Search the Stabroek News website for “cyclist killed” and you will find “134 results since 2007”. It’s a bit inexact: some are follow-ups, some plaintive letters, some reports of court cases that went nowhere, but still the vast majority involve the deaths of Guyanese citizens as a result of a collision with a motor vehicle.
Despite this carnage nothing appears to have been done over the decades to address what is not simply an accumulation of individual accidents but clearly a systemic failure by the authorities to protect cyclists through the design and building of appropriate infrastructure and the enforcement of traffic laws.
Part of the reason for this is that the bicycle is still viewed in these parts as an instrument for the working class to get around even as the Western world has turned it into a symbol of virtuous health and environmentalism. (And wealth because your average carbon fibre bike sets you back a good $6000)
As Iain Sinclair writes in “Lost London”, his meandering elegy for a grubby pre-Thatcherite capital, “The rise in the social status of the bicycle has much to do with the sense of entitlement of public school, Oxbridge-educated politicians. Prefects and scholars in Victorian, post-imperialist institutions were the only ones privileged enough to cycle: one-handed, flop-haired, gossiping in dog Latin, between house and dining hall, classroom and chapel.”
Sinclair notes how now in the luxury tower blocks of East London “the higher the floor, the more bicycles on the balcony. These machines, with their fashionably slim wheels…signal a new demographic, the Lycra-clad, peloton-inhabiting, short-haul commuter.”
Excuse the digression if only to emphasise the contrast between the social status of cyclists who commute there and those here and thus how one is coddled and the latter is an endangered species.
This was made even clearer the other day by the remarks of the Divisional Traffic Officer of Division 4A – (Georgetown), Deputy Superintendent Timothy Williams who addressed the emergence of e-bikes on the roads and what he perceives as their danger to society. What he was likely talking about was the e-scooter which has no pedals as opposed to the pedal assisted e-bike which has a battery pack that helps you get up hills and/or when you are simply tired.
E-bikes and E-scooters are not much different from bicycles. Two wheels and with the same approximate speeds they have proliferated all over the world as a cheap, environmentally friendly form of transportation that eases congestion. Neither e-scooters or e-bikes need licences in most countries as long as they do not exceed 15mph. Generally they cannot be ridden by minors but are allowed to share bike lanes with pedal bikes.
We can also see that the e-scooters on the roads here are not the deluxe models retailing for thousands of dollars but rather the cheap Chinese versions and therefore bought by people who cannot afford a motor vehicle. Williams has pledged to crack down on this apparent menace. “The users don’t even wear helmets, and it seems as though the law doesn’t apply to them, but they cannot continue operating unchecked, we have to take action against them somewhere along the line.”
However as if to prove the very futility of such an initiative which would include registering
e-scooters, he disclosed that the most problematic category of road users in his division are still motorcyclists who are of course registered. If the use of e-bikes/e-scooters is a statistically significant problem which it doesn’t seem to be yet then the Guyana National Bureau of Standards could simply ensure that the models coming in do not exceed 15mph and for the sake of legal purposes, by whatever mechanism they could classify them under bicycles. Putting more of a burden on the GRA may not be the best course and might discourage their uptake while not making their use any safer.
There have to date been only two known fatalities, both of which could just as easily have happened were the riders on a regular (unlicensed) bicycle so it’s not clear what the fuss is all about except to deny poor people an affordable means of transportation. The double standards are clear: the unmarked SUVs that cut through morning traffic, sirens blaring, are never stopped despite directives that this is illegal. The unlit flat-bed trailers freely littering High St each night in the vicinity of Drysdale St are apparently granted free parking.
It all points to a mentality towards road users that they are to be penalised mainly through the continued use of unauthorised random road stops which the Attorney General complained about the other day. None of this policing has improved road safety one bit. What is needed is a more enlightened approach to traffic management that promotes the free flow, harmonisation and protection of all road users. People are simply trying to get from A to B. (That is not to say that there aren’t many deviant drivers out there and the rash of young men involved in fatal accidents point to a disturbing nihilistic mindset)
But back to e-scooters, e-bikes and bikes in general. The Guyana traffic department might do well to study initiatives undertaken in other countries that encourage their use by making the roads safer. For example New York has over 1200 miles of bike lanes painted solid green sending a clear message that this is exclusively for two wheels. Obligatory statistics follow: The number of cyclists being killed or severely injured in New York has decreased by 75% since 2000 even as commuter cycling has doubled; 60% of fatalities happened at intersections; 23% involved a vehicle turning left or right; and most importantly nearly 90% of fatalities happened on streets without bike lanes.(NYC Dept of Transportation)
Such an initiative here could go a long way in ensuring the safety of bicycle/e-scooter users and encouraging its growth with all the attendant benefits, chief among them decongesting a city that is on the verge of daily gridlock. Assured of a safer environment more Guyanese, including schoolchildren, might eschew the sweaty minibus or short drop taxi for two wheels.
Who knows we might yet see some tinkling utopia a la China in the 1970s/1980s which once had over 520M bicycles with brands such as “Forever” and “Flying Pigeon”. Those days are as distant as Sinclair’s East London. Rapid urbanisation has led to urban sprawl and commutes that are too long for bikes. However in recent years they are making a comeback among more affluent environmentally conscious Chinese thereby proving that even bicycles are cyclical.
