Pedal power for CBD
Student wants to fix traffic woes in the Pretoria CBD with plans for an app-based bicycle rent service.
A 29-year-old Unisa BSc student wants to reduce the number of cars in the Pretoria CBD by launching a service that lets you rent bicycles by using an app.
The initiative, dubbed BCycle, is targeted mostly at students and high school learners.
It is the brainchild of Nkamogeleng Matloga, who won third place in the transportation category of the recent Tshwane InterUniversity Innovation Challenge.
Matloga received access to incubation services and R50 000 in seed funding for a pilot project for the Tshwane metro.
The challenge, held for the first time in November 2020, encourages Unisa, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria students to help come up with solutions to service delivery problems, particularly around transport, energy and electricity, revenue collection and waste management.
“I thought the best way to alleviate traffic congestion is to reduce the need for cars in the CBD,” said Matloga.
“I found that people prefer to be stuck in traffic than use public transport because of the lack of reliability in public transport.
“I also found that most people travel by taxis or mix taxis with other forms of transport in peak hours.”
She said this caused an influx of public transport in the city that caused traffic congestion in all parallel streets in the CBD.
Matloga said her initiative was inspired by seeing people parking outside town in Pretoria North to take the bus into the city.
“I also realised with the Gautrain buses that people don’t mind leaving their cars for public transport.
“I thought of creating an app to integrate the public transport, where people can plan their trip and find alternative reliable public transportation.”
Matloga said she decided to add a bicycle rental service for easy manoeuvring.
She said through bicycles, people would be able to access all kinds of public transport easily.
“It closes the gap between the different forms of transport and assists with moving taxis out of the city.”
Matloga said she wanted to target students from the three universities around the city to use BCycle.
“Most students cannot afford multiple taxis or other forms of transport. They walk to close the gap between the campus and their respective public transport.”
Matloga admitted the initiative had its cons such as safety; however, it “would be cheaper and healthier for many”.
“Anyone wishing to ride one of the bicycles would use an app to unlock the bike of their choice and pay for it. The cyclist concerned would then ride to the bicycle station nearest to their chosen destination and drop off the bicycle there.
“The biggest challenge this plan would face would be theft,” she said.
She said the safety of cyclists on the roads would, however, depend on the metro building dedicated bicycle lanes in the CBD.
“My aim is not to compete with cars, but to offer an alternative to walking, getting stuck in traffic and reducing carbon emissions in the city.”
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