Mobility

Having just returned from Euston railway station on a bicycle errand this morning, I was listening to BBC's Bicycle Diaries. Episode two is about livelihoods generated from bicycles in Kampala. One man was using bicycle parts to build wheelchairs, (like Amarbat) which the programme says, are in great demand there. (Negus 2004) Another man had a mobile telephone stall, another an icecream and groundnut business, each mounted on converted bicycles or tricycles.

It reminded me of our family's Christmas gift support to Re-cycle: Bicycle Aid, an organisation working with bicycle ambulances, -deliveries, -school runs and other grass-roots transport development through 'bicycle aid' in Africa. Other episodes of the BBC programme cover Parisian shared bicyles (1) and newspaper delivery cycles in Delhi (3), the latter reminded me of my past jobs. Another BBC programme covers the decline in work for London's cycle couriers.

bicycle-wheelchair tandem
folding wheel