Two wheelers, a Sustainable Transport Alternative

Only those who have never been affected by the consequences of the chaotic operations of commuter omnibuses can fight from their corner. My horrific experience with the commuter omnibus recently gives me this conviction that the proposed transition is spot on.

Upon receiving the sad news that two of my close relatives were part of the ten casualties of the Chitungwiza Kombi crash, I quickly rode my motorbike to the scene. Since the accident happened in the rush hour, which is ordinarily characterised by intense traffic jams, I chose to ride a motorbike for easy manoeuvrability.

Along the way, the Kombi drivers who seemed unmindful of the blood that one of them had shed, yelled at me telling me to get off the road. Others irritatingly honked their horns at me while others passed me too closely. It was near miss after near miss. The next thing I remember was someone telling me from my hospital bed the following day that I had narrowly escaped death after a Kombi hit me from the back.

On my discharge last week, it came as a great relief to learn that government was planning to phase out the urban commuter omnibuses. As a double victim of the kombi menace, the policy could not have come at any better time.

I discovered that the issue ignited a fiery debate over the past week. It's true that some jobs will be lost in the process of changing the urban transport system. However, it becomes inhuman to preserve such jobs at the expense of human life. The omnibus operators still have a business opportunity through migrating into the new system.

They can merge and buy the required high volume buses. I am sure the government will give them first preference. At least the bus system will ensure that revenue will be collected and it's going to be easy for the authorities to regulate a sector with a few organised players.

The omnibus operators must be thankful that the government has given them ample time to warm up to this new dispensation. Instead of crying, they must start making plans to adjust to the new requirements.

Nobody needs a lesson on how Harare has been turned into a jungle, with the kombi crews being the law unto themselves.. Right now the CBD is littered with pirate taxis which operate anyhow, sometimes in the face of the police.

According to the National Transport Policy, the phasing out of the omnibuses is set to decongest major cities as well as create a modern and affordable transport system. Among a plethora of solutions proposed to achieve these objectives, the use of two wheelers should be given a serious consideration. I am happy that government is planning to reduce import duty for bicycles. That incentive must be extended to the importation of motorbikes.

In fact, a more appealing incentive would be a total exemption from import duty. Government and other employers should actually give their workers some interest free loans to purchase this sustainable transport alternative. They can alternatively provide a bike pool or a bank of bikes to be used by workers.

Some people may be ambivalent about this option and regard it with disdain, but bikes in the car-centric cultures in Europe and Asia are increasingly used to fight congestion in urban centres. In Netherlands for instance, biking accounts for 27% of all trips made and 99.1% of the population are cyclists.

In the countries where bikes are used to fight traffic congestion, a myriad of incentives are offered to promote their use. For instance in the UK, motorcycles are exempt from the10 pounds per day congestion charge that other vehicles pay to enter the city during the day. They are also exempt from paying toll charges and there are free parking bays dedicated for them. Such incentives can also promote the use of bikes in this country.

Even if bikes are abundantly provided, the challenge still remains that most people are ambivalent about riding bikes due to the risks associated with it. Bikers are the most vulnerable road users in Zimbabwe.

The government must put in place supportive measures that favour bikers to reduce their casualties. The countries where biking is an integral part of life, such as Holland and Denmark, as well as much of the rest of continental Europe, have something in effect called "strict liability."

It means that if a driver strikes a biker, he is automatically at fault, even if the biker literally jumps out in front of the driver. This may not seem fair, but a system where a biker and a driver are on equal footing is not a fair one either, because the results of any collision are so unequal. A system needs to acknowledge that it is the driver of a car who is doing something inherently dangerous.

Riding a bike where such a system is in place is an amazing experience. Bikers in Holland, Iran and other countries with such a system, ride in heavy traffic, commuting to work, carrying groceries and children, secure that the drivers are looking out after them. The car and truck drivers are held legally responsible for the potential consequences of their vehicles.