The cultural politics of infrastructure: the case of Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg, South Africa
This chapter explores the cultural politics of bicycle infrastructure through an examination of attempts to build cycling lanes in Johannesburg, South Africa in the 1930s. In the 1930s in Johannesburg, with increasing rates of automobile use planners were grappling with road safety, congestion and rules. At the time, bicycles were still an important mode of transport. Vehicle licensing data from Johannesburg shows that up to 1935, more bicycles were registered than automobiles. In an effort to reduce growing conflicts between bicycles and motorists, the Johannesburg city council turned to the concept of separating traffic modes. I draw on data from archives, newspaper material, municipal reports and other published material. By showing how decisions on building of bicycle lanes and the expected conduct of the users and motorists were intrinsically shaped by prevailing social relations, circulation of ideas and practices between the United Kingdom and South Africa, it highlights the extent to which bicycle infrastructures are not neutral objects. They are socio-technical assemblages inextricable from place. As such this historical account foregrounds the importance of the contexts within which transitions occur. This is especially relevant in the contemporary moment of the return to the bicycle characterised by policy borrowing.