Many of us have probably ridden a bicycle for leisure or for better health or to safeguard the environment. Bicycling is often celebrated as the best buy for global health and a solution for the climate crisis. Yet, for millions of people in the world’s fastest-growing cities, the reality of two-wheeled, pedal-powered travel is a daily struggle against invisibility and danger.
A new study shows that in low- and middle-income countries, bicycling is not a lifestyle choice for the elite but a vital lifeline for the marginalised. Led by Smruthi Bala Kannan from the University of Chicago, USA, and an international team of researchers, including those from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, the study investigated bicycling cultures in Delhi and Chennai, India; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Accra, Ghana. They discovered that while international agencies push for more cycling to reduce emissions, local policies often ignore the people already on the road, primarily low-income men, while also failing to create environments where women and children feel safe enough to ride.
The researchers used a mixed-methods approach to examine these dynamics, combining traditional data collection with meticulous social science methods. They conducted intercept surveys, stopping cyclists on busy arterial roads to ask about their journeys, and followed up with in-depth interviews and ethnographic (study of a particular culture or social group) observations. This meant researchers spent hours on street corners and in repair shops, watching how people navigated traffic and subverted obstacles. The research delves into mobility justice and kinopolitics, the study of how power and politics determine who gets to move quickly through a city and who is forced to wait, navigate barriers, or risk their lives in traffic.
Policymakers and influencers often try to copy and paste bicycling solutions from wealthy, high-income countries like the Netherlands or Denmark. The authors argue that simply building a concrete bike lane is not enough if that lane is immediately blocked by parked cars, street vendors, or construction debris. Instead, they highlight the importance of the existing bicycling ecosystem, such as the network of small, informal repair stalls and second-hand markets that keep old steel-frame bikes running for decades. By focusing on these human and social infrastructures, the study provides a blueprint for context-sensitive planning that respects how people in these specific cities actually live and work.
However, because the researchers primarily surveyed people on major, high-traffic roads during the day, their data is heavily skewed toward adult men. They noted that very few women or children participated in the surveys because they often avoid these dangerous arterial roads entirely, preferring to cycle in shorter bursts within their own neighbourhoods. Furthermore, the researchers noted that although they examined gender and income, they did not deeply analyse how other social factors, such as caste or ethnicity, might further restrict someone’s ability to move freely. Future research is needed to address the shortcomings.
The research, nevertheless, challenges city planners to adopt an ethics of care. Rather than designing roads only for the speed of automobiles, the study suggests that true progress comes from protecting the most vulnerable, such as the domestic worker cycling to multiple jobs or the student pedalling to school. By supporting the repair economy and making roads safer for those who already use them, cities can build a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable future that doesn’t leave their most hardworking citizens behind in the dust.
