This morning Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille and our Online Ed raced their bikes along Cape Town’s cycle path against a bus and a car. Man (or in this case, woman) vs machine. Who won?
-By Kirsten Curtis
Every night before I head to bed, I check my twitter feed to see what’s happening in Twitterville. And good thing I do too, because last night I spotted a tweet about Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille taking on a race from Table View to town; between a bike, a car and a bus. And of course, she would be on the bike. Now, Bicycling attempted exactly the same thing towards the end of last year. Watch the video here. We had our Gear Ed on the bike so I was wondering if the results would be the same. I hastily pumped up my tyres, praying the slow puncture would hold out, and packed my bags for The Great Race.
We congregated in Pick n Pay parking lot opposite the main bus trunk station in Table View. A mixed bunch of hipsters, commuters, regular cyclists and media pitched up. There was a slight NW, perfect conditions for the 16km commute into town.
Helen (we’re on first name basis you know…) was in fine spirits riding around the parking lot, waving an SA flag to start off the proceedings. The plan was to head off as the 7h03 bus was due to leave the station with Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson leaving in a car at the same time.
The flag dropped and we were off! We set off along the cycle path and I tell you, Mrs Zille is no slouch on a bike! You could see she was determined to beat the bus and the car and she was motoring along at a brisk pace. We stopped at all the red robots along the route, which obviously slowed us down but we were sure to follow all the principles of safe cycling. It certainly helped that we were on the dedicated cycle lane so we were whizzing past all the traffic. At some point the bus passed us. (For those hiding under a rock for the past 2 years, the bus has its own lane too.) But we never saw the car again.
As I was pedalling along I thought what a privilege it was to be riding along a dedicated cycle path with one of the most influential people in SA politics, with no blue light brigade in sight I might add.
Final result: Bus 40 minutes. Bikes 49 minutes. Car 57 minutes. The bus might have won today but cycling is the healthier alternative. Not to mention we burnt a minimum of 500 calories.
In Bicycling’s race, our bus commuter had to catch a feeder bus from Blouberg and walk from the Civic Centre to the office (a more realistic commuting journey), not to mention our cyclist, Neil is an ex SA cross country age group champ, hence the bike winning in our race.
Either way a great result to prove cycling and public transport is the way to go! Well done Helen Zille and the City of Cape Town!
* Click here for some pics from The Great Race.
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