MY FRIEND Jane, who lives in London, rides a bicycle. I had asked her to deliver a package for me to another friend who was going to collect it from her home. She offered to deliver the package herself, despite the long distance from her home, saying that it was no problem because she was mobile. Jane intended to ride from her home in West London to South London to deliver the package. When I was a student in London forty years ago, there were hardly any cycles on the road. Today, there are thousands. It is as a result of a deliberate policy by the Mayor of London to encourage the use of cycles. Facilities have been established on pavements across London where cycles are parked and can be locked. Cycle rentals facilitate those who do not own cycles.
There were several objectives in encouraging cycle use. The first was to reduce the level of pollution in London. As more people ride, the less fuel is used to transport them and the less carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. The second reason is the health benefit. Cycling provides exercise which increases fitness and health. Millions are saved with a healthier population and this brings health care costs down. The third benefit is reduced congestion on the roads although the number of cyclists have to vastly increase before a significant impact is made on congestion. Fourthly, cycling has a positive impact on the family budget. Travelling costs are very high and the use of a cycle to work can substantially reduce the cost of travel making a big difference.
The news recently revealed that there was a nine day traffic jam in China. The cause was the increased volume of vehicles on the road because of China’s burgeoning economy and the inadequate road system which has not developed fast enough to handle the traffic. Not too long ago, the preferred mode of transportation in China was the bicycle. As China’s per capita income has increased, the use of the bicycle has decreased, bringing with it a host of problems, including increased pollution.
Development certainly has its benefits, but the negative consequences are also keenly felt. My mode of transportation throughout my entire school life was a bicycle. When I got my first bicycle, it liberated me. I no longer had to rely on my father to take me to and from school on his bicycle. I could keep my own time, go to sports events, visit friends in the afternoons and at weekends, and had the freedom to engage in all kinds of youthful activities away from the immediate vicinity of home. The trauma of losing my first bicycle devastated me. But I did not grieve for too long. I bought an old frame, bought parts, as many second hand as I could, and made a good second hand cycle. I lost several cycles from theft and repeated this process.
When I became a schoolteacher, still a teenager, it was on a cycle that I rode from Central High School after my daily teaching chores were over to visit a former student, and the most delightfully charming young lady I have ever known, at her home in Drysdale Street, Charlestown, several times a week. It was that cycle that took me safely and unerringly to our eventual marriage nearly forty years ago. After I returned from studies abroad I bought a new cycle. But alas! After riding for pleasure and exercise for only a few years I had to give it up because of the increased dangers on the road and reducing availability of time.
Guyana had always been a cycling nation. Cycling was the mode of transportation for most people whether or not they were in striking distance of Georgetown. If they were not, they used the trains.
Only a professional study can determine the reason for the decline of the use of the bicycle as the preferred mode of transportation. But some reasons are quite clear. The scrapping of the railways resulted in much larger number of motor vehicles on the roads, particularly taxis. The consequence was a greater number of road accidents and fatalities among cycle users. Over the years the increasing speed and recklessness of motor vehicles on the roads have made it an extraordinarily hazardous activity to be on the road at all, much less on a bicycle. Notwithstanding, I purchased bicycles for my children in the 1990s and they rode to high school and later to the University of Guyana for a short while until the danger on the roads multiplied.
Guyana needs to return, not to the old days, and not to adopt the coal-pot syndrome, nor to attempt the impossible task of re-creating a nation  of cyclists. But an effort to make the roads safe again with special cycle sections clearly demarcated, creating safety zones for cyclists, promoting the use of the bicycle and its benefits for both the user and the nation’s health would be a positive step in the right direction. The savings to families and children who are now forced to pay high mini bus fares would be tremendous. The savings to the nation would be enormous. This would be a worthwhile effort which can restore a clean, cheap and affordable method of transportation for city folk and for those in its environs. For me it would expand the number of pleasurable activities in which I can engage and the range of exercises that I enjoy. (www.conversationtree.gy).