Living in Nyabihu District, Jacqueline Tuyishime is a 21-year-old cyclist who represented Rwanda at last year’s African Continental Road Championships in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Representing the country this was her second time.
Tuyishime discovered her love for cycling when she was in elementary school in her fifth year. She decided to find out on her own.
She had never even dreamed of riding a bicycle as a career, despite her childhood interest in cycling.
A few years later, she raised money to renovate her family home, and bought a piece of farming land.
She is one of the few women and men in Rwanda who have established a cycling career, she describes it as a respectable occupation and encourages the young people to participate.
The world celebrates the singularity, endurance and versatility of the bicycle every year on June 3.
It is considered a means of transport which is accessible, efficient, safe and environmentally friendly.
Adrien Niyonshuti, 33, is a cyclist who began riding in 2004, while still in school.
He accumulated wealth after 16 years, and formed a recognized cycling team only from his cycling career.
“Cycling is a very good sport. It helps your body to relax and helps you think. You use almost everybody muscle,” Niyonshuti says. “However, we should understand that it requires a lot.”
He describes, for instance, if one is an athlete they need sportswear and shoes, but for cyclists they need that plus a bicycle that could cost about five million.
Niyonshuti clarified that more investment is needed if young people want to endeavor to cycling.
He has proposed that insurance firms create products targeting the cycling sector to de-risk the sport.
Athletes are not the only ones taking advantage of bicycles. It is arguably the cheapest mode of transportation in the world, especially in rural Rwanda, where more people rely on it to carry their produce to the market.
Cycling also has benefits for the safety, including keeping fit.
According to data from the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), as of 2018, motorcycles have been the leading source of air pollution in Kigali – generally making transport the leading source of emissions in the capital city – followed by cooking and then industrial activities.
Cooking emissions are however top of the air pollution list in other parts of the world.
Modeste Mugabo, REMA’s air pollution monitoring Sector Specialist, states that if people accepted the cycling community, air pollution will be minimized in a commendable way.
“Climate change is to a big extent caused by air pollution from human activity; vehicles that use petrol and diesel.
“We suggest a bicycle as an option, when it comes to individual contribution. One can have a bicycle as an option of travel because it doesn’t emit the gases that lead to climate change.”
Mugabo adds that a bicycle is inexpensive and that, besides saving the world, it also keeps one healthy, thus a strong contributor to reducing air pollution.
He says, however, that most Rwandans will shift their minds about bicycles and consider making them their main mode of transportation.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that about 600,000 children died in 2016 from acute, lower respiratory infections caused by contaminated air.
The bicycle is capable of reducing such deaths.
