39: Cycle-Versities

The Academic Citizen

South African universities suffer from serious traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces and high pollution levels. Even though many staff and students aspire to own a car, arguably the bicycle offers huge potential to transform the environment and culture of campuses. In this episode Dr Mehita Iqani and Dr Njogu Morgan, a post-doctoral researcher based at the South Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning at Wits University, discuss cycling as a lifestyle, health benefit, environmentally friendly alternative to the car. They look into the factors which kind of transport people lean towards and reasons behind the choices. Both cycling enthusiasts, they round up a dozen reasons to leave that car in the driveway and consider the affordable bicycle as a way to get around. Produced, edited, researched and scheduled by: Simbarashe Honde