Most cities on the African continent are bursting at the seams with motor-vehicle traffic. It is divine bliss when one finds oneself in a capital city like Lilongwe, Malawi, where one can afford to take one’s car out for a pleasure ride around the town. Generally the scene is of a chaotic mélange of nauseating fumes, suffocating dust, blaring horns and foul-mouthed drivers and touts.

Admittedly, not every town is a Lagos, but Dar, Nairobi and Kampala are not far behind the legendary Nigerian metropolis that has earned the right to be emblematic of urban disorder.

We spend inordinate man-hours on the road, to the detriment of our national economies, our individual pockets and our personal heart conditions. We know we cannot afford the financial costs involved, let alone the toll on our physical health.

In a state of funk, our national and city authorities are embarking on huge infrastructural programmes looking to ease the congestion that has clogged most of our big cities. Ring roads, flyovers, bypasses, city trains, rapid-transit buses etc are the most common means resorted to in the attempt to beat the urban snarl-ups.

But we routinely, almost without exception, keep on thinking inside the box. Our collective mentality is so wedded to motorisation that we refuse to consider any solution that may exclude automotive applications. That is why we hardly ever think of the role that could be played by the bicycle if we gave it the chance to fight town congestion.

To begin with, the bicycle is the most politically correct means of transportation, because it is the most affordable for our people. Even the poorest of our toiling masses can afford to buy a bicycle in his/her lifetime. In addition, it is friendly to the environment, being emission-free. The bicycle can also serve as a personal gymnasium that you carry with you wherever you go, all day, working out at the same time that you go somewhere.

Riding a bicycle says you are intelligent, rational, healthy and alive. You cannot be dead and riding on a bicycle, which you can be if you are in a bus or train. You could go on unnoticed and dead till the conductor comes along to inspect tickets. No such indignity if you are cycling.

I gather that is why developed nations in northern Europe, such as Denmark and Holland, are so much in love with the bicycle. The Danes, for instance, are so hooked to their bicycles that almost 40 per cent of Copenhagen residents go about their business on the two-wheeler.

It is not unusual to see kindergarten children scooting on these lovable machines to and from their schools. The prime minister, members of the government at all levels, and even members of the royal family, can be seen pedalling happily on the streets of the capital city.

One estimate says the distance covered by the Danes on their bicycles is 1.2 million kilometres daily, which is the same as going to the moon and back… twice. Truly astonishing for a population of less than six million.

So, why do we not just emulate these advanced (and intelligent) countries? Because we are backward and unintelligent. If richer, healthier and more developed societies are engaging in practices that make them richer, healthier and more developed, one would have thought we would just go, see, copy and paste, no?

Our towns and cities would look smart and they would make sense with more people on bikes than in motorcars. We would have healthier, trimmer, fitter and cleverer citizens. Our national and personal medical bills would go down at the same rate as the national and personal fuel bills. We would have fewer fatal accidents than we have today, which have made our highways so lethal one would think there was a minor war being fought.

In the particular case of Tanzania, Tanga seems to be the smartest city, with children and adults alike enjoying easy rides on the streets without being bullied off the road by arrogant motorists who think they alone have the right to exist.

We can learn from Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and other developed European nations. We can also learn from our brothers and sisters in Tanga. With all this education available, it is difficult to understand why we are still hooked on the motorcar.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]