Tanzanian boy transporting fodder on his bicycle to feed his family cattle
Bicycle poverty reduction is the concept that access to
bicycles and the transportation infrastructure to support them can dramatically
reduce poverty.[1][2][3][4] This has been demonstrated in various pilot projects in South Asia and Africa.[5][6][7] Experiments done in Africa (
Uganda and
Tanzania) and
Sri Lanka on hundreds of households have shown that a bicycle can increase the income of a poor family by as much as 35%.[5][8][9]
Transport, if analyzed for the cost–benefit analysis for
rural poverty alleviation, has given one of the best returns in this regard. For example, road investments in India were a staggering 3–10 times more effective than almost all other investments and subsidies in
rural economy in the decade of the 1990s. A road can ease transport on a macro level, while bicycle access supports it at the micro level. In that sense, the bicycle can be one of the most effective means to eradicate poverty in poor nations.
Gallery
Men in
Uganda using a bicycle to transport bananas
A man uses a bicycle to carry goods in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
A man hauling coconuts fiber doormats in
Indonesia