LOW-COST MOBILITY IN AFRICA
What does it mean?
Low-cost mobility is a term for the cheap ability to get fra
point A to point B. Baisikeli is dedicated to create mobility
for the world´s poor and open up for the many possibilities lead
with it. And it needs to be “low-cost” if we are to get everyone
mobile
What is the effect of enhanced mobility?
Enhanced mobility can often be translated into more efficiency
for the individual as you can save a lot of time compared to
walking. It also means that an individual’s ability to get to
point B has tripled in power and that might be the most
important. For a lot of people the distance to school, work,
health care and markets are located too far from home for one
person to get to them all and so access to a bike can be the
deciding factor in whether a person actually gets to school or
work each day, and be able to reach the doctor in time. A
teacher will be able to teach in one village in the beginning of
the day, and in another village in the afternoon if the teacher
has access to a bicycle. This teacher will then double his wage
and twice the number of children will be educated.
Read ITDP factsheet about the role of bicycles in battling HIV/AIDS
Why Bicycles?
First of all, the bike meets all our demands. Den can be made
very sturdy, requires minimal maintenance and is very, very
economically viable both in terms of purchase and daily use. The
market for bikes is large south from Sahara, and this means
great potential to built workshops, workplaces and industry as
the bicycle opens up many doors for a small investment. The bike
is one of the simplest and most effective ways of creating
better lives for the poor population of the world.
The second reason is that Baisikeli is a Danish company and we
have a long tradition and great knowledge and skill when it
comes to bicycle manufacturing, as well as an extensive bike
culture to draw upon. We also have a huge “production” of
scrapped but usable bikes that has been stolen or abandoned
which then have no purpose in Denmark.
Read: Cost-benefit analysis of bicycle ownership in rural Uganda from ITDP Europe
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