
Cycling heaven: The African capital with 'no traffic' - nairteashop
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47709673
======
Robelius
I’m Eritrean-American. Before clicking the link, I laughed in my head and
thought what would the chances be that it’s Asmara.

EriTV, the state sponsored new channel and only news station, tends to
showcase individuals that exhibit “Eritrean excellence.” This includes
professional Eritrean cyclists that compete internationally, making most
respect or appreciate the sport. Even the Eritrean community that I’m a part
of in the US will come out and support an Eritrean cyclist if race through our
city.

Last time I visited the country, cycling was normal for transport but still
too expensive for a lot of people. Most relied on black market parts to afford
maintenance. But like the article mentions, cheap and legitimate parts have
been coming in since the open border with Ethiopia. There’s still plenty of
black market dealings, but business is hurting for them with this increased
competition.

~~~
mlthoughts2018
How do disabled people or elderly people travel around Asmara?

~~~
ljcn
Buses are mentioned in the article.

------
Reason077
I remember visiting Hanoi, Vietnam in the mid-1990s. In those days, cycling
was _by far_ the dominant mode of transport in the city. You’d see the
occasional small motorcycle (scooter), but the streets were dominated by
thousands upon thousands of cycles, everywhere you went. They must have been
>95% of all traffic.

But now, over 20 years later, it’s all changed. Most of the cycles are gone to
be replaced by a few cars, and incredible numbers of noisy, polluting
combustion scooters.

Air quality has declined dramatically and city streets have become much less
pleasant places to be.

The Vietnamese government probably sees this as progress? I think it’s a
dystopian nightmare and a huge step backwards.

~~~
nerdponx
_The Vietnamese government probably sees this as progress_

I'd like to hear one way or another from a Vietnamese person rather than
speculate on this.

~~~
eightysixfour
Considering Hanoi is banning them all by 2030, I don’t agree with OP.

~~~
Reason077
That's great news if true! But is it a sales ban from 2030, or will they work
to remove them all _by_ 2030?

------
grecy
I've spent the last 3 years driving around Africa - 35 countries and over
50,000 miles. In more than a few cities the traffic (and pollution) have been
absolutely horrific, and I've often wondered if there is a large city where
biking is much more common.

Biking is very common in rural areas.

Unfortunately I've had to skip Eritrea, although I really wanted to get there.
Because of the recent peace deal with Ethiopia the borders are wide open.. but
that means for me nobody really knows how I can enter at a land border
legally... there won't be anyone to stamp my passport, and so it's very likely
I'll be arrested by the first Police that see me, even with a valid visa.

The ambassadors in Ethiopia and Djibouti were more than happy to give me a
visa, but they had no idea what would happen if I tried to drive in. Maybe
I'll have to go back!

~~~
danielecook
What circumstances have you driving all around Africa?

~~~
grecy
I decided I didn't want to spend my life sitting at a desk writing code
(Software Engineer), and I decided a life of adventure was for me.

After saving for years I quit my job and drove Alaska to Argentina, and it
changed my life.

I went back to a desk to save again, and now I've been away for three years
driving around. I've also worked really hard to be a freelance travel writer
and photographer, so I can do this forever without ever going back to a desk.

I'll never own a big screen TV or new car, but I'm certainly going to see
stunning places, meet interesting people and have grand adventures!

~~~
always4getpass
What was your initial budget before being sustainable, if I may? Because by a
quick skim through your page it seems it would be in the order of hundreds of
thousands (including gas). Are you able to sustain yourself now with your
income while traveling? Any tips for people that might wish to do the same?
Your story is inspiring, but what holds me back is the fear of not having
enough money to do such thing. Thanks

~~~
grecy
> _in the order of hundreds of thousands (including gas)._

This is a really, really common misconception.

For the Alaska to Argentina trek, two years and 40,000 miles through 16
countries, I spent $27k, for _everything_.[1]

Africa won't really be much more per month than that.

By keeping my monthly expenses low, I'm now very close to sustaining myself
while on the road. Some months I do, some I still take a tiny bit from my
savings. I'm about to publish another few books, and if they go reasonably
well like my current one, I should be good.

My major tip is simply don't be afraid. Give it a go, see what happens.

In five years if all of this doesn't work I'll be sitting back at a desk and I
sure as hell won't be sitting around thinking "what if". If it does work, I
will be living my dreams.

> _What holds me back is the fear of not having enough money_

It's funny now from where I sit, the vast majority of people in the developed
world are terrified of money. It's really educational to spend time with
people that have none, and have no prospects of ever earning any, but are
still immensely happy and have tons of time and often find ways to live their
own dreams.

[1] [http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-
adventure](http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure)

~~~
senorjazz
> For the Alaska to Argentina trek, two years and 40,000 miles through 16
> countries, I spent $27k, for everything.[1]

including vehicle? If not, it can be cheaper. We did Europe to SE Asia
(southern route: India and up through Tibet / China). Then California down to
South America for less over 2 years (wife daughter and I)

~~~
grecy
I bought the vehicle at the start for $5k, then sold it at the end for $5k, so
I don't count it as an expense. I drove it 40k miles and the vehicle cost
nothing :)

I've met plenty of backpackers that travel the world for $10-$12k per year.
Backpacking is cheaper than going with a vehicle if you are a single person,
though a vehicle is cheaper as soon as there are two or more people,
especially when you go to parts of the world where it's easy to camp out in
the wild for free.

------
azernik
I'm sure Pyongyang also has very little cycling. Eritrea and North Korea
regularly vie for the bottom spot on human rights rankings.

That this article tries to pass it off as "diplomatic isolation" is a
whitewash and a travesty.

~~~
Carpetsmoker
This article is about highlighting that you can organize a city of 500,000
people without a car-dominated infrastructure (and all the problems that
brings). Not every article needs to be about everything.

~~~
GhostVII
How has this article highlighted that though? Eritrea is clearly not
functioning very well, and is quite poor, so I don't think it is something we
should hold up as an example of how a city can be organized.

~~~
djtriptych
Cars: \- are energy hogs \- are loud \- are extremely dangerous \- require up
to 50% of city land to operate.

~~~
close04
> require up to 50% of city land to operate

Where is this number coming from and what does it apply to exactly? It sounds
like something that might be realistic in the US but probably not in most
other parts of the world.

~~~
djtriptych
Tried to be careful with "up to". LA's city center has been measured at 59%.
I'll try to find the source again.

But just consider:

\- roads

\- highways / major ingress/egress

\- sidewalks (yup. Don't really need them without cars)

\- parking lots & garages

A nice source with color-coded maps \-
[http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-
at...](http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at-street-
area.html)

A nice survey/writeup from Vox: [https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-
future/cars-cities-technol...](https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-
cities-technologies)

~~~
close04
Those are the links are found also before concluding it must be mostly a US
thing. I was actually surprised about this. In Europe there far less space
dedicated to cars.

------
seanmcdirmid
China used to be the bicycle kingdom before its economic opening. It wasn’t
even that long ago, 1999 when I first visited still had the sea of bicycle
commute going on in Beijing.

------
abhinai
The hassle of dealing with traffic has always prevented me from cycling to
more places. A city with little motor traffic would be an absolutely amazing
place for cycling everywhere!

~~~
bbrian
> The hassle of dealing with traffic has always prevented me from cycling

Reminds me of:

> Cars are the perfect late capitalist consumer product: an expensive, often
> de facto mandatory, solution to a problem that the product itself has
> largely caused.

[https://twitter.com/mtsw/status/1109082492147884034](https://twitter.com/mtsw/status/1109082492147884034)

~~~
saiya-jin
this doesn't cover my use case at all - moving around city 90% with public
transport (like everybody in europe), but 100% weekend trips of 50-200 km,
often to neighboring countries with very limited to non-existent public
transport.

So for us it allows us to travel to places that wouldn't be otherwise
accessible at all. I mean remote mountain villages and valleys, hopping to
Italy etc.

Of course cars have tons of issues, but sure as hell they add tons of life
quality for many folks out there.

------
jablan
I am constantly saddened when seeing people carrying lots of stuff on crappy
mountain bikes. How come mountain bikes have become so popular that they are
so much more ubiquitous than all other kinds of bicycles? A (crappy)
suspension fork is nowadays cheaper than (any) rigid fork, yet heavier, less
durable and harder to maintain. Why there are so few cargo bicycles? Why don't
Chinese frame makers make them? Cars would be so much easier to replace if
cargo bikes were more affordable.

~~~
mantas
Cargo bikes are a bitch to squeeze through or store tight spaces. I'd love to
have a cargo bike but I don't see how I could store it without moving out to
suburbs into a house with a big garage/shed. But then I wouldn't need cargo
bike anymore...

And pseudo-mountain bikes handle crappy pavement and rubbish on the streets
much better. MTB-like bikes with rigid forks is where it's at though.

~~~
fulafel
In many places, apartment buildings have indoor (or at least fenced / roofed)
bike storage.

~~~
mantas
Yes. And that bike storage would be full in no time if people started putting
cargo bikes in there en masse. The beauty of bike parking is they're
lightweight and easy to put in a very very compact manner. Cargo bikes take up
space of several bikes and require much more space for manoeuvring.

~~~
fulafel
You went from the personal to the general :) I suppose for the en masse case
for an apartment building, communal trailers might be a solution?

~~~
mantas
A rack with panniers and/or a backpack works good enough in 9 out of 10 cases.
For the rest, some sort of bigger motor vehicle is likely to be significantly
better than cargo bike.

The only good use I could see is carrying 2 toddlers to school. But that's a
very specific situation for a short span of time and in the end it's very
rare. Looks damn cool in pics though!

------
kqr
I'm slightly disturbed by the amount of comments that appear to suggest people
in the west "can afford" to ruin the environment with car travel. That boat
sailed a long time ago, no matter what your personal finances are like.

~~~
hnaccy
What do you mean?

~~~
baroffoos
No amount of money in the world can afford environmental destruction. A large
number on a bank account won't help you much when you have no food to eat and
nowhere safe left to live.

~~~
lawlessone
>A large number on a bank account won't help you much when you have no food to
eat and nowhere safe left to live.

yeah but that is future mes problem.

------
justforfunhere
In India, cycling continues to be the main mode of transport in rural as well
as urban areas, for those people who cannot afford a bike.

But whats shocking is that dedicated cycle lanes are rare and cyclists have to
ply on the same roads that carry cars, trucks etc. I can't recall the last
time I saw a dedicated cycle track in an Indian city which is a disgrace since
most of the people belonging to lower classes still use cycles as a daily mode
of transportation.

I guess, among the explosion of cars and bikes on the roads, people on cycles
have either become invisible or they have just been forgotten by those in
authorities.

I used to cycle to work a long time ago. After a few Nearly Near-Death-
Experiences, I gave up and bought a bike instead. My cycle languished in a
corner of my room, until one day the maid that worked at my house asked if she
could borrow it so that her husband could drop her children to school and then
go work at a nearby textile factory.

I guess, they are still using that cycle while I have graduated from a bike to
a car now.

~~~
ascar
I usually don't wanna be that guy, but this is super confusing to read. When
you say bike, you mean a motorbike. Bicycle, cycle and bike are synonyms for
the 2-wheeler without a motor. Bike is only used for motorbike, if the context
is clear.

I also assume in India most people would use scooters and not motorbikes.

~~~
justforfunhere
Hey, that's the common lexicon in India:-

Bike -> Motorbike

Cycle -> Bicycle

Edit: Also scooters are super rare these days. Motorbikes provide more mileage
and are easier to maintain and have longer life. The number of scooters on
Indian roads declined starting around 12-15 years ago I recall.

~~~
ascar
It's confusing for me, because bike is used for both depending on context. But
when you are talking about cycling, most people (outside of India) would
interpret bike as bicycle.

If bike is used without much context, I would also assume you mean bicycle,
unless I know you own a motorbike.

~~~
ido
As someone who spent a couple of months in India (a long time ago) I
sympathise with your confusion. But what can we do, Indians say it one way and
Americans the other (I have a lot of friends from the UK and they tend to have
their own terms for transportation-purposes as well, like Lorrie and Motorway
- not to mention more exotic slang like "leccy" for electric vehicles).

After you accept the OP is using Indian English it's not that hard to
understand what they mean & I don't think we have to enforce everyone using
American dialects on HN for these relatively minor inconveniences.

------
DC-3
I think it'd be awesome if Eritrea were to produce some pro cyclists. Right
now, the pro peloton is, within a rounding error, entirely Caucasian - which I
think is something of a shame. To take some examples - while the famously
cycle-friendly nation of the Netherlands is extremely strongly represented,
China is not - despite the latter state also being known for its embrace of
bicycles. I imagine this is almost wholly down to lack of opportunity, with
the majority of pro cycling teams being based in Western Europe or America.
Would the Kazakh flag be as common a sight in pro cycling were it not for the
influence of Team Astana? I doubt it. Hopefully one day we may see Eritreans
compete alongside the best in the Grand Tours - if nothing else, it would
hopefully stamp out some of the uglier attitudes in the peloton (see: Moscon).

~~~
godfried
There are Eritrean pro cyclists and some have competed in the grand tours.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Eritrea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Eritrea)

~~~
DC-3
Only domestiques so far, to my knowledge.

~~~
Robelius
I think this is true for all Eritrean athletes too

------
iddan
The state of Eritrea is so bad people are running away from it to countries
like Israel taking the risk of getting shot to death in all the countries they
pass

~~~
benj111
Why Israel? Eritrea seems to be half and half Christian and Muslim.

~~~
azernik
Nothing to do with religion. It's only three land border crossings away, no
need to cross the Mediterranean like you would if you went to Europe.

Not quite as nice as Germany or Sweden, but much safer to get to.

~~~
benj111
Perhaps. If you could get to Israel could you not get to southern Europe? If I
were a Muslim, I know where I'd be avoiding.

~~~
azernik
Paying a smuggler to get you across the Mediterranean is expensive, the death
rate is high, and many of the transit countries like Libya you'd end up
waiting in are seriously dangerous for foreigners who don't have the
protection of a great power.

Regarding the undesirability of ending up in Israel - Israeli discrimination
is mostly based on ethnicity, not on religion. Christian Palestinians with
Israeli citizenship, though economically well-off, are treated by the state as
security threats in a way that Muslim Eritreans aren't.

------
holri
If you look at photos of Vienna from around 1900 the traffic situation was
similar relaxed. Something went wrong.

------
steve19
Eritrea has a very high per capita pro cycling representation. Higher than the
UK, France and Spain, and more far behind Italy. I always wondered why that
was so.

------
anonymou2
lucky them, they have not been kicked off the road to a segregated ghetto like
in many parts of the "modern" world.

------
mkoryak
Can anyone make out what the brand bikes are those 2 road bikes in the first
picture?

~~~
fulafel
Merida for the red one and Cervélo for the other.

~~~
baroffoos
How on earth did someone in a poor area get a Cervelo? For those who don't
know, Cervelo bikes tend to be in the $4k-$9k USD range.

~~~
njsubedi
Probably they make replica of those bikes? Just like replicas of apparel
brands.

~~~
ndnxhs
Possible. Although you certainly wouldn't want to use a replica carbon fiber
bike because they have a very high risk of shattering while in use.

------
proy24
In my world vision 2075 AD, the surface will be reserved for cyclists and
pedestrians, while all automobile traffic will disappear into Elon Musk style
underground tunnels.

~~~
throwaway2419
I guess in US, but for the majority of the third world, the picture may not be
so rosy.

I foresee a dystopia where governments powered by internet and AI weapons will
channel the world resources to a select few while the rest of humanity dies a
slow death.

------
BurningFrog
"Always look on the bright side of poverty and oppression"

I expect better from the BBC!

~~~
Carpetsmoker
That is not an actual quote from the article; rather misleading.

Just because the situation in Asmara was caused by unfortunate circumstances
doesn't mean the outcome isn't good, or that it can't serve as a model for
other cities on how to better organise city planning.

~~~
BurningFrog
The situation in Asmara is caused by oppression and poverty.

I don't think what you call "planning" is substantially different from "make
everyone desperately poor so they can't afford to own cars". Not a model many
cities want.

------
black-tea
This title really grinds my gears. It has traffic, it just has no cars or no
congestion. No traffic would indicate a place without roads at all.

------
walrus01
Cycling heaven is The Hague, Netherlands, not a city where people are unable
to afford the purchase and operating cost of a 15 year old Toyota Corolla.

~~~
Carpetsmoker
Cycling amidst toxic car fumes. Truly a cyclist heaven.

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
[https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8003637/north-korea-
satell...](https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8003637/north-korea-satellite-
photos-night)

Astronomy heaven: The Asian capital with ‘no light pollution’

------
mberning
There is a coordinated effort on HN to tear down and/or just shit on
mainstream western amenities. Such as nice homes [1], abundant personal
transportation, and even lawn care equipment [2]. It’s pretty ridiculous to
see in general, let alone on a site about technology and business.

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19497422](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19497422)

2\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18523630](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18523630)

~~~
ehnto
Why would it need to be a co-coordinated effort? I think you will find it is
just the prevailing opinion in regards to the future scale and efficiency of
humanity. That is something people on HN love to think about so it is no
surprise they have come to similar opinions. The facts are dire for the things
you mentioned as "western ameneties".

Do I wish that weren't true and that we could all have affordable family homes
to live on? Sure, but suburbia doesn't even make sense from a commuting point
of view let alone environmental.

~~~
randon
why would people need to commute at all?

if people worked from home they could have nice amenities, space, low noise,
vehicles to travel elsewhere and useless offices could be converted to
something that is more useful.. otherwise people pay a lot of money to rent a
space that they don't use fully...

