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Middle Eastern Cities in a Time of Climate Crisis

 | 
Agnès Deboulet
, 
Waleed Mansour

Part II. Paths for De-carbonization and Biodiversity Recovery

The Making of the Egyptian Cycling Scene

Heba Attia Mousa

Entrées d'index

Texte intégral

Introduction

1Human-powered mobility (walking and cycling) is a basic mode of mobility that has been long overlooked in favour of motorized modes. However, after years of cities around the world being planned around the needs of private car owners, the downsides of this extreme motorization of cities are presenting themselves: a fragmented urban fabric, reduced quality of life and increasing levels of air and noise pollution. This, paired with the growing awareness of climate change, has caused a global comeback of walking and cycling to the practice of urban planning and design.

2In Egypt, there are small attempts at several decision-making levels to promote cycling as a mode of mobility. On the national level, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has started two initiatives to subsidize bicycle purchases for youth via affordable instalments. The names of the initiatives reflect the objectives behind them: the first is called ‘your bicycle, your health’ and the second ‘your bicycle, your profession’.

3Additionally, different cities and governorates have launched local initiatives aiming to introduce bicycle facilities (bikeways and parking). Civil society and international organizations have also contributed to the physical infrastructure of cycling, providing bike-sharing systems, bike parking and bicycle lanes in several cities, in cooperation with the government. All of this reflects political leaders’ support for cycling, especially after many events during which Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi showed his support for cycling and led cycling parades himself.

4However, investment in cycling infrastructure and serious policies encouraging cycling are still very limited in current urban planning and governance structures. It seems that planning for cycling exceeds the present capacity of most local administrative units (the governorates). Moreover, a paradigm shift from motorized mobility to a mix of modes of mobility is yet to be adopted and practiced in modern Egyptian cities, or maybe revived, as cycling was a normalized mode of mobility in these cities in the past (Figure 1).

Figure1. Two examples of cycling being used as a daily mode of mobility. Right image: Women working in a textile factory in Qena commuting by bicycle after their workday – 1962. Left image: Students of the French school in Alexandria posing with their school bus and bikes – 1920s.

Figure1. Two examples of cycling being used as a daily mode of mobility. Right image: Women working in a textile factory in Qena commuting by bicycle after their workday – 1962. Left image: Students of the French school in Alexandria posing with their school bus and bikes – 1920s.

Source: Left image: photographer unknown; right image: Mission Laïque Francaise.

5Civil society and cycling groups have been active in mobilizing and promoting cycling mobility despite cultural barriers, whether these are gender or class-based. In this environment, Tabdeel was born as an advocacy group and a bridge between the planning and policy spheres and civil-society activities. Tabdeel employs an ecosystem approach to cycling advocacy that covers the different spheres influencing cycling mobility (Figure 2). The following paragraphs discuss these spheres in order to provide a holistic overview of cycling in Egyptian cities.

Figure 2. Ecological framework for cycling mobility.

Figure 2. Ecological framework for cycling mobility.

Source: Based on Sallis et al.’s (2006) framework for active living communities.

The Built Environment

6Egyptian cities vary in terms of urban form and quality of infrastructure. In general, however, the older cities provide a mix of land uses and urban density as well as a flat topography which constitute good preconditions for cycling. The bigger cities in Egypt, such as Alexandria and Cairo, have commuting lengths that can be a barrier to cycling. In these cities, using cycling for local and first- and last-mile trips is an advantage in terms of time and affordability. However, cycling remains risky in most parts of Egypt, and cycling infrastructure that provides safety and direct access to bike users is a pressing need.

7Tabdeel mapped twenty-five projects located all over the country. The majority was located in the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) and the new cities around it, while nine projects were located in other cities (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Mapping of cycling projects in Egypt.

Figure 3. Mapping of cycling projects in Egypt.

Source: Tabdeel (https://padlet.com/​hebaaamousa/​1zoehtfaw7yocwdu).

8More than half of all cycling projects (52 per cent) were located in new urban communities and touristic resorts, where the advantage of short distances and mixed land use are absent. Some of these projects are privately funded, such as the bike-sharing system of Al Rehab compound or the bikeway network of El Gouna. Being on privately owned land also means that access to some of the existing cycling facilities in Egypt is exclusive to certain groups of tenants, owners or tourists. Meanwhile, most cycling hotspots in Cairo’s old city lack any cycling facilities. Therefore, justice in the distribution of the cycling infrastructure is a topic that needs to be addressed.

9Some cities outside the GCR saw more investment in cycling, which included multiple project types: the Fayoum Sustainable Transport Programme (STP) project, for example, included bike-sharing at Fayoum University and bike lanes on the city’s streets as well as the provision of a cycling network in Shebin El Kom. Recently, UN-Habitat initiated the first bike-sharing system in downtown Cairo, accompanied by a pilot cycling lane in addition to existing bike parking facilities.

10The bike-sharing systems in downtown Cairo and at Zuwail University and the cycling infrastructure that was implemented in Fayoum and Shebin El Kom were the only projects that deliberately aimed to compensate for the limitations of the mobility system and provide solutions for first and last miles or a service complementary to public transportation. The remaining cycling projects did not have a clear purpose in terms of contributing to the urban mobility system, and some of them – such as the cycling lanes in Sheikh Zayed and the Sixth of October cities – were oriented towards recreational cycling.

The Social Environment

11When people hear the word ‘cycling’, it normally brings up a certain image: an environmentally conscious lifestyle, a cool sport for young, fit middle-class citizens, or maybe an everyday tool that provides an affordable mode of mobility. Associating cycling with niche lifestyles, such as eco-friendly lifestyles, sports groups or any subculture, can form a barrier to mainstreaming cycling as a mode of mobility (Larsen 2017). For cycling to be part of our cities’ lives, we need to normalize and depoliticize it. The ‘otherness’ associated with different cycling groups might fragment collective advocacy and marginalize certain groups in any participatory process.

12In the Egyptian context, cycling has long been attached to poverty and a low social status, mainly after it lost ground to cars, which were made into a status symbol by returning Gulf migrants from the 1970s onwards. Even though only a minority of Egyptian families own a car, car ownership has been a long sought-after dream for most Egyptians (Amin 2001). Another association people have with cycling is that it is a children’s activity (Puttrowait 2014).

13In terms of gender norms, cycling is exclusively associated with men. This, in addition to the restrictions that female bodies face in public space, is reflected in the share of female bike users, who constituted only 1.2 per cent of all users in 2021 (Attia Mousa, Alahwal, and Aboutaleb 2021). Research from the delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh showed that this gender gap starts at an early age: from all kids between 6 and 11 years old who used a bicycle, 80 per cent were boys and 20 per cent were girls. This causes a gap in competencies and skills that grows bigger with time (Elfiky 2010).

14In recent years, the rise of recreational cycling groups changed some perceptions of cycling and introduced new identities and representation in the media, social media and the streets. The weekend rides that started among middle- and upper-middle-class youth are gender-inclusive and provide a degree of protection for female bike users, who face less harassment in a group and are encouraged by peer support. The group’s visible and growing presence in the streets has contributed to the normalization of cycling women in some middle- and upper-middle-class neighbourhoods. However, in most parts of Egyptian cities, cycling remains stigmatized and is seen as taboo for women (Attia Mousa, Alahwal, and Aboutaleb 2021).

15Cycling groups have another added value for bike users: they make streets safer. Research in public health and road safety shows that fewer collisions happen between cars and bike users if more people are cycling (Jacobsen 2015). Motorists tend to adjust their behaviour according to the dominant group on the street. Therefore, the more people cycle, the more other people view cycling as safe. This phenomenon is called ‘human infrastructure’. Human infrastructure refers to how people interact with each other and with their city and how they form networks and shape power relations in the streets. It is the most crucial part of the shaping of a cycling scene in any city.

16The bicycle count conducted by Tabdeel’s team in the course of 2020 and 2021 revealed some cycling hotspots in Egypt that are not necessarily linked to physical cycling infrastructure. For example, counting bike users near Assiut’s train station proved that this location has the highest share of bike users per hour of all counting locations across the country. There are fewer bike users in more populous locations such as downtown Cairo or Heliopolis. This puts Assiut on the map as an Egyptian cycling city, whereas new cities – like Sixth of October and Sheikh Zayed, which have dedicated physical infrastructure but no people cycling – are not viewed as cycling cities.

Figure 4. Bike rider count per location per hour.

Figure 4. Bike rider count per location per hour.

Source: Street count by Tabdeel’s team.

Figure 5. School bike parking in Assiut where students use bikes as a main mode of mobility.

Figure 5. School bike parking in Assiut where students use bikes as a main mode of mobility.

Source: Photo by Yusuf Halim.

Figure 6. Workers in Port Said during their morning commute.

Figure 6. Workers in Port Said during their morning commute.

Photo by: Hesham Gamal.

The Policy Environment

17Cycling planning in Egypt is a field open to a variety of stakeholders. Around 43 per cent of cycling projects are the product of multistakeholder collaborations between different sectors, while others had one main initiator. The public sector, for example, set up 25 per cent of projects, while the private sector initiated 32 per cent of them.

18Projects by the public sector involved either national authorities, such as the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), or local government entities, such as governorates and city councils (e.g. the Nozha street cycling lane in El Shorouk). The National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) was involved in implementing the cycling lane on the Cairo–Ain Al Sokhna highway.

19Civil society and international organizations have been active in initiating cycling projects and mobilizing funds. For example, the Sekketak Khadra bike parking project in Cairo was coordinated by UN-Habitat and implemented by local NGO Green Arm – Nahdet El Mahrousa. They secured funding for the project from the Embassy of Denmark. In rare cases, cycling groups were the main initiator of a project. For example, a devastating accident in 2018 on the Cairo–Ain Al Sokhna road motivated sports group Maadi Athletes to contact the national company for roads, buildings and development to implement a cycling lane along the road, which was named the longest cycling lane in the Middle East and North Africa. Although this lane did not meet the safety requirements for cycling infrastructure on a highway, it was a good example of grassroots action and mobilization towards recognizing cyclists as being part of the street.

20The private sector has also contributed to cycling projects in Egypt. Orascom, Talaat Moustafa and Sodic have implemented bikeways and bike-sharing systems in some of their megadevelopments, including El Gouna, El Rehab and Beverly Hills. The bike-sharing systems in these compounds are implemented and operated by Egyptian cycling start-ups Stebn and Baddel. In some cases, bike-sharing systems in private developments were funded by banks through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments, such as CIB and NBE. In new cities, including Sixth of October and Sheikh Zayed, NUCA required private investors to accommodate cycling lanes and sidewalks around their developments.

21Funding is essential in setting up cycling infrastructure projects. Bike-sharing revenues for example should not be dependent on users’ fees, since the lower the rental price is, the more bicycle use is encouraged. Instead, they should depend on advertisements at bike stations. If this operation and its maintenance are not set up in this way, the service provider (i.e. Stebn or Baddel) takes responsibility and ends up depleting its resources. It is then no longer able to sustain the project. Success cases of efficient bike-sharing as described by these companies can be found at private universities (e.g. Zweil University) and high-class compounds (Beverly Hills), as they have running funds that cover these costs.

Figure 7. Mapping bicycle projects in Egyptian cities and the involved entities.

Figure 7. Mapping bicycle projects in Egyptian cities and the involved entities.

Source: Tabdeel.

22Urban laws and regulations as well as law enforcement can facilitate cycling by imposing traffic safety, planning standards and financing mechanisms for cycling mobility. In Egypt, some laws regarding cycling exist yet are not enforced because of social or political obstacles. However, it is still necessary to develop laws and regulations that promote cycling mobility in Egypt (Alahwal and Aboutaleb 2022). Tabdeel has financed research on urban cycling laws in Egypt, on which Table 1 is based.

Traffic law number 66, 1973
Bicycle and riders’ definition The law classifies bicycles as low-speed vehicles and states the need for cargo bikes to have a licence. It also prohibits cycling on public roads and renting bikes to children under 8 years old. It prohibits bike rental in general if the necessary permit is not obtained.
Use of the street space Regarding the use of streets, the law states that bicycle users are required to ride on the right side of the road, except when there is a cycling lane in other parts of the road; in this case, they are obliged to use the cycling lane. It also prohibits bicycles from riding side by side.
Riders’ behaviour The law prohibits riding using one hand, carrying cargo loads or sharing the bike with another person except if the bicycle is designed for this purpose.
Safety The law requires bicycles to have front lights with yellow or white shades with a range of ten metres and rear lights with yellow or orange shades. It does not require the use of helmets while cycling.
Bicycle design The law recognizes only the use of bicycles that have at least one handbrake and metal frames made from one piece, with no bolts and joints, which excludes folding bikes, wooden bikes, aluminium-frame bikes, fixed-gear bikes, and bikes with pedal brakes.
Egyptian code for urban roads and highway works, 1998
Integration of bikeways The law requires the implementation of bikeways when the annual average daily traffic of bicycles exceeds 500. The code also specifies that bikeways should be 1.10 metres wide. The code describes three types of bikeways: (1) paths separated by a vertical level or distance from car traffic, (2) paths separated by physical separators or paint and (3) lanes shared with car traffic with signs for bicycle use.
Motorized traffic speed The law requires traffic-calming measures in dense urban areas but does not elaborate on the required speeds or characteristics of streets this rule applies to.
Financing cycling infrastructure
NUCA’s 3 per cent policy NUCA requires private developers to contribute with development exactions that can be oriented towards developing cycling lanes, sidewalks and leisure facilities. In Sixth of October, it coordinated the development of cycling infrastructure using this requirement.
Under development
The Housing and Building Research Centre in Egypt has formed a committee of urban mobility, planning and cycling experts – including members of academia, civil society and the public and private sectors who advocate for cycling planning – to write ‘the Egyptian code for cycling infrastructure’. The code is under development and the results are to be approved after the contents are finalized.

23Egyptian cities have a long way to go before they will be cycling cities. However, there is noticeable progress on the physical, social and policy levels. The continued efforts from the public and private sectors as well as cycling grassroots organizations will eventually lead to a better environment for cycling and accelerate the attraction of new bike users who would otherwise be reliant on motorized mobility. In 2022, with Egypt hosting the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP27), a few impactful cycling projects made their way to downtown Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh. The newly established bike-sharing system in downtown Cairo (Cairo Bike) is an especially pioneering model of a project that aims at mainstreaming cycling as a mode of mobility and targets a modal shift in short trips. In a context of increasing fuel prices for motorized mobility and a growing awareness of its health and environmental issues, cycling is set to gain more ground across the country.

Bibliographie

Alahwal, Ahmed T., and Omar Aboutaleb. 2022. ‘Potential and Current State of Urban Cycling Laws in Egypt’. Fordham Urban Law Journal January 14. https://news.law.fordham.edu/fulj/2022/01/14/potential-and-current-state-of-urban-cycling-laws-in-egypt/.

Amin, Galal. 2001. Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? Changes in Egyptian Society from 1950 to the Present. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Attia Mousa, Heba, Ahmed T. Alahwal, and Omar Aboutaleb. 2021. Justice in the Provision of Cycling Infrastructure in Egypt. Cairo: Tabdeel.

Elfiky, Usama. 2010. ‘Cycling around Delta Cities in Egypt: Applicable Cycling Program within Kafr Elshiekh City’. In Second International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development, 377–93. Amman, Jordan: University of Amman. https://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB22652.pdf.

Jacobsen, Peter L. 2015. ‘Safety in Numbers: More Walkers and Bicyclists, Safer Walking and Bicycling’. Injury Prevention 9: 205–9.

Larsen, Jonas. 2017. ‘The Making of a Pro-Cycling City: Social Practices and Bicycle Mobilities’. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 49, no 4: 876–92.

Puttrowait, Eric. 2014. ‘Encouraging Bicycling as a Means of Sustainable Urban Transportation in Cairo’. MA diss., Ain Shams University/University of Stuttgart.

Sallis, James F., Robert B. Cervero, William Ascher, Karla A. Henderson, M. Katherine Kraft, and Jacqueline Kerr. 2006. ‘An Ecological Approach to Creating Active Living Communities’. Annual Review of Public Health 27: 297–322.

Table des illustrations

Titre Figure1. Two examples of cycling being used as a daily mode of mobility. Right image: Women working in a textile factory in Qena commuting by bicycle after their workday – 1962. Left image: Students of the French school in Alexandria posing with their school bus and bikes – 1920s.
Crédits Source: Left image: photographer unknown; right image: Mission Laïque Francaise.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 367k
Titre Figure 2. Ecological framework for cycling mobility.
Crédits Source: Based on Sallis et al.’s (2006) framework for active living communities.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 312k
Titre Figure 3. Mapping of cycling projects in Egypt.
Crédits Source: Tabdeel (https://padlet.com/​hebaaamousa/​1zoehtfaw7yocwdu).
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 757k
Titre Figure 4. Bike rider count per location per hour.
Crédits Source: Street count by Tabdeel’s team.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 245k
Titre Figure 5. School bike parking in Assiut where students use bikes as a main mode of mobility.
Crédits Source: Photo by Yusuf Halim.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 355k
Titre Figure 6. Workers in Port Said during their morning commute.
Crédits Photo by: Hesham Gamal.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 817k
Titre Figure 7. Mapping bicycle projects in Egyptian cities and the involved entities.
Crédits Source: Tabdeel.
URL http://books.openedition.org/cedej/docannexe/image/8619/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 920k

Auteur

Heba Attia Mousa is an architect and an urban planner with a BSc and an MSc from Alexandria University in Egypt and Technische Universität Berlin in Germany. Her career and urban advocacy activities focus on socially and environmentally conscious planning. She initiated multiple projects in Egypt and elsewhere to advocate for sustainable urban mobility, the circular economy and social justice in planning. She founded Tabdeel: Center for Cycling Urbanism in Egypt. She is currently working at ICLEI local governments for sustainability on the topic of sustainable urban mobility.

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