Hell on a bike – what it’s really like cycling from Langa to Cape Town

Cyclists enjoying the down hill ride along Klipfontein road bridge in Athlone. 24.02.2023. Photo Brenton Geach

By Velani Ludidi

6 Apr 2023

A group experiment to ride from Langa into Cape Town’s CBD proved a scary affair, with nonexistent or neglected lanes and selfish vehicle drivers endangering cyclists’ lives. Daily Maverick reporter Velani Ludidi hopped on a bike to test it out himself.

Daily Maverick recently joined the Active Mobility Forum’s cycling initiative to ride from Langa to the Cape Town CBD to highlight the need for infrastructure that enables safe cycling and an inclusive transport system across the city.

Langa, the oldest township in the Western Cape, is the closest to the CBD at 13km, but it took 14.3km to cycle there because the route passed through Athlone, Rondebosch and Woodstock instead of straight via the N2.

Given its proximity to the CBD, cycling was and is still the norm for many Langa residents, who cannot afford to rent or buy houses in well-located neighbourhoods close to jobs and other opportunities.

There is a bike culture in the area because takeaways and groceries are delivered to residents by bicycle riders. Whereas many people might view cycling as a recreational sport for the privileged, around Langa bicycles have been moving people around for ages, whether it is to report to work or visit friends and family.

But cycling to the CBD comes with risks: there is no infrastructure for cycling and cyclists are forced to share the road with vehicle drivers who are sometimes not mindful of manual two-wheeled road users.

Non-existent network

All the other townships in Cape Town face the same challenges.

Mzikhona Mgedle, founder and director of the Langa Bicycle Hub, said the organisation was advocating for bicycles to be a mode of non-motorised transport for short trips around informal communities like Langa by working with the City of Cape Town to improve cycling and walking infrastructure, and creating safer spaces for children and women to ride and learn about road cycling safety.

Velani Ludidi , Daily Maverick reporter negotiates with other riders Salt River's busy traffic circle. 24.02.2023. Photo Brenton Geach

Cyclists after crossing the N2 from Langa enter Bridgetown in Athlone. 24.02.2023. Photo Brenton Geach

“We need to support the growing numbers of people commuting with bicycles from around informal communities and how we can provide cycling education awareness. Many people are commuting on longer trips from Langa to Cape Town and others leave Langa going to Bellville with bicycles every day ... to get to work and school. These people link their commuter cycling trips on freeways and need educational cycling tips to navigate routes.”

The unreliability of transportation in Cape Town and other South African cities persists owing to continuous government failure to break apartheid spatial planning as well as the destruction of the rail system, making it almost impossible to walk or cycle safely. Current infrastructure prioritises vehicles, despite the obvious benefits of connected cycling lanes.

The route from Langa - CBD. Click on the cycles for specifics along the route. Compiled by Velani Ludidi.

Unsafe passage

The journey to the CBD started at the Langa Indoor Sports Centre on Bhunga Avenue. From the get-go, there were no safe cycling lanes in Langa. The cyclists could not use the N2 because it is illegal to do so; the route then led to Athlone.

There is a bike path approaching Athlone, but it is not maintained — there was broken glass everywhere and the urban waterway is dirty and polluted. The small sections of bicycle lanes end abruptly further into Athlone. The whole route from Athlone Stadium to the Liesbeek Parkway is unsafe with no protective barrier.

Then a minibus taxi wanting to pick up commuters made a stop inside the yellow line used by the cyclists. We had to brake hard to avoid hitting the taxi, and the driver did not acknowledge us at all.

There were many encounters that could have resulted in either injury or even death to the cyclists because there are no barriers protecting them from vehicles on the road. The first safe cycling lane was eventually found at the Liesbeek Parkway, but it is the only safe spot.

As the route entered Woodstock, cyclists were faced with the challenge of vehicles driving inside the painted bicycle lanes. Into the CBD, the Bree Street cycle lane, which was piloted in 2010, is unsafe as it has no barricades to protect cyclists and a plethora of cars park in it.

Professor Marianne Vanderschuren, an expert on public and non-motorised transport at the University of Cape Town, said studies conducted in Cape Town showed that cycling infrastructure did not yield an increase in their use or an improvement in road safety. “At the moment we are not doing it in a way that is conducive to cycling,” she said, pointing out that a network should connect all parts of the city to the CBD.

She added that studies had shown that a second-hand bicycle could be bought with the equivalent of two months’ minibus taxi fares to get to work, “but that requires the City to provide the infrastructure to keep cyclists safe. And that’s not happening.”

Mzikhona Mgedle leads the cyclists along the cycle path at Liesbeek near Hartleyvale stadium. 24.02.2023. Photo Brenton Geach

Cyclists enjoying the down hill ride along Klipfontein road bridge in Athlone. 24.02.2023. Photo Brenton Geach

According to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, public transport is an important part of the metro’s ambitions for Cape Town and cycling is part of that. “This is why we are looking to reform policies and install infrastructure that will create an environment in which cycling becomes an easy mode of transport to choose for Capetonians who wish to do so,” he said.

Ricardo Mackenzie, the newly elected MEC for Mobility in the Western Cape, joined the cyclists in the CBD and pledged to work together with Hill-Lewis to make cycling safer.

“We have tens of thousands of cyclists in the city and if they feel that it is unsafe for them on the roads, we have to do something about that, not only in the metro but in the rest of the province.” DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.

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Non-existent network

Unsafe passage