Are bike lanes racist and classist?That's a debate in South Africa

[bikebloke]

according to the Washington Post.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/are-bike-lanes-racist-and-classist-thats-a-debate-in-south-africa/2016/10/27/e4212ffa-971e-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html

[cfcjim]

That's quite a simple fairly non-judgmental article; nothing we don't know or haven't opined already.

 

I quite liked it.

[Chris NewbyFraser]

When visiting the Cape, I often see bike lanes. Are these utilised as intended or largely abandoned to pedestrians and nature?

[Eddy Gordo]

When visiting the Cape, I often see bike lanes. Are these utilised as intended or largely abandoned to pedestrians and nature?

Some of them are abandoned to pedestrians, also only a handful that use it while the rest prefer to dodge cars

[Mojoman]

Ja, bike lanes should be for white privilege only, after all where I live its only whites who use bicycles to get to work, go shopping, visit friends etc...the black guys just use their bikes for fun and a bit of exercise....

[dave303e]

I think they can be seen as, but they shouldn't. For example we need a bike lane running along Solomon Mahlangu Drive for people to commute on, there are hundreds of bicycle commuters there it just makes sense. Same goes for along R511 coming from Diepsloot and probably out of Tembisa. I think if you built those first the whole impression over them could change and everyone would be more open to it.

my 2c...

[bertusras]

For example we need a bike lane running along Solomon Mahlangu Drive for people to commute on, there are hundreds of bicycle commuters there it just makes sense

 

Definitely! I see they've introduced one on Simon Vermooten when they did the upgrades recently, but all the Mamelodi bike traffic is via Solomon.

[gtr1]

Suppose it depends where you put them and who they are intended for. We can't say on,y whites ride bikes, but putting bike lanes in Sandton, could be construed as racist. Putting them along busy commuter routes from Townships probably not ( even though mostly for black commuters) . So gotta get the mix right. If bike lanes are the way to go, cover all or most major commuter routes.

[Tubehunter]

The problem with bike lanes is that the people building them never ever cycle and they do not engage with a group of representatives from the area who do, so it's consistently an impractical solution on some level, which ultimately destroys the whole idea rather than being seen as purely a failure in implementation!

[Stretch]

That's quite a simple fairly non-judgmental article; nothing we don't know or haven't opined already.

 

I quite liked it.

 

so did I

[Vanzyl]

#decolonise it