from a brother in Christ who happened to be a Nigerian resident in the Netherlands. Within one week of my efforts in learning, I began to hit the road. Many thanks to an evangelist who visited my hostel one bright Saturday to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He noticed I was struggling to maintain balance as I mounted the bicycle. He then approached me, gave me some tips, pushed the bicycle, and off I went with utmost excitement. I was intentional about learning how to ride and was not discouraged by the injury I sustained and the death I narrowly escaped as I was almost run over by a car on the road leading to my hostel.
Cycling complements public transportation in the Netherlands as students, lecturers, and other people from all spheres of life use bicycles to travel from one place to the other. In 2019, Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, was spotted going to his office in the Hague, by bicycle. “I didn’t cycle a lot for 10 years. But for the past two years, I’ve had my own bike again and, when the weather allows, I travel into the office that way,” he told the World Economic Forum. In 2001, Chief Ojo Maduekwe of blessed memory who was the then Nigerian Transport Minister began to promote cycling as a partial solution to the growing gridlock that was crippling Nigeria’s economy. He was reported as one of the emerging Africa’s most vocal proponents of cycling. Late Maduekwe and his staff were regularly seen pedaling through the streets of Abuja en route to meetings, with their formal clothes and papers strapped to their rear carriers. Unfortunately, In June 2001, he was hit by a bus into a ditch while cycling to work. In 2013, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, the then Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, called on the residents of the FCT to embrace the use of bicycles as a mode of transportation to improve their health and well-being (Premium Times – Online, 2013).
On May 29, 2023, a confirmation of fuel subsidy removal by President Tinubu threw Nigerians into another era of economic hardship as the cost of transportation increased tremendously translating to the high cost of food and other commodities as well as increased cost of services. It is high time Nigerians began to rethink their dependence on just cars, tricycles, and motorbikes as modes of road transportation in rural, peri-urban, and urban centers. Each time I travel through Akwa Ibom State, I am always excited to see women go by bicycle to markets and farms. Cycling is a key mode of transportation that Nigerians should begin to embrace. However, is the Nigerian government set to put in place the required infrastructure and enabling environment that would enhance the growth and sustainability of the bicycle mode of transportation? Will it really work for Nigeria as it is in The Netherlands and other developed countries? Let us look at how the bicycle mode of transportation works in the Netherlands.
Amsterdam is well known as the bicycle capital of the world. This did not happen overnight because there was a time, in the 1950s and 60s, when cyclists were under severe threat of being expelled from Dutch cities by the growing number of cars. It took strong activism and other events for cyclists to gain ground in Dutch cities. At the start of the 20th century, bikes far outnumbered cars in Dutch cities, and the bicycle was considered a respectable mode of transport for men and women. However, at some point, the Dutch economy began to flourish and more people were able to buy cars and the use of bicycles began to drop year after year. In 1971, the death toll from traffic accidents increased dramatically which led to increased activism by Van Putten and other activists to ensure bicycle lanes and paths were constructed in Dutch cities. Following this activism, Dutch cities including Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen began to introduce measures for safer cycling. (The Guardian, May 2015).
Currently, a report has it that The Netherlands is the number one country in the world when it comes to cycling. Her population of at least 17 million people shares 22.8 million bicycles. It is further reported that on short distances, and especially in the city, the bicycle constitutes a fully-fledged alternative to public transport and passenger cars. Bicycles fulfill more than one-quarter of The Netherlands’ overall transport needs. The bicycle infrastructure is impressive with a finely meshed network featuring 35,000 kilometres of bicycle tracks across the cities. (Government.nl, June 2023).
Wikipedia reports that cycling is a common mode of transport in The Netherlands, with 36% of Dutch people listing the bicycle as their most frequent way of getting around on a typical day as opposed to the car (45%) and public transport (11%). Cycling has a modal share of 27% of all trips in urban and rural centers nationwide. In cities, this is even higher, such as Amsterdam which has 38%, and Zwolle 46%. The report further reveals that this high frequency of bicycle travel is enabled by excellent cycling infrastructure such as cycle paths, cycle tracks, protected intersections, ample bicycle parking, and by making cycling routes shorter and more direct than car routes. In the countryside, a growing number of routes connect The Netherlands’ villages, towns, and cities: some of these paths are part of the Dutch National Cycle Network, a network of routes for bicycle tourism that reaches all corners of the nation. (Wikipedia, June 2023).
As the Nigerian government begins to deploy palliatives in the form of electric public buses and other vehicles that do not use the premium motor spirit, it is also important to think about putting systems and infrastructure in place to make cycling safer and to encourage cyclists in various localities. I recall vividly in Wageningen how motorists wait patiently for cyclists to cross the road unlike some drivers in Nigeria who do not understand what zebra crossings are meant for. Aside from complementing public transport, let’s examine other benefits of cycling.
Health Benefits
Medical experts reveal that cycling is one of the healthiest and most low-impact forms of exercise because it causes less strain and injuries than most other workouts. Riding a bike burns calories, builds strength, defines shape and muscle tone, increases cardiovascular fitness, improves joint mobility, decreases stress levels; reduces anxiety, and depression amongst others.
Environmental Benefits
Researchers have revealed that if everyone in the world who works less than five miles from home cycled instead of driving to work one day a week, it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by five million tons a year. That’s the equivalent of one million people getting rid of their cars. And it would save over 24 billion gallons of gas. According to a report, if you only rode your brand-new bicycle two miles a day for five days a week, you would be carbon neutral in less than a year. If you are riding a used rather than a new bike, your carbon footprint drops even more, because you are reusing existing materials instead of generating more production emissions. The longer you use your bike, the better for the planet. Aside from affecting the air, emissions or airborne pollutants fall to the ground with precipitation, which pollutes our groundwater and our farmland too.
Economic Benefits
As I narrated earlier, after buying a bicycle in Wageningen, my cost of transportation to school, church, and markets was reduced drastically and I could graduate without financial and psychological stress. An average car owner or driver in Nigeria currently buys fuel (PMS) for an average of N500 which has skyrocketed weekly and monthly expenditure on transportation no matter the size of the vehicle tank.
At this point, Nigerians need to manage fuel consumption and explore other modes of transportation that are cheaper, improve health, and are friendly to the environment. Therefore, taking a walk once in a while or owning and using a bicycle cannot be overemphasized.
Sunday Omori is a Development Practitioner and writes from Calabar.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Sunday Omori, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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